My P day last week was super sweet. We played ultimate football at the church with the Spanish Elders for a few hours. It's like ultimate frisbee but with a football it was pretty intense. I love having P days, it's a good day to have fun and rest after having worked so hard, especially this week. Tuesday was really busy to start off the week. We had a lot of lessons with investigators set up. We went to teach the Bishop family, but they weren't there because Josh had found out that his grandma was having emergency surgery, and they were at the hospital all day. We re scheduled for the next day and headed on. Later that day, we actually got to teach somebody new! His name is Randy Frady. Randy was really welcoming to us when we met him, and he said he liked having the missionaries over because he thought they were all really cool guys. We taught him about prayer and about how we can pray to Heavenly Father for anything. He said he has prayed before but that he hasn't felt that a God definitely exists to him. We told him that God is real and that he is a child of God, and that God always wants to hear our prayers so that we can become closer to Him when we have faith in him. We asked Randy to pray, and he was really reluctant because he has a lot of social anxiety. He says he doesn't like talking or praying in front of others much, so we just had him pray quietly to himself. He said it felt really good to pray and he committed to doing it at least every night before bed. He was really excited to attend church on Sunday, but he actually got sick. So we'll see him again soon and follow up with him. He's a really sweet guy. He has a 1 year old daughter named Ariella and I can tell that he loves her a lot, and that he wants to be a really good father to her. I think it's really great of him to care so much for his daughter. He's really awesome. After our lesson with Randy, we went to the Smith's house for dinner. Brother Smith is the first counselor in our ward. They're both empty nesters and they were really great to talk to. Brother Smith actually knows Brother Gunn (the guy who was the security guard for seminary in Gig Harbor) from his mission which was pretty cool! They're an awesome and funny couple. Brother Smith also gave me the assignment to talk to church on Sunday! I'll get into that in a second.
So later that week the weather got nasty... On Thursday it rained the whole day, and it was almost cold enough for it to snow, but all we got was rain. Honestly the rain was really terrible. I was freezing, even with my jacket, rain coat, beanie, and two pairs of gloves and socks. Towards the evening, the rain and wind got worse too. We went out to see a couple of less active families that were all the way in Spartanburg. It was pretty brutal to get down there, and within 10 minutes of being outside, I was completely drenched and muddy from head to toe. I definitely did not want to be out there at all haha. I was really miserable and I wanted to give up really bad for the night. The families we tried to see didn't let us in, and they weren't very welcoming. I got really discouraged at this point. I felt like I was wasting the Lord's time and also my time being out in the freezing rain storm and not finding anyone to teach. I was a little upset with myself and I was so tired too. I wanted the cold and the rain to end so bad. As we headed towards home, I kind of stopped and thought about what my attitude should be, instead of what it was. I took a good look at my behavior and I decided that I wasn't going to let the weather or my negative thoughts get the best of me. I'm on a mission and the Lord didn't send me out here if he didn't think that I could teach people in these conditions. I then changed my attitude, started to make the best out of my situation, and peddled on. I forced myself to be as giddy and happy as possible, and I forgot about the weather and just thought about other things. I started humming songs that I used to like listening to and I hummed a couple of hymns too. No matter how bad the weather got, or how steep the hills were, I just didn't even care about it. I just kept riding my bike to the road that Elder Welty and I had planned to tract that night. The weather got worse and worse, and my attitude just got better and better. I peddled faster up hills then I ever had before and I didn't even notice until I got to the top of them. By the time we got to the road that we planned to tract, it was like I was Mr. Nike and I was ready to do it hahah. We went to every door and at every door someone answered and told us to either get lost, or my favorite "YOU CAN'T JUST SNEAK UP ON MY HOUSE THIS LATE AT NIGHT" (it was like 8 pm). As every person rejected us, I just kept staying happy and I enjoyed that I was just here on my mission working my butt off. Well that hard work paid off. At the end of the street, we met a guy named Jake. He let us in, listened to us, and took a Book of Mormon right out of our hands and said that he would love to read and pray to ask God if it was true or not. We're following up with him tomorrow, and whether or not he finds it to be true is up to him. But I know that Heavenly Father wanted me to give Jake the opprotunity to find the truth about himself and about God, and that if I hadn't have gotten to his house, he may never had heard our message. The whole time I was riding I had the biggest prompting: "You have to get to Peacock Road, you have to." And I knew that the Spirit was guiding me to Jake. There's no way that I was out there in a freezing rain storm and drenched in rain, sweat, and mud for nothing. I know that I am out here doing the right thing because if I wasn't, people may lose their salvation, and it would be my fault. There are people literally here right now for me to find so that I can help them feel the Love God has for them and so that they can have the blessing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. '
Sorry if that was long. But yeah that day was a great learning experience.
Oh I forgot to mention Carl and his girlfriend Dory. Well on Wednesday we had a lesson with them at the church, and beforehand Carl had called us and actually asked if he could have 3 copies of The Book of Mormon! We were surprised, but also happy that he wanted them. He wanted to give 2 of them to his friends, and the other to Dory. But when we met him at the church to teach him and introduce him to Bishop Fore, he showed up pretty drunk. I guess he drank a lot beforehand and had Dory drive him. But what better place to be hammered than a church! hahaa. He met Bishop and apologized a lot and he confessed that he realizes he has a problem, which is great. We had a great lesson with him and Dory was finally open to having us come over to teach her more. We went over to their house on Saturday and Carl was totally sober (we asked him to be sober the day we came). We taught Dory about the Restoration and watched a movie about it too. The Spirit was really strong there and I could tell it effected her greatly. We invited her to pray so that she could know how much God loves her and that this Gospel is true, and she did. She felt the spirit and said that it calmed her and that she will continue to pray to feel it more and to find out the truth of what we taught her. Carl even bore his testimony to her! They're doing much better even if we had a rocky start this week. Carl is an awesome guy that wants to be happy again, and I know that soon he will resist his vices and become a healthier and happier man through Jesus Christ.
This week has taught me so much about myself and about my mission. I am an obedient and diligent son of our Heavenly Father and I'm glad to say that I have no regrets for the first month of being out here. I love the people I teach, and I love what I am teaching them. I know that God loves everyone no matter what, and that all he wants is for every soul to find out the truth in life, and I know that we can be the best and happiest person we can be because Jesus Christ gave his life so that we could feel that.
I hope y'all are doing awesome and I'm glad y'all had awesome missionary experiences this week.
Love you
Elder Bills