Brandon's Mission Blog: Not confounded before men. Or Will Smith.

My name is Elder Vance. I've come to make a stance. No 'If's', 'But's' or perchance, Georgia I will enhance. You see at just a glance, the Elder with the pants, says, 'Yes!' but never 'I Can't', not afraid to dance the dance.

Anyway! That was taken partly from an old presidential speech my dad used when running for school office in his younger years and that I used while running in middle school as well. :) Catchy, no?

So God promises that if we as missionaries keep ourselves prepared and obedient always 'treasuring up the words of life' we will not be confounded before men bu will be given that portion which shall be meted unto every man in he very moment of need. Wow, sounds intense! It's something we hear an talk about a lot out here. Last night Elder Thomas and I were able to have an experience where the Lord kept that promise. We met up last night with a man named Will Smith, 'same name as the movie star but not the same bank account' is what he told us. He and his wife are very much into religion and the Bible and were willing to have us come over and give a little more of our message.

We basically went back and forth as he would read a Bible verse and then ask us a question as to why we still believed in the Book of Mormon or whatever else. Each time we did our best to respond sometimes with a verse of our own bu most of the time with a Restored doctrine and our testimonies. My heat was beating very fast as I get somewhat nervous when someone is trying to fight with us even a little. Our voices never were raised really, an we ended on a friendly note of prayer but with every reason they brought up even slightly pointing to us being false we withstood them in a dignified, bold-but-not-overbearing manner. No, I don't think they were 'convinced' of anything, but we were definitely sure to leave our testimonies and invite them to do the only thing that would allow them to know i this was all true, that is, read the Book of Mormon. 'I'll have to get back with you on that' is all he could respond with. Nice people though. :)

At the end of the day I am going to be thanking my Father in Heaven for, just as the long-since-passed Dr. Cleon Skousen put it, 'for being able to have all these scary experiences' as a missionary. They are pretty scary at times, no lies, but it's worth it. :) I hope everything is awesome an warming up were you are! It's a bit warmer here! Probably no for long :(

-Elder Vance (who say, 'Yes!' but never 'I Can't' .....well, most of the time)