Hola Familia!
Que paso? No mas frijoles! Papas fritas en el cabeza, si? (Translation: What happened? No more beans! French fries in the head, right?)
So how y'all doing? How's life in good ole Utah? Is it hot? Is it
cold? Is it yes? Is it no? It's been pretty cool here, with plenty of
rain and lots of humidity lol so I have been sweating A LOT anyway...
So you saw Star Trek with Collin? That's fun, how'd that go? How is
he; is he different, or is he the same criminal mastermind I remember
lol?
My new area is okay; the ward is really nice, but the work is even
slower here than it was in Conyers lol; oh well. Paper Mill ward is very
close to John's Creek and Kennesaw, so I have seen a few familiar
faces, which is fun; it's cool to be recognized by members; makes me
feel like I made an impression on someone there... in Conyers no one
really remembered me from last time lol... The ward is pretty big; maybe
like 200 people come to church (a lot bigger than Conyers, but not
quite as big as John's Creek...). The apartment is pretty good, it's
just too small for three people lol; it's certainly the darkest
apartment I have slept in, which is nice because I am a light sleeper
(get it? Light? Ha!)...
It will be kinda fun to move back into my old house; there is
nothing I would want to do more than to move a house with y'all and go
through all my old stuff lol! Sounds like a blast and a half! Would that
be before or after they release me lol...?
My week:
Monday I didn't get to e-mail very long because I didn't have a
library card yet; you have to have a letter than proves you live in
town, and I didn't get one til the other day; now I have 1 hour instead
of 30 minutes lol so I gotta be quick!
Tuesday I lead our District to victory in a glorious district
meeting, then had lunch at Chick-fil-A; then we went to help a lady who
we asked if we could help with service. We ended up going over there
pretty much every day this past week (she was the landlady trying to get
this home repaired before she has to go back to work in Florida, so we
figured she needed our help...) and we painted A TON! I gotta be a
professional by now lol! We had pretty good religious conversations with
them (the mom and daughter), and gave them both Book of Mormons before
they left, and got their info so we could send the missionaries over; I
hope it all works out! We invested a lot of time painting their house
lol; we didn't paint their house with any motive or agenda other than
being charitable, of course, and if that is all that comes of it, we
have done our part; I just hope this will soften them up to missionaries
in the future...
Wednesday we got in a small bash with this Russian Orthodox guy in
Kroger; Elder Christensen's first bash in the mission lol how sweet!
It's strange how people don't see the similarities of the scriptures in
our day; Jesus and His prophets and apostles never went looking for a
fight; they never tried to tear down someone else's faith; they shared
and taught and helped, and rebuked on occasion (but only when it was
very necessary), but they never tried to bash people; as I recall, it
was the Pharisees that tried to bash on Jesus and His Disciples. I was
reading Joseph Smith History this morning; he says that he felt like
Paul before King Agrippa, trying to defend the vision he knew for a fact
that he had, and that God was the author of it. It's so similar to
Joesph's own story, and I don't know how people don't see that! This
Russian guy wasn't being mean or anything; if fact, it was one of the
more kind bashes I have been in. He came in with the intent to help us,
so it's nice he was thinking of our eternal welfare; he just wasn't very
good at trying to persuade us; more like argue with us...
I don't know why people put such little value in personal
revelation; this guy wanted us to get the history books and get the
leaders of our church and record an exciting debate to get to the point
of the matter (an idea he was very excited about... us? Not so much
lol...); we told him it wouldn't change anything, because we are both
set in our ways about not believing the other party; they only thing
that has the power to convert is the Holy Ghost. We told him he should
pray to God and He would tell him; he showed us some obscure scripture
in the Bible about how the heart can decieve, and we opened to Galatians
5:22-23 (my favorite verse to describe the spirit) and used the
scripture he started with (when Jesus tells Peter that He will build his
church upon the rock... a couple verses before that, we learn how to
know whether Jesus is the Christ...), as well as Moroni 10:3-5, but I
don't know if it helped. We politely ended our "debate" and got back to
what we were doing. We'll see if he calls us and wants to debate again
lol... he is a nice guy, don't get me wrong, and he has a sweet accent!
Friday night Elder Bowers' family played a trick on him lol; we got
a call from a member in Suwanee who knew Elder Bowers parents and
sister and brother-in-law and wanted to take us out to eat; we already
had a dinner that night with Sister Sutherlin, so we agreed hesitantly
to go get some ice cream afterwards. After dinner we go to Bruster's (
the local expensive ice cream place lol), and as we are standing in
line, a kid runs by Elder Bowers; Elda B turns and says to me, "That kid
looks just like my nephew..." Someone behind us said, "Hey, Johnny!" We
wheeled around to see that Elder Bowers' sister, brother-in-law (who
was a lineman for the Falcons), and his nephews! Ahh! Elder Bowers jaw
dropped to the ground and he turned bright red; I was pretty shocked
too; they were just driving through and wanted to see him; he was both
happy and upset to see them, but it all worked out... I would flip if
y'all came here to see me lol, don't get any funny ideas...
Saturday we had a picnic with the ward, and Sunday we had a cool
broadcast by the Twelve and First Presidency on Missionary Work. Running
out of time! See ya!
Love,
Elder Casey Guy Dickson
No comments:
Post a Comment