Letter 11/04/13
Friends, family, Romans, lend me your ear!
Well, of course, if you don't want to then I can't make you read this. You are free to choose. Isn't that great?!
But then again...how do you know you'll make the right chose? What if this particular email is actually the best one I've ever sent home and you choose not to read it and miss out on five minutes of sweet brain and spirit food?? Wow, that's a lot of pressure for you.
Of course, if I don't grab your attention within the first few lines of the email you will be much less likely to deem the rest read-worthy and move on with your evening of Angry Birds, Pintrest and Facebook. Man, that puts all the pressure back on me to be somewhat interesting! But, then who's fault is it then if you don't end up reading this? Mine because I was just plain boring in the intro or you because you judged too quickly? Hmm, I'm sure there is a really long and intellectual paper written somewhere on a topic like that but really I just wanted to bring your minds a little closer to that of a missionary's on the topic of preaching the Gospel.
What do I mean by that? Well here is another example. I have a really tasty chocolate cake sitting next to me and I want to share it with people. I know how much they will enjoy eating this cake and how much joy I will also have because I have someone to eat it with. I grab a plate and a fork for my good friend but then I don't use anything but my hand to cut a piece. I smash my hand into the cake and grab a handful of chocolate and frosting and plop it onto the plate. How appetizing! Err, well, not really. My would probably look down at the lump of chocolate on his plate and kindly decline as I sat wondering why he didn't want my yummy cake.
Would the cake not taste just as good as an evenly cut piece neatly set on the plate? It probably would, but I failed in my job of presenting the cake making my friend have to go on with his life for who knows how much longer until another opportunity comes for him to eat cake! The same applies to missionary work. The Gospel is sweet. The Church is absolutely true. But there is a huge part to play as a missionary who presents the Gospel to other people who a lot of the time are already set in their ways. They already have a cake. Ya vanilla is pretty good but they would so much more enjoy a chocolate one!!
Okay enough with cake examples. This was just on my mind as I thought about all of the people who we talked to this week who just were not interested in our message! We work on and think about a lot the way in which we approach people and present the Restored Gospel to them. But sometimes no matter how hard we try or well we do they just don't accept. Maybe someday later but not now. But I do want to quickly tell you all of the newest investigator we have!
Johnny is a nineteen year old kid from Mexico. Grew up here so speaks English just as well as Spanish. We met him walking his dog through an apartment complex and just started talking to him. He's super nice and was open to the fact that he has had so many questions about life and our existence his whole life. Perfect, right?? We were able to teach him briefly about the Book of Mormon and Restoration this week and it just clicked with him. "You have no idea of what you have just told me", were his own words. It all just made sense to him! He was very excited about knowing about what happened here in the Americas a long time ago and about how there are prophets today. he came to church on Sunday and continues to show an increase in interest. It wasn't at all because we are just great teachers but because God had prepared him to hear us. Will he get baptized? Well, we hope so on the 23rd of November. If not, he will one day. But he is just one of the awesome people that we know.
Thanks for lending me your ear ;) Hope I didn't hurt it.
Hasta luego,
Elder Vance
No comments:
Post a Comment