This week was sweet.
First off, some funny things Buddhist people say/do: I was giving a baptism pass along card to a lady on a scooter at a stoplight and she completely misinterpreted the picture. Hilarious. She thought one guy was checking the other guy's pulse. I stifled my laughter and explained that he wasn't checking his vitals and that he was in fact performing a saving ordinance. I don't know if she understood any better but when the light turned green and she zoomed off E. Heslop and I busted up laughing. Second story: We gave a restoration pamphlet to an investigator we have been seeing for a while now. He learns really slow, so we just asked him to read the pamphlet and we'd go over it next time. Well the next time we get there and ask if he read it and he starts reciting it...word for word. He was trying to memorize it! I died laughing...on the inside. But it took us forever to explain that we don't want him to memorize the pamphlets we give him just read them. I guess you could say I realized this week that there is a humongous culture difference between us and Thai people. In Buddhism, everything is memorized prayers so this guy thought he had to memorize these pamphlets and the Book of Mormon. I would never even think of trying to memorize the Book of Mormon. Thai people just think differently than we do, which makes some situations hilarious.
Yes, Katie Thailand has 7-eleven. But they only have 2 slurpee flavors...Coke and Strawberry. My slurpee consumption has seriously declined since I've been here, I've only had one or two (shocking I know). But they have these delicious shake/smoothie things for pretty cheap that are way tasty. So we get those a lot.
Earlier in the week we met this guy and gave him a Book of Mormon but weren't able to teach him until yesterday. Well we go over there and he had already read 80 pages...true story. He had read the introduction and stuff about Joseph Smith about 3 or 4 times too. I was in shock. He actually recognized that the stuff in the back is an index (that never happens here!) and had already looked up some words in it. He knew that Moroni was the son of Mormon and that he had appeared to Joseph Smith. That's when my jaw dropped. So we tried to give him a baptismal date and he basically said he didn't want to change religions. Talk about a surprise ending right? But we made a return appointment and committed him to read and pray to know if it is true. We'll see where it goes.
Yes moment: We are inviting. Rejection out the wazoo. Just the usual, nothing special. Then we invite this one house. This guy walks outside and immediately says, roughly, "Welcome to my home, come on in." We taught a lesson gave him a soft baptismal commitment and made a return appointment. Yes.
Quick note about our boss of a Branch Mission Leader: He is a champion. He called one of our investigators who said she couldn't come to church because she had to study. Well on Sunday she came. We asked what he told her to get her to church and he said he asked if she had A/C at her house. Yeah true story. He asked her if she had A/C, she didn't. So he said why don't you come to church for an hour and enjoy the air conditioning. So she did. How does he do it? I don't even know but I suspect it has something to do with his great hair. E. Heslop thinks he looks like an Asian version of Link from Legend of Zelda. I think I agree.
Well life is great in the land down under.
Much Love,
Elder M. Riley Creer
The Only
#hashtags:
Gotta love that 15 minute bicycle sprint across town to get home on time. #8:59 #nailed it
Ate yellow watermelon...tastes the same as red watermelon #lowkeydisappointment
Came home to 4 letters one day #instantencouragement
Girl, I go to work. True Winnna. Jeans Skinny. #namethatsong
No comments:
Post a Comment