This week was chalk full of great and interesting experiences that hopefully I can explain.
First of all, we had the baptism of Stacey this week. Stacey was/is super solid right? No problems at all. Well, she had made a few comments in the past week concerning the baptism that she, "just wanted to get this over with," which is concerning, yes? When we tried to ask about specifics, we thought it was just a concern over the water thing. And she still definitely wanted to get baptized. Well, the day of, we exchange a few texts about the baptism and she sounds really negative. Then we get a text that says, "I'll let you know by 4 if I'm coming." What?! To the baptism? It's at 6!
Needless to say the next few hours are stress filled while we wait for Stacey to get back to us, who is not answering calls or texts. Well she shows up at 5:30 ish but she's super upset, starts to cry, says she just wants this done, and doesn't know if she'll even show up on Sunday to get the Holy Ghost. So we're still super stressed out. Luckily, an older member (who had converted too, and was black too) showed up early to the baptism and was able to figure out the problem and talk with Stacey. It turns out Stacey's family just didn't support her at all about the baptism, which she wasn't expecting, and was telling her all this bad stuff about how her life would be as a Mormon.
We had the baptism first, so that Stacey could feel calm about it afterwards, and then all the people who talked were just super inspired. I mean, normally you wouldn't think someone emphasizing about getting the Holy Ghost--and without it, the baptism being essentially useless--would be that inspired. But in this case it was! And the Spirit was strong and sitting next to Stacey, I just knew it was what she needed to hear. By the end of the baptism, Stacey was happy and smiling. And she came on Sunday and is super solid, once again!
I also had a real life mormon.org chat lesson with someone I guess the missionaries have been seeing for years, even though he's completely faithless. Like, he says faith is the f-word in his house (the real f-word he uses without hesitation). So I was skeptical when sister Wilkins took me to this home of the point of visiting, but once you meet the guy, you totally understand. So he's black and he has an awesome, awesome very open personality. And he's so nice but he pretends like he's not and just is so down to talk/"debate" about how religion is dumb and you can't know that God exists. Well, atheists are my specialty on account of I know exactly how they feel. And also, I've dealt with them too many times to count on Mormon.org. So I know the circular logic that accompanies the faith argument, and I told Jeff so, and I cut to the chase. I told him this is not about those red herring issues he likes to bring up. This is about his belief in God. Which he has, by the way. I know it. His reasoning for not completely denying the existence of a greater being is the existence of the moon. How did it get there? He totally knows God exists.
Jeff was impressed with my intelligence. Atheists always are. And he totally loves me, I just know it. So the conversation was real, and intense, and I'm pretty sure an impact was made. More than normally is made with other missionaries. In the end, I asked if we could say a kneeling prayer and he refused. I think he is legitimately very insecure and is in a lot of denial. In the end, I said a very spirit-filled prayer with Sister Wilkins alone in their living room because Jeff literally could not handle it and left. He joked about the whole thing. He is a very jokey guy--not willing to acknowledge emotions or anything. But I just know the prayer thing was a big deal. Because he had to take an action. He had to acknowledge to himself that he couldn't handle prayer and had to choose to leave and not argue his way around it. Victory! I don't know where to go from here, but he so is on the brink. I even told him, "You're hungry. You're dying to have a relationship with God. And you know He's real." Which is true. So so true. Man, it was seriously one of the best experiences out here. I love the elect. Love em. But teaching the non-elect is just more of the kind of challenge I enjoy. Although you usually just have to drop the non elect pretty soon.
I love the ward here. Sunday school is taught by this older black guy who just totally preaches his own philosophies. It's hilarious. I literally started cracking up and could not stop. It was bad. He says stuff like, "You got to resist temptation. I could leave my wife and kids for a night. Go to a club. Meet some nice lady. But you got to resist. What good's that gonna do? You may find each other attractive. You got to resist!" In a black person voice. Seriously, I die. Everyone in the class tries to reign it in and quote stuff in the manual. #bestwardever as Sister Wilkins would say.
This area is great. I love it here! So many people to teach!
Love, Rachel
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