Week 40 (Feb. 20, 2017)

(Happy 20th Birthday Jayden, Feb 18th)

So this week had a really slow start, but then just took of on Friday. It all started with a lesson.

We were teaching the lesson of the Restoration to an investigator and her 3 cousins. Then slowly more and more people showed up from the family and even a neighbor came over, but only poked her head in the door. So me and my comp both thinking that the neighbor was interested tried to include her and asked her a question, she then went off on us and said that the book of Mormon was a lie and that prophets wee a lie and that we were the church of the devil because we didn't believe the bible and just tons of weird stuff. So we started to explain everything to her. She kept talking about baptism by the spirit (which we believe in) but never baptism by water (which the bible actually teaches but whatever) So we explained all of the doctrine of the church but she kept saying it was a lie and tried to deny the truth. (we gave up even using the book of Mormon and went with things right out of the bible to counter her every word.) There was only one question that she asked that we didn't have an answer to and even that was a pretty pointless question. (Her question was "who baptized john the baptist") But at the end the family asked us to come back and the lady we were fighting with would even shake my hand when we left. I felt like a champion when we left that house ha ha!! 

Then Saturday was my birthday and it was one to remember. We started the day off a bit early, I also enjoyed a pot of captain crunch (we don't have any bowls big enough)  and left our house at 8:30 to go to a lesson with a person we found while knocking doors. So we went and taught her the restoration and it was a crazy good lesson and then at the end she told us that we have to come back and teach her more. So that was great! After the lesson we went to find another investigator who is progressing but she wasn't home but it just so happened that the ward was doing a service project just across the street. So me and my comp thought we could help out for like 30 minutes and actually ended up staying there for like 4 hours. But it was pretty fun to just hang out with the members, and they sang happy birthday to me. Then after service we changed showered and went back out to teach. We were walking through a neighborhood when we came across a ton of gringos just walking down the street. (this is a pretty hidden neighborhood so I had no idea why they were there) so we stopped and talked for a second and they said they were there to help the local community and to show a movie in the park. They were all from Arkansas and didn't speak any Spanish. So we told them we would try to come to the movie if we had time then left and taught a lesson and then we did have time so we went to the movie. It was the JESUS MOVIE! They were a bunch of people form the Church of Nazareth, whatever church that is, and one was a baptist pastor. We talked to them for like 2 hours about everything and basically taught the restoration of the church, and the pastor told us he would read the Book of Mormon if we read the bible. No bid deal, I read the bible all the time. Also it turns out that my comp can speak quite a bit of English! He did really good talking to a bunch of gringos for 2 hours, and actually was able to help me teach! So much fun teaching the gospel in English, although it was extremely hard because I kept saying words in Spanish, and quoting scriptures in Spanish but I loved every minute of it!! Then later that night my comp and I called one of our investigators to invite him to church. He said that he couldn't come because he was on a work trip, but he wanted to know if there was a church in the area he could attend. Sadly there wasn't. But it was funny when he asked because he referred to the church as "our church" not the church of the missionaries. So it sounds to me like he is pretty converted! Now we just need to work with his wife and they will be baptized and sealed in no time!!!! I then ended the night with some ice cream. 

Also I bought a new hat with my birthday money! It is sweet! Me and my comp both have one because the sun is super strong right now in the summer. The hat is a traditional panama hat and is made out of paper, its pretty cool. All the members love it! We used to have black hats but we looked like The Jehovah Witness so we had to change. But we look good now. The people on the street always do the typical panama yell when we walk by, but I just yell it back and they laugh and understand that I am from panama. Because I talk and look like i'm from panama. Its pretty fun!! 

And yeah that was my week!! Pretty fun! Long!! Lots of sun!! But really great!! I will remember this birthday forever! The pictures should explain themselves, but in some of them we were offered a ride in the back of a truck by a guy and he had corn. so we took a pic. and then we stole oranges from an abandoned house. they were gross tho.​