This week, we may have found a few new people to teach. The first one is the grand-daughter of a member, but the complication there is that she may have already been baptized. There is the girl and her 3 younger brothers and they come from a very complicated and unfortunate background. The girl remembers being baptized, but we don't have her records in our ward, and she says she was baptized right around the time that social services was getting involved and all the craziness that led to them being adopted by their grandmother. The 3 boys are 5 year old twins and a 7 year old though, and being at their house and seeing them reminds me of the summers I did daycare which is kind of fun, but it also gives me a lot of empathy for their grandmother.
The second person we may have found to teach is a kid named Eddy. He is 16, and his brother is actually the one that stopped the Sister missionaries while they were walking around one day. However, for the past 3 or 4 weeks, we've been going over there, and every time we haven't been able to get in, and we'll just talk to them on their doorstep for a few minutes about nothing in particular and then leave. Part of the reason for that is that Eddy is an adamant Born-Again Christian, or rather his girlfriend is an adamant Born-Again. But the other night, he was sitting outside, being an angsty teenager because his mom didn't let him go to the football game, and it actually led to a 45 minute lesson on the Restoration, which was pretty cool. He seemed genuinely interested and asked questions and said he would come to church. Unfortunately family plans got in the way of that, but we have a return appointment set up for this Thursday with the whole family, so we'll see if that holds up.
During that lesson though, I learned something very important. Or rather I saw a principle in action that we'd been taught before. You see, Elder Camper is a very well prepared missionary, and a very good teacher, and he likes to talk. So during that 45 minute lesson, I may have only gotten to get a word in once or twice, and that was at the beginning before he really got going. So after about 15 or 20 minutes I was starting to get kind of annoyed, and thinking it must look pretty weird to Eddy that Elder Camper has this tag-a-long buddy who never says anything, and all sorts of negative thoughts along that line. But, after a few more minutes, a part of Preach My Gospel came to mind, a story where is tells you that you should be praying for your companion while they are speaking and praying for your investigator while you are teaching them. I'd never really thought to do that before, because I was always too focused on when and what I was going to say. So what I did was sit back and pray that Eddy would be receptive and that the Spirit would testify of what Elder Camper was saying to him, and I know that I felt the Spirit very strongly, and I'm sure everyone else did too.
So whatever you are doing, whether it's work or school, or even a competition, pray for the success of others. I'm very competitive, and at times, can be a prideful person, at least internally. So for me to pray for others success doesn't come to mind, especially if I think I could or should be doing something and could even be doing it better. So that was another good experience for me to be humbled a little and try to be a better person and missionary.
And all of this isn't to paint Elder Camper in a bad light either. He said that when he was a greenie, his trainer talked a lot and he was very quiet and just sat there. But he said that it works like a sponge. And as soon as his trainer left, and he had some time to teach and express his knowledge, he found that he knew a lot more than he thought he did. So hopefully I'll be the same way and when I finally get in a situation where I am teaching with someone else, even someone who might be less experienced than me, I will have absorbed at least a little bit of what Elder Camper told me and I can become a great missionary like him.
In other news, the combined activity has hit some setbacks unfortunately. We were advised by our ward mission leader that Friday night would not be a good time to have a party due to football games and other community events that people would be involved in. But Tuesday through Thursday nights are taken up by mutual, and the next free Saturday is October 17th. So this Tuesday all the Bishops and missionaries are getting together to discuss what we want to do about the scheduling of the activity. Other than that though, our planning has gone well, and we have plenty of talented people in mind, and plenty of ward members to help bring food or talk about the church organizations.
I have not used my bike yet, it's just way too hot, and we have more than enough miles. Maybe once it starts to cool down we will. Also, week 11 of training is known as "Senior week" where the trainee is in charge of everything, so I could just make us use our bikes then if I really wanted to.
Thanks for everything, I love to hear what's going on at home.
See you soon,
Elder Cornaby
"Get on your knees and pray, then get on your feet and work." Gordon B. Hinckley