Week 35 Face, Meet Street!

Hey everyone. This week was an okay week, so let's get to it.

Monday

We had p-day and started it with playing tennis with the Mill Creek elders. It was a lot of fun. It's been a while since I've played so I had to relearn how to play. We had a great time though. After, we went to the stake center and emailed home. Then we went in to the gym and played some chair soccer and basketball for a couple of hours. Got our shopping done. After we had dinner with the McCoy, and they fed us Brazilian food. It was really good, although I don't remember what the dish was called. Right after that we came home, and I got packed for an exchange, with Mill Creek, and that was it for the day.

Tuesday

The exchange went well. I went to Mill Creek with Elder Trijo, and we had a good time. We visited a lot of people, picked up a potential, and went to the library to do our mormon.org time. That was an interesting experience. When we got there, we locked up our bike, and there were two guys sitting by the bike racks. One was an older man with glasses and long hair. The other looked ridiculously stupid, and excuse my description, but it was true. The guy had gauges in his ears that were the size of ping pong balls, and hanging off from them he had what looked like small weights. He had a lip piercing, and his hair was shaped almost like a Mohawk. Anyway, the older guy with long hair was super nice and asked us if we studied other things, like Asian culture. I assured him that our belief is simple, we believe in God the Father, His son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. He was a very nice guy and told us he had a couple of Mormon friends. He told us he saw some of the other missionaries walk in and his friend across from him doesn't like the church so he was helping to understand what we're all about and trying to calm him down. However, this man was drunk, and he wouldn't stop swearing at our church. After his long haired friend stopped talking, he started to say that we worship Joseph Smith and that he's a fraud. After he went on for a time, swearing at the prophet of the restoration, I asked, "Okay, why do you believe he's a fraud?" As crazy as this sounds, he would not tell us why, he would just go on and on about how we worship him, how he was not a true prophet of God, and that he was a fraud, but he would not tell us why he believed that. As hard as this was, I just wanted to prove him wrong. I wanted him to stop talking about the church this way. I almost lost my temper because he was making me mad, but I did not, because that's not how we treat people on this mission. He then proceeded to call our church a cult, and that we really didn't believe in God, we only wanted money. At that time, to stop this all, Elder Trijo and I looked at each other and then looked back at him. Then Elder Trijo said this, "How do you know this thing to be true in your heart and your mind?" At this time I wanted to testify that he was, wrong, that this was the true church of Jesus Christ, and I know without a doubt that this truly was the truth. Even though he made me angry, one thing stood out from all of this, and it's the reason why I did not loose my temper. I have an unshakable testimony. It has been proven by faith, and by the forgiving power of His son, Jesus Christ. Because of this, my faith "WILL NOT BE SHAKEN". As sad as it is, this man's heart was already taken by the devil. He would not listen to a word we said. After asking the question, the man shook his head, and said, "I don't need to pray to know. I can tell by the facts. Your church is a fraud, and that is what I believe." We did not want to mess with him anymore because we knew the devil was after us, and if we stayed there any longer, the man would kill us. I could feel it in my heart that the spirit was prompting me to get out of there. We then said to him, "Okay, that's what you believe, but we'll stick to our beliefs. You have a good day, and we'll see you later okay?" As we turned around, he swore at us more, and kept yelling at us to get away. After being in the library for almost an hour, he came into the building and sat down in a chair that was facing us and started to give us a dirty look. I noticed he was there and the spirit kept prompting me to get out, but I was slow to heed the prompting. Luckily the man walked out of the library before we did, and we avoided him on the way home. After all of that, we helped someone move their cabinet. It was really funny. We didn't know where we were going to pick it up, and then when we left, we noticed we went out of zone.... but that's okay. The people she bought the cabinet from are members of the church, so it all worked out. We were answers to their prayers. They though they might get kidnapped or something, and they were so happy we were there. After helping this woman, we went home and had dinner. Then we had a meeting with the bishop, visited some people after, and then came home and packed up my stuff to exchange back.

Wednesday

We had district meeting. Elder Goodman talked about being bold as a missionary. It's really interesting to think, as a missionary when we are being bold, we are using  the spirit to help guide someone to the truth. I never really thought of that before until Wednesday. After district meeting we came home and had lunch. Then we went to the McCoy's house and helped them move some furniture to get ready for people to paint the house. Soon after, we then came back home and had comp study. Then we went and visited some people. Dinner came around at 6:30, and we had it at bishop's. After doing so, we went and visited more people, and then we came home for the night.

Thursday 

So Thursday was a crazy day. We started the morning with our normal prep, studies, and stuff. Then after, we went and tried to visit some people. We knocked on one door, but no one answered. After we knocked on the door, we had to run back home because Elder Goodman didn't have his map. So we just planned to go back home and have our comp study and "linner." After doing that, we made our way out again to try to visit people before we went to the food bank, and as we did, I was biking around and had to turn around in a cul de sac. The ground was wet, and there were leaves and stuff everywhere. So ya, one thing lead to another. If you didn't already guess it, yes, I slipped on my bike and drove my face into the asphalt... It was not fun at all. When I noticed what happened, I was on the ground with blood on my nose, chin, and I was spitting it out of my mouth. Elder Goodman saw a part of what happened and ran to my aid. After laying on the ground for a little while because of the feeling of being dazed, I got up and brushed myself off. After pacing back and forth, I got back on my bike, and we rode back to the apartment to clean up the marks and wounds. When I saw myself in the mirror, I had marks all over my lower lip, and my chin, and rashes on my chin and nose. Then I pulled back my lower lip to find a spot that one of my teeth made as I hit the ground, and it was not so great. So after cleaning me up, we ran to the clinic and got me all checked up. The doctor said I would be fine, and I don't need stitches but would need to take some antibiotics every day. So not too bad, but I've got scabs on my chin, inside my mouth, and rashes on my lower chin and nose, so no fun. After the clinic, we went to the food bank and helped there. Then came home and took it easy for the rest of the night because I was not feeling well, and I had a really bad headache. But that's that.

Friday

We weekly planned and visited some people after.

Saturday

We helped the Mill Creek elders move someone into the ward. After that, we helped bishop put in new flooring. Then we came home, got changed, and went to dinner with the Griffiths. After, we came home and attempted to finish weekly planning, but we talked for too long, and then it was time for bed. Elder Goodman and I get along really well!!

Sunday

We had church, and it was really great to see my ward and meet everyone finally. We went and sat in with the Valiant 11 kids, and the teacher asked us question about our missions. Church was great. After, we came home and slept for lunch, did our studies, and then went and visited some people. Then we had dinner, and that lasted for the rest of the night. After we came home and did the rest of weekly planning.

Well that's it for this week. I hope you all had a good week. I love you all, and I'll see you later.

Elder Hammond