Another exciting week from here in Gainesville, Florida! I'm training another "greenie" from Logan Utah. His name is Elder Anderson and he is a total stud. For some reason God always assigns me with the biggest missionaries, maybe to try and keep me humble I don't know but he's 6'4 250 planning on playing football for Utah State. Sounds almost the same as Elder Jenkins my first companion huh! Once again I have to put up with the Utah State banners, hats, t-shirts, and such.. I guess you could say that I'm warming up to them a bit. Still a die hard BYU fan though don't worry. We get along great and he's definitely excited and worthy to be out here. I told him that my goal for him after these next three months is for him to train just like I did. Of course he rolls his eyes but I already know he's going to.
The work for this week is slowly starting to pick up! We still don't have anybody in our teaching pool, but we have a lot of new solid potentials. Recently I've been trying to recognize the miracles that go on around us, and they are everywhere! The Lord is definitely apart of this work, and we couldn't do anything without his help. I'm feeling really confident for this week and the people we are going to see. Please pray for the people here in Gainesville and for their hearts to be softened as we search for the elect! The MTC focuses so much on teaching people, but I believe that they need to focus more time on finding people. Missionary work sucks when there is nobody to teach!
This last Saturday our steak had a Youth Conference focusing on missionary work. All the kids came together and had an MTC experience, got assigned to a companion, got separated into Districts and then we took them out to go tracking! What an experience this was! Elder Anderson and I had a District of about 15 kids that we taught, and did role plays on street contacting with them. Some of the role plays they did were absolutely hysterical! I then got split up with 4 boys about 15 years old. We went to the nearby Publix or in Utah terms, (Albertsons or Harmons) and I forced them to go talk to strangers. About an hour later I got tracked down by the managers and they told me that they had been getting a lot of customer complaints and we needed to leave ha ha. So then I took them to a really rich neighborhood where they soon got doors slammed into their faces ha ha. The Stake President told me to give them an experience they would always remember and so I did! I think they all enjoyed it.
We also had a miracle where we ran into a former Investigator, Lawrence Juett, and older black man who had a baptism date, been to church 8 times in a row and had all of the lessons taught to him. Mind you that he basically fell off the face of the earth and nobody knew what had happened to him. He was about to get baptized when his wife got involved, who is a 7th Day Adventist, and created much contention when she found out. We ran into him for the first time in 5 months and now we have an appointment set for this Wednesday. When I told my bishop this, he could not believe it!
Here in the Bible Belt, it is so sad to see how people say they already have Jesus in their lives but at the same time completely reject what we have to say to them. In 2 Nephi 28-29 it prophesies of people saying once they have been saved by Jesus Christ then they need no more gospel. For they have a Bible and need no more! It's like God trying to hand them dessert after a meal, but they reject.... We have experienced this each and everyday and I feel Godly sorrow for these people when I could show them how the fullness of the gospel brings so much MORE joy and love into their lives. Often, I run into people that say it doesn't matter what I do during the week, I have the church to make me clean again and they don't have to do anything other than show up! It breaks my heart to see such ignorance, pride, and hard headed people. But it all is made up for it when we are blessed with someone in our path who is thirsting for the gospel they just know not where to find it. What joy it brings me when I find these people.
I love the Lord, and I love this work. Til next time!
Elder Greenlaw
Elder Anderson and Elder Greenlaw in Gainesville, Florida
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