Missionary Monday - Moville Week 13

Surprise, surprise, Elder Beck and Elder Castillo live to fight another day in Montgomery Village County.  As far as everyone else in the district, we lost the YSA sisters and gained the Moville South sisters, so now the district is just our ward.

Welp, where to begin. Tuesday we had our last District Meeting with Elder Omdahl, he is now home in Nigeria, so of course we sang "God be with you till we meet again" Pretty sure he cried a little. Later we had a lesson with an 8 year old kid named isaac, English missionaries tracted them and the parents weren't interested but Isaac said he was interested so the parents said they could come back for him 😂 So they referred it and here we are. We tried to teach him but he was off the walls. Luckily his mom was there and she was listening to the whole thing and we sparked some interest in her, she agreed to have us back. That night we were tracting some townhouses, weren't having any luck, talked to some raging Catholics like you know how we love to do. The highlight of those experiences was when an 80 year old lady said "The gates of Hell will not prevail against the Catholic church!" But after that, we ran out of townhouses and drove to another set a little bit further and we parked next to a U-haul with people moving in. I stepped out of the car and there was a lady right there and I asked if we could help. She was like "Uhhh, if you have nothing better to do, sure?" Jokes on them, we did not. And they were all Hispanic so this was a golden opportunity. We helped them till it was done and they agreed to have us back next week so I'm looking forward to that.

Wednesday was a bunch of contacting and tracting, until 8:00 ish we decided to stop by a less active woman. We knock and the husband let's us right in, we all get to talkin and she tells us her story. Basically like 15 years ago they went to the English ward one week for some reason and a primary teacher told her kids they didn't have the right to be there, they were scarred for life and she has never looked back. I don't know if I believe a primary teacher would be racist towards a little kid, but either way it's been a major stumbling block for her. We also found out they aren't sealed so we testified our hearts out about eternal families and tried to show her the bigger picture that she's missing out on. And she was like "Yeeeah but for now I'm still not ready" That hurt a little, they felt it, I know they did. I think we reached the husband. They agreed to read the Book of Mormon as a couple since they hadn't in years and I think the husband will be really good about making that happen.

Thursday we had some lessons planned but they fell through:( the most exciting thing that happened was Hermano Colindres did a Facebook Live with with all the missionaries asking us a bunch of questions basically to promote member missionary work, it was cool I felt like a movie star 🌟 He doesn't mess around. 

Friday we ran into Bob Marley again, that was another fruitless conversation. Elder Castillo is convinced he can convert him but it's not gonna happen, even if we did I think he'd decline joining the church just out of spite 😂 After that we had lunch with hermana Nieto, love her to death but her food... She made like, fried fish/kale patties over some wack pasta and some salad. I can still taste it. She had us translate a million phone calls cause she thinks the insulation in her attic was done wrong and she's gonna die, I'm no insulation expert but I'm pretty sure it was exactly how it was supposed to be. However, the last two times she's invited friends over for lunch for us to teach and that has been awesome. Except this time when we got to Joseph Smith the guy says "Excuse me but I have to go" Then just walks out 🚶🏽 That was a first. 

Saturday we had a mini lesson on the porch with a guy we met like a month ago but haven't been able to really meet with since. However, he had read a decent amount of the Book of Mormon and had some very intellectual things to say about it and that was awesome. We should be meeting with him again this week. Then we had a lesson with referrals which went awesome. Then that night we had the farewell of Chris Marenco. I dont get the big fuss over farewells here, I thought people went too hard in Utah but this is on another level. It's cool that they love it and there's so much support but cmon. They dedicate a whole extra multi-hour service to it the day before. Based off of Gordon B. Hinckley's talk "To Men of the Priesthood", he'd roll over in his grave. But it was a great opportunity to invite investigators so we jumped on that real quick. 

Sunday we had Coordination, that's been getting less and less productive unfortunately. Church was good though, Katterin came, her super Catholic dad is causing problems with the wedding though, it was supposed to be Saturday but now it's just "In a few weeks". Priesthood was good since it wasn't drilling home teaching like it has been the last few weeks. We had dinner with the Monroys and that was good, hermano Monroy signed up for some survey online where he wears some device on his waste for a few months and he was supposed to get $50 a month for it but after the device got there and after they got a ton of his personal info they called and said it was only $25 a month so he was all kinds of upset and paranoid 😂 After that we stopped by José who had canceled an appointment earlier in the week cause he had to work late and he pretty much said his wife wasn't interested but he still is. One step back one step forward I guess. That was a really good lesson. He's been reading and praying so we're thrilled.

As for today we went to Walmart already and will probably go get haircuts later. Other than that we are wide open... As usual. Hope you all had a great week!

Elder Beck

Pictures:

The Despedida 

New district

Old district