First Snow

Hello!

This week was one of those in-between weeks. The first half of the week was really good. We had a lot of lessons. But the second part of the week was slower. On Monday, we met with one of our investigators named M. She had not been taught in a while, so we decided to go in and see how she was doing and just get to know her. While she was talking with us. She brought up some things in her life that had to do with the plan of salvation. Which ironically enough was the next lesson that she had not been taught yet. So we taught her the plan of salvation and it was a really good lesson because she was soaking up everything that we were saying and she was understanding it all. 

On Tuesday we did our normal routine of studies and getting ready for the day. I Don't have a view of the outside world where I study. So when I got up for lunch, I looked outside and I noticed that it was snowing pretty good and the flakes were HUGE! After lunch we headed out to browning to go and see some people. On the way to browning, the snow storm kept getting worse and worse. We met a few people while in browning and most of them thought that we were crazy for being outside during the cold winter storm. Also, a few times while we were about to get into our car to go somewhere else, a drunk person would come walking up to us asking if they could get a ride to the bar because it was cold outside and they didn't want to walk. As a missionary, we are not allowed to give rides to anyone. So I proceeded to tell this one guy that we were not allowed to give him a ride. But he (thinking he could convince me in his drunken state) started to say he would pay for gas money and he would always say, "c'mon buddy..." It was kinda funny how hard he was trying to convince me (since I am the driver). But after a few minutes of him trying to convince me, he just turned around and walked away and gave up. Some people are funny. On the way back from browning, The snow storm proceeded to get worse as we went. We were going 40 in a 70 mph zone. But we made it home safely and cut bank had about 4 inches of snow. It was a really good first snow of the season.  The attached picture is when I first noticed the snow coming down. 

On Thursday, elder Masauo was not feeling very well. So we stayed home all day and since he was the one that was sick, he rested all day and I didn't have anything to do after studies in the morning because we cant do a whole lot on a mission that we would do back home. So I tried to find stuff to do. I caught up on my journal and also washed all the dishes and that only lasted a few hours. So I was still stuck with what to do for the rest of the day, I finally came to the conclusion that I was just going to read the book of mormon. I started around 3 Nephi chapter 5 and I by the time the day was over, I read all the way to the book of Ether. While I was reading the last couple chapters of the book of mormon (in the book of mormon), I was understanding a lot of it and I started to realize that Mormon in chapter 7 was pretty bold with some of the things that he said. One thing that I liked was this, "Therefore repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus, and lay hold upon the gospel of Christ, which shall be set before you, not only in this record but also in the record which shall come unto the Gentiles from the Jews (a.k.a the bible), which record shall come from the Gentiles unto you. For behold, this (a.k.a the book of mormon) is written for the intent that ye may believe that(the bible); and if ye believe that (the bible) ye will believe this(the book of mormon) also;" But even though Mormon was pretty bold, Moroni, his son, got much bolder in chapter 8 and 9. In chapter 8 Moroni basically says that he saw our day and he describes what he saw and it got me thinking, because a lot of the things that he was describing, it is actually happening today! It was very eye-opening. There was a lot that stuck out to me. Here is one, "For behold, ye do love money, and your substance, and your fine apparel, and the adorning of your churches, more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted." Is that how today is? How many people in this world fit that description? I know I have at times. Most people I would say love money and our nice clothes and stuff that we have, rather than showing compassion and love to the poor and sick people. But wait, it gets better!! In chapter 9, he really gets bold! Verses 1-6 he calls out the "atheists" and basically asks them if they will still not believe when the second coming happens right in front of them. Then from verses 7-20 he really hits hard on those people that say that god does not work with miracles or revelations in the latter days. He says, "He that denieth these things knoweth not the gospel of Christ; yea, he has not read the scriptures; if so, he does not understand them." I don't know if anything that I tried to describe made sense to you. If not, I would invite you to go ahead and read it yourself and you will see what I mean by lots of boldness! =) Anyways, long story short, it was a really good 9 hours of studying the scriptures! 

On Friday, we had a bunch of lessons lined up every hour of the day between 1-5pm. but the sad thing was, EVERY SINGLE ONE FELL THROUGH!!! UGH!! The first appointment we had was with the person we have on date. But she would not answer the door and we heard people inside. The second one was a new investigator that we found last week, and the wife was being kinda rude to us and saying that he was not home and that she didn't know when he would be back. but I am pretty sure that I saw him Inside. The last one that we had was really frustrating, one of our investigators said, "could you guys come back some other time because I am getting my son ready for the day?" (but this was at 4pm???) So we asked her if we could come back in half an hour, she said that we could. So we did, and there was people inside, but nobody answered the door. We knocked about 5 times pretty loudly and still nobody answered. So we left. 

I also finished the book of Mormon this week on Saturday, I have come to know the book of Mormon fairly well as this is the 4th time that I have read it on my mission. I have started on my 5th time and I am almost done with the book of 1st Nephi. I know that it is true. 

Have a good week. I hope you are staying warm this winter season.