" So I had an exchange with Elder Andrew(my homie from the MTC) today. It was so much fun. We talked forever last night and it started to rain super bad throughout the whole night. It took our power out. So we wake up and we are doing studies and we both had reclining chairs and we fell asleep!. We woke up and went to work and put on our service clothes and went to a members house to take out a small tree.
We were biking and Elder Andrew takes this "shortcut" through this swamp. It was not even a greenbelt. Like we were going off road. Since it rained, everything is wet and flooded. We get to a point where the water is so deep our bikes can't go through it. We tried our best and the mud is super bad, ha ha. We finally get through it and we're all muddy and wet(by water and sweat). When we got out this giant pit bull chases us and is freakin fast!! He almost gets me, but I swerved and almost hit him which made him stop and then I took off. We saw some people and biked back through the mud and ate at a members home. We had roast and potatoes, which marks the second time on my mission that I have had potatoes.
We head back and the other Elders were late so we played ping pong until they came back(only 2 minutes worth).
We rode our bikes way the heck down in the heat and saw some less actives and other potentials. We started our hour of power. We are biking trying to find a street and we see a person gardening, so we talk to her and ask her if she knows anyone who needs help. She didn't want to talk to us and so we tried Apartments and no one was interested but all of them said that they were sure that there was someone in there who needs us.
So we were biking around and we see this mom taking her kids outta her car. We go up and talk to her. She turns around and you could tell that she had been crying. We asked her if everything was okay. She said yeah but her kid told us that her mom and dad got in a fight and...I'm not going into detail but stuff went down and he tore the lock off of the door. We asked her if we could pray for her and she said yes. So I prayed for her and after the prayer she was crying so we taught her the restoration. She loved it and had really good comments and questions. We talked to her for awhile and she said we could come back and teach her more. I look down and we are late for dinner and a cop pulls up, perfect timing. We leave and we have 10 minutes to get to dinner and it is a 25 minute bike ride. We hurry and bike quick as we can and make it there just as the member was about to leave. We went to our recent converts house and then he asked us some deep doctrine and that was pretty good.
So we start off our day by going to this members home that was flooded. We were in street clothes and the bishop picked us up and immediately it starts to rain. We arrive at the house and it is raining like crazy. We start taking all the furniture and all the other stuff that was ruined in the flood. Right when we started to work it down poured-like super bad! We worked anyway and carried stuff back and forth out in the rain for about an hour and a half. We finally finish and we are soaked head to toe and covered in a pretty good layer of mud. Right when we finish the rain stopped and it's blue skies. We head home and shower and eat lunch.
We went to Starbucks to teach a lesson to this kid who is a "atheist" but he is really agnostic. We teach him and he actually has a sister who is LDS and getting married in the Temple. So that was pretty cool.
Then we went to dinner. I had the best brisket I have ever had. This member is well known throughout the ward for his BBQ!
After that we met with this less active family. We were talking to the mom and she told us how her testimony is not very strong anymore. She has been going to other churches. Her twelve year old son(who isn't baptized) speaks up and bears his testimony about how he was hearing his mom talk about which is the true church and he he thought about Joseph Smith. He said it wasn't by coincidence that God put him in a place where there were so many religions. God put him there so he could learn of all of them and still make a choice. He used an analogy that I've never heard of. He said that God doesn't just sprinkle people on earth like you would put sprinkles on an ice cream cone. God knows where to put you and guides you through life. I mean this is coming from a twelve year old kid whose mom has been less active for a while. Like this kid is a stud. His mom later told us that last week she took her kids to a Baptist church and when her kid was in his children's class, they started to teach the kids about what the Mormon religion believes. The kid stands up and says to the pastor that he is wrong, and that they don't believe that and then proceeds to talk to everyone and what the Mormons actually believe. We asked him about it and he said, "I roasted that Pastor!" At the end of our discussion, the mom told us that she asked her kids what church they want to go to and they both told her The Mormon Church. She said that was probably God telling her to come back.
So we were biking back from this appointment and on the way we see Ashley (the person who we met a couple of days ago in the apartment complex) whose boyfriend is something else. We see her walking back home carrying one of her kids so we stop and talk to her. While we are talking to her, her boyfriend pulls up on the side of the busy road and parks his car and tells her to get in. She told him no and he sits in the middle of this busy road trying to create trouble, so she is embarrassed and gets in and is freaking out. We aren't allowed to give her advice so we told her to keep walking and we start walking and her boyfriend puts it in drive and slowly follows us.
We see this guy walking and he has piercings and tattoos, and he stops cause he sees the car and he asks us if there is anything wrong so Ashley tells him the story. The tattooed guy ends up talking to Ashley's boyfriend, twice. Meanwhile we are talking to Ashley and inviting her to a baptism that one of the other wards is having. Finally after talking for a while, her boyfriend promised that he wouldn't raise his voice and Ashley goes with him and they drive home.
Then we went to dinner and go back to the baptism and Ashley isn't arriving so we text her. She texted back and said she had to install brake pads to her car and install all new tires. So we are guessing that her controlling boyfriend wouldn't give her a ride so she had to fix her car to be able to go. She texted us and asked when the baptism was over cause she was covered in grease and wanted to take a shower. At this point the baptism was about 5 minutes to being over, so we told her that it was over. She texted back 'dang, well can I still see ya cause I have some questions to ask. So we set up a time to see her tomorrow and she texted back-' Okay, I can't wait. I'll read some of that Book of Mormon Bible you gave me and write down the questions." Ha ha
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| We got to go to the Houston Temple again. My new Zone in Kingwood, TX May 2016 |
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| Okay, this is a reenactment of the pit bull from my view. Not the real pit bull, but in my parents eyes, this is what they imagined when I told the story of him chasing me.... Wow! Kingwood, TX May 2016 |
Love,
Elder Saunders
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