Missionary Monday - Week 16 in Marshall

We got a call on Thursday night at 10:15 p.m.that an elder in Sturgis was going home medically and Elder Tu'ua would be leaving the next morning at 7 a.m. to replace him. He was mad. Didn't get to say goodbye to anyone or anything. It was crazy. So now its back to just me and Finlayson. Its pretty different without him. I love the guy, but its probably for the better. Things are a little more focused. He is still in our zone so we will still see him fairly often. 

The Branch president's wife got us another referral, but this guy was a contentious little punk. He acted like he was doing us a favor because he was concerned for our salvation. I did my best to be patient and not to Bible bash him, but eventually I couldn't take it anymore and I threw down on him. He said a premortal life was ridiculous and so I gave him Titus 1:2 and asked him who God was promising eternal life to before the foundation of the world if we didn't exist and he said God must have been promising it to himself. AHH!!! That still makes me mad every time I think about it. I wish I would have been meaner. Now I don't need any lectures from you guys about Bible bashing. He had it coming and I was as respectful as I could be. I told Elder Finlayson it must be okay to Bible bash because Jesus was mean to Pharisees and Bible bashed them all the time and his reply was "how many of them did he convert?". ha ha. Good point.

We helped replace the floor in a trailer for one of the members. They are fairly recent converts and we used to go over to see them once a week.  Smashing the floor up was pretty fun. It reminded me of my Innovative Iron days. 

My recent converts got temple recommends! And they called Gary as a Branch missionary. He brought his daughter to church again and we are going to start teaching her this week. That makes me really happy. I'm all about real growth. You guys have heard John 15:16where Jesus calls the apostles and says: "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit," but usually we don't mention the next part that says "AND THAT YOUR FRUIT SHOULD REMAIN"

There was an unfortunate occurrence during testimony meeting. One that I will never forget. I was getting weird vibes from this guy when he came in. He will remain nameless, but we know him really well and he feeds us quite a bit. He came in without his wife, which I've never seen. I felt like I should talk to him or say hi at least, but I didn't. So that's my bad. Then during the first part of sacrament he kept standing up in the back by the door. Then he is the first one to bear his testimony and he starts talking about how he needs prayers. Then he starts talking about a dream he had where he was on the Bill O'Riely show and how he doesn't want to be famous but in his dream he was famous and it reminded him of how the people asked Ammon to be king and he turned them down three times. At this point I am praying pretty hard that he pulls it together. Then he starts raising his voice talking about how crappy his life is and how he thinks God is telling him that this is his time to bring it. "I NEED TO BRING IT LIKE AMMON! I'M SICK AND TIRED OF THIS GOVERNMENT!" then the first councilor told him to keep it reverent so he apologized and then started talking about a man with an idea creating a facebook page and a third party candidate sweeping the nation. Then the first councilor told him he was supposed to be bearing his testimony and he apologized again and said he loves his family, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. It was terrifying. and hilarious. and sad. and embarrassing. He left the building right after that and the branch president ran out to talk to him. This week we will probably get a little more insight. Either he was on something or he had the biggest meltdown ever because I've never seen anybody lose it like that. Besides that church was one of the best I've been to. All the members stepped up their game after the incident. 

We taught Brother Swan's grand kids after church. They are 11 and 12 (Izzy and Ethan they are cousins). They are awesome. I really love those kids. Their parents are both inactive and keeping the kids active will be hard. That's really the only concern. Real growth, remember? But we are going to go talk to their parents this week and I really hope to see them baptized.

Thats all for this week.

Elder Beck