Flying Trampolines?

Greetings world!

This week's adventure started last Monday, shortly after I finished emailing. We went to the car wash where I caught a bird! He was a little guy that couldn't fly very well. And then we went to the church building where I caught the smallest frog I can remember seeing. It was an exciting nature day :) And then the world got super windy. We heard rumor of flying trampolines, but didn't see anything of the sort. 

Wednesday was an uber busy day. We had a lesson with a gal named K. She's 21 and super religious. We asked her if she would get baptized if she discovered for herself that Joseph Smith was a prophet. She said, "Oh, I already believe he is." What?! She explained that it's like how people who have never seen the ocean still know it exists because there are people who have seen it. There's got to be somebody on earth who has seen Christ, for us to know He exists. I'd never thought about it like that before! Needless to say, we're purdy excited to see her again.

Friday there was another miracle. A (who is getting baptized in two weeks) has a husband who has been super aloof, and uninvolved in the whole thing. After our lesson with her (we usually meet in this enclosed patio connected to the house), she invited us in to see her music room. She played Amazing Grace on her keyboard and sang, which was just fantastic in a hilarious A sort of way. When we were headed out, Sister McKendrick was singing part of the same song, when A's husband, R, called us back into the house and asked if that was her. He brought us back into the music room and started playing the keyboard and had her sing. A came back into the room, and we whipped out the microphone and the tambourine and sang. So funny! I asked about the guitar they had hanging on the wall, and they told me it was broken. I asked if I could see it, and it was just outta tune. So they were happy I "fixed it". When we headed out for real, R came out and welcomed us to use the music room any time we wanted. Such a small thing, but it really was a miracle.

Last night we went around talking to people in one of the nicer neighborhoods in the area. We met a couple taking their dog for a walk. We told them about the Restoration. They were nice enough, but didn't think we needed a prophet 'cause we have the Bible because we have the holy spirit. We started explaining more, but they didn't really want to hear it. It's kinda sad that we are just trying to share this great news with people while they just want to fight it. 

I recently read a talk by Elder Neal A. Maxwell who said of Joseph Smith, "Just as prophesied, fools deride him, hell rages against him, and his name is 'both good and evil spoken of' (JS--H 1:33) This swirl needlessly preoccupies a few who seem to prefer chewing on old bones in the outer courtyard instead of coming inside to the resplendent, revelatory banquet, thus diverting them from giving due attention to Joseph's mission as a 'choice seer.'"  How true! People are satisfied with what they have and reject such beautiful truths--one of which is that God talks to us today!

Right before we met this couple we'd talked to a Greek Orthodox man (who is actually from Greece (it was really interesting to see the percentage of foreign people who live in this upper-middle class neighborhood). Who wanted to convert us. He was telling us how orthodoxy had been around longer than any other religion, unchanged, and encouraged us to check the facts because there is something to be said of that. We tried to tell him that we are the only religion that will encourage people the ask God for confirmation for everything we teach, and there's something to be said of that...but his phone started ringing :P It just reminded me of teaching J when he--while he still wasn't sure if our message was true--said, "I really like your church's theology" I don't remember if I said this or if it just stayed in my head, "Thanks! It's God's."

This week is purdy exciting--today we're back to proselyting after emailing and shopping, Wednesday we have an exchange, Thursday is Mission Leadership Council, and Friday is the rest of preparation day--we get to stay out 'til10:30. Weird!

Hope all is well,

Much love,

Sister Bowen

Me and Sister McKendrick