Saturday morning was really fun. As you saw in the picture,
we walked around in the cold. Soon after that pic was taken it started raining.
Thank goodness for the umbrella from Aaron and Shannon. Shout out to them!
That morning I thought the number, "22" in my
head. So we headed down to 22nd Street. We walked around and knocked on doors
that we felt inspired to knock on. No bites but I just felt great and I had a
really happy attitude about going out and working. Big smile the whole time. At
noon we finally went back to the car cause we had an appointment with a
less-active. It was an awesome experience meeting with him. He told us
about he wants to go back to church but how it's hard because he's on a church probation
of sorts where he can't take the sacrament for a full year after he gets
over his two addictions he's struggling with. Then he told us what they were
and we were able to help him and encourage him to keep trying-- You can imagine
my excitement when I saw him at church yesterday.
So the rest of Saturday was full of service and going
to see people and inviting them to church. We even got 2 people to commit to
coming that I thought would never come. So needless to say, I was so excited.
Then Sunday. This is where it gets interesting. It starts
out with me having a bad night's sleep because I was so anxious about our
investigators not really showin up or having dreams about church going
extremely bad and giving the investigators a bad taste in their mouths. Thankfully
it was Branch Conference and it didn't start til 1:30 so even though I probably
shouldn't have, I needed to relax and try to sleep so I went back to bed.
When I awoke I read the Book of Mormon in Alma where Ammon was so filled with
joy that he collapsed... We got a phone call from F... our Golden
investigator, and he said that he was back in town and that he would be able to
come to church. I was so happy! And knowing that my other investigators were
coming I was filled with almost as much joy as Ammon when he met Alma.
When we got to church we saw those 2 investigators there and
they already both had fellowshippers! People that they already knew outside of
church! Thank goodness!
Then F... shows up with his 2 daughters! I was so happy!
Joy was back and greater than ever.
Then... It goes south again.
After I helped pass the sacrament-- little branches haha-- I
was called out into the hall. I was told someone was here askin for me. I
was stoked, figuring that it was another one of our investigators. It was the
kid that I had been playing ball with in the morning at the rec center. He was
dressed in a jump suit wearing a backwards hat. I was curious why he was there
seeing as when we spoke at the rec center the other day he said some weird
things about the devil and stuff. So I decided after that we'd never go back.
But maybe he just really wanted to check us out. So I proceeded to talk to
him when immediately I just felt this dark feeling rush over me. He began
saying some really weird stuff again and soon I find out why he's really there.
Or why he says he's really there. His church is collecting jackets for a
charity and he is coming to see if we'll donate by taking off that jackets that
we were wearing right then to donate. I'm thinkin, "What the? Is this guy
serious?" Anyway, this guy was acting super scary and weird. I tried my
best to keep it under control. I thought that we'd get rid of him but he ended
up coming to our class. In there he acted and said some more weird things. I
felt so dark. And I felt even worse for F... and our other investigator
A....
Well I'm not gonna go into too much detail. But he left after
that class, had an interesting meeting on the way out where the Stake Prez
shook his hand and I swear the Stake Prez looked right through this kid even
without them saying any words. Well the Prez left and so did this kid. But it
gets worse. He returns after church gets out. Looking for the Prez cause he
thinks the Prez was disrespectful in his hard handshake and wanted to have a
few words with him. Well after a few minutes of persuading and almost an
argument cause we were trying to tell this kid that the Prez didn't mean
anything like that, he finally left. I was kind of worked up inside me
especially because I was worried about F.... All our other lessons were
super spirit-packed and this one was crazy to say the least. But one thing
helped me relax. F... went up to our teacher and started laughing and
saying, "I feel for you man. AHAHAHAHA!" So I was relieved knowing
that F... didn't get affected and is still cool.
So church was just a weird roller coaster. That kid just looked like a wolf and I know he was up to no good. But we had branch members who felt the same and we all talked about it so we're all on the same page and glad they backed us up.
Well the day didn't end there. It's 5 o'clock and we have an
appointment with a less-active guy. It was so spiritual. We just started
talking about normal stuff and he asked us if he could have a blessing. His
ex-wife was falsely accusing him of bad stuff and wasn't giving him
his son back. So I asked if I could ask him some personal questions. We talked
for quite a few minutes and we discussed how to help. I asked how he was doing
with temptations like tobacco and stuff and he said how he had gotten back on
chew. I invited him to get rid of it and he hopped right up and emptied it out
into the trash. I then invited him to offer a prayer in front of us and it was
so heart felt and powerful. I don't know where I came up with that process but
I guess I do... The Spirit told me.
After a very spiritual blessing you could tell he was
comforted and back to normal and we proceeded to just talk and laugh and have a
good time and the spirit was there the whole time. Very powerful.
But then it gets even deeper at our next place. We felt
inspired to go visit this one lady member who wasn't at church and when
she opened the door she just lost it. Crying like crazy. The apartment smelled
like smoke and there was alcohol and just a really sad feeling. It turns out,
not going into details, that her stepfather did some really horrible,
nasty things to her growing up and that when she went to visit her
family yesterday morning she started to tell them and they called her a liar
and were angry with her. So when she got back she resorted back to old habits
like smoking and drinking.
Mom, it was so sad.
But when she saw us she just lost it. We listened to
everything for about 2 hours. She said that that was the first time she told
everything to someone. Her kids didn't even know.
Anyway, it was just rough. I was even crying. But we talked
and she gave us her cigarettes (broke them and flushed them when we got home--
that was fun) and when we left she said that she just felt so much better and
was grateful we came over when we did.
You know, we missed dinner last night, but I felt full... as
a missionary.
It was the most crazy day in my entire life. I
was laying in bed last night just trying to figure out what happened
that day.
It was something else and I sure am glad to be in
Arkadelphia right now. It's where I'm supposed to be because of everything that
went down yesterday. So forget baptisms and all this other stuff that make
missions worth it for people. This was worth it for me. To be there
for my brothers and sisters who need me most at their time of most need.
-Elder Wheatley
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