A lot of kind of crazy stuff happened this week. First of all, we brought Brother Martin from the ward to visit Tamara with us. We met her at a McDonald's in sketch street (not a real street, but it's sketchy) Wilmington. She loooovves to talk. Chatty Cathy to the MAX. And it's usually all on topic, she just takes 12 years to say it. And I may sound impatient, but I feel like Enos in that I "desire for the welfare of my brethren." (Enos 1:9) So we listened to her and this member is just an awesome guy. He reminds me of Brother Lewis in his mannerisms and personality. He's funny, whitty, just awesome. So Speaking of...the Lewis' moving? Yeah I heard that, but ahhh! No! Hey but at least Utah is a pretty easy spot to stop in and visit.:) Back to the story, she was talking about how she prayed that it would rain so she wouldn't have to walk to meet us at McDonalds. Then it didn't rain until after the lesson. God has a good sense of humor. She said she is having to make a decision of whether or not to move back to NY to be a scanty, promiscuous model (she needs the $$) or to drop the possible career and follow God. She knows the path she needs to take and her Mormon mom keeps prodding her to. But...she didn't make it to church nor did she return our phone calls, soo still trying to figure out where she's at.
Xavier has ADD so whenever we go to his house, he sits us down in the front room, then we wait 10-15 minutes while he talks to his family and just dawdles around the house. Kind of rude. So last time he did that, we just got up and left, told him we had a curfew (earliest curfew on the block...oh wait, Wilmington, curfew? yeah right.) So he doesn't focus well during the lessons once he finally does sit down. He has been smoking also. And he doesn't wake up in time for the door knock that comes when his ride is there to get him. So his baptismal date keeps getting pushed further out. It's frustrating. He wants it and knows it's true and knows he needs it, but gahhh! Laziness gets the best of him.
My roommate's brother, James Dalton, and his wife Katie are in my ward. Such a weird coincidence. Sean talked about his family all the time. And we see them all over the place on Sundays. Really down to earth, fun couple just starting out their marriage here in Wilmington of all places.
Newsflash: as missionaries, we are like the last people to find out about anything going on like the plane crash in SF or dress standards for missionaries being changed....you think we would have been told a little sooner about that last one. Khaki pants and it looks like suits are now allowed for missionaries. And the Brethren do not want missionaries using backpacks anymore because it looks like we're going off to war (but we are!! spiritual war that is.) So only shoulder bags, business looking now. So I will need one in the near future mom, but President Anderson isn't requiring it for a while. My mission is also piloting more technology starting next transfer.
Our ward mission leader got on the Sister that was asked to do the missionary meals. So finally we have meals set up for 5 days this week. Plus there are a few members who will give us several bags of groceries every few weeks...there are perks to serving stateside. It's a miracle when we get to spend time with the members. We had a shocking experience with that same Brother Martin yesterday and afterwards he just said he loved us and that he was proud of us. It's wonderful to see the members building their trust in you as a missionary. On Wednesday we did district exchanges, so I went with Elder Shepherd to the Wilmington 1st area. We rode the bus, walked, and biked. I haven't biked at all yet on the mission, so those 10 miles of biking up and down hills were a blast for me. And the exchange made me love my area even more. Thursday, we had a very revelatory district meeting at the church. There's only 4 Elders in the district right now, but they're awesome.
Elder Taylor shared a wonderful scripture with me yesterday. 2 Nephi 4:16-35. Nephi's psalm. My Book of Mormon teacher at BYU-I had us do an assignment where we wrote out our own psalm after reading and studying Nephi's. It can be a very personal, satisfying experience if you really take the time to write how you feel. So I would invite you to try it out. Be honest with yourself and with God. You'll learn stuff about yourself that you never knew.
Love you all,
Elder Jacob Robins
 |
| Elder Taylor in front of our apartment |
 |
| Our Wilmington English speaking district |
No comments:
Post a Comment