Plymouth Boat Harbor

Working at the Food Bank

Shark Jerky

Plymouth Mass

Phymouth Boat Harbor

At the boat dock in Plymouth, MA

WEEK 48 SEPT 16 2019

     So far this week while street contacting we have met a couple of interesting people with their own personal beliefs. The first was an atheist, and he was super kind and asked us a couple questions about what we believe so we got to know what he believes. He said from science we know we come from dirt, then eventually we evolved into humans. The weird thing was he still believes that Jesus Christ lived and was an extraordinary man. It gave me an interesting perspective on what some atheists believe. The second man was a preacher, and he just got back from Africa teaching people. He said just like Muhammad, Joseph Smith saw the devil and not God and Christ. He brought up the fact in the Bible it warns us of false prophets, and that's what Joseph smith is. Later he claimed to be a prophet then Elder James and I got real confused. All I can say is in the end we will be where we are most happy.

     Nothing too big happened Monday, besides at lunch I was opening a can of tuna to make lunch and it fell in the sink perfectly. Now, I'm going to head straight to Tuesday. After the morning schedule and lunch we went out to start the day of finding. We first went to Hood Rd but we didn’t get much luck so we went to finish up tracking on Settlers Street. After about 4 houses we were told to go check in with the front office and sadly we can no longer tract on that road, due to it being private housing. While there we made a few calls to our friends and set up a couple appointments. While making calls, we got a call from the Cape Cod Branch President. He asked if we could stop by the Beth Israel Hospital in our area to give a member a blessing. Luckily we had time to help out. First we had a lesson with a friend in the projects, and we read from the Book of Mormon because he didn’t have too much time when we came. Later we met up with a friend of his to see if he was interested as well. We had a great conversation about Faith and even said a prayer with him. After visiting with them we came to the Hospital to give a lady a blessing. She just got out of surgery and was so grateful we could make it. After we came to the Church to meet Sister Young (Bishops wife) Because she brought us some dinner. While we waited we played some basketball. The rest of the night we had a couple lessons along with some stop byes and street contacting.
     Wednesday morning we went and did some service at the Food Bank. We helped make some ready to go packages and set ups along we helped with some projects coming up.  Later we came home for some studies then went to a less active members home to help them with some service. For helping they gave us lunch and we ate with them. They are the Cala family and Sister Calas brother lives with them and he isn’t a member. We hope to start teaching him soon. After lunch we helped weed wack/edge and mow the lawn. After we were going to help them bring stuff back into their basement from a previous flood and when we went down there was even more water on the ground! We then had to vacuum and clean it all up. Apparently a mouse chewed a hole in the water back up hose. After we got it all cleaned up Brother Cala showed us his Steam Boat, unfortunately it caught on fire so he will looking to get it refurbished. After we finished with them we left to the church and prepared for ward coordination meeting. We are hoping for a lot of good stuff to come soon for member missionary work. After Brother Volpetti took us out to Rio Steakhouse. It is a Brazilian Churrascaria. We had a lot of fun there, and like Tucanos back home they had a sweet pineapple, this one had cinnamon sugar on it. It was really good but Tucanos is so much better! After dinner we made a few stop byes and walked downtown.
     Thursday felt like a detour in our plans. After studies our first lesson had to be rescheduled due to her needing to go to the doctor. We decided to go tract down Sooner Street and with it being the slowest time of the day, not much luck there. As we were on this road. Our appointment with a less active had to be rescheduled as well. We did a lot of tracting and stop byes with people taught in the past. After dinner with a family in the ward we left to an appointment with Ollie and Larry, When we got there Larry wasn’t there but we still had a great lesson with Ollie and two of her granddaughters, Peyton and Blu. The girls really enjoyed the message and we ended up teaching Ollie and Peyton! As we were getting ready to leave, Ollie is the one that asked when we will be over next. I thought that was so cool to hear! She even said this is something we need right now. After that awesome lesson and walking downtown for the last little bit I came home and was able to video call home to join in on my little Sisters first lesson with the missionaries! It was super fun to join in with them, as I said the closing prayer I felt full of love from my Father in Heaven and from the Spirit of the lesson, tears came to my eyes.
     Friday morning we had a good study session then we made our way to District Council. We had a guest come and give the lesson, his name is Phil and he talked about Personal Revelation. I really enjoyed it and learned more about how I can feel and understand the Personal Revelation I have gotten. After the lesson we came home for a quick lunch then made our way out for the day. We then tried to go meet a couple of our friends but sadly they weren't home. With this extra time we had, we left downtown and set up a table and chairs and gave away free Bibles.  A lot of people passed us in the 1.5 hours we were there but only one person ended up taking one. We ended up having a really good talk with him as well! As it was coming time for dinner we took down the little stand of ours and made our way to dinner. On the way up we hit some more houses of past people being taught but not too much luck, We even did some tracting. We had dinner with a couple we are teaching, they are both super kind and have a desire for baptism. After our dinner we shared a message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. After them we hit a few more houses on the way home but not much luck there.
     Saturday went pretty well, and I probably had my favorite studies today from this week. I had a deeper study of apostasy and the restoration. This past week I've been asked a couple times "why did God wait so long?" As I read about it, I was reminded of the talk "why the 1830s" so many things happened between Christ’s death and Joseph Smith helping in Christ’s restoration of His Church. One thing that was happening at the time was an excitement for religious freedom, and as churches were forming Joseph Smith prayed to ask God what was His church. From there and the events that happened he restored Christ’s Church that was established in the New Testament once again to the earth what is now "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints". It helped me to have better insight and knowledge to know how to better answer in the future. After studies and lunch we made way to see Brother Gould and read 1 Nephi 20 with him. This Chapter goes on about being in a fiery furnace. Christ is always in there with us keeping on eye to make sure we can learn what we need to from our trials. After a great lesson with him we did lots of stop byes and tracting up until dinner. We didn’t get much luck but had some great conversations with some people. For dinner a member made us some lasagna that we picked up and cooked ourselves. After dinner we did more stop byes and had a lesson with Sister Conway and we read 3 Nephi 11, when Christ came to the Americas. When we got back to our place we had a little bit longer so we walked downtown and we ended up checking out an exotic Jersey place. I love jerkey so I bought Mako Shark Jerkey, and it is definitely different but it's still good!
     Sunday was a pretty good day as well! Once again we helped with Sacrament I passed while Elder James blessed. There were two really good talks about missionary work again, because for the ward it is missionary month. After church we came home to eat lunch and make our way to see Oliie and Peyton. When we got there they were pretty busy then we rescheduled for the upcoming week. After a short message we came home for personal studies. I was pretty out of it and had a hard time paying attention, it didn't help to much that I was reading Genesis in the Bible. Our next appointment canceled as well so we even had time for comp studies. After studies we made our way out for the night. We made a few stop byes at in active members houses and a few past people taught. We then had dinner with the Weber family. They have 3 wild boys and a younger daughter. We had a fun time getting to know them and the kids. Our message was on repentance and enduring to the end. After dinner we stopped by Bishops house and shared the “come and help, come and stay” videos. They also talked about someone whose been on their mind and we are going to reach out to them shortly! We made more stop byes for the night and came to an older run down house that looked abandoned... while knocking the door we saw two raccoons run from the side of the house, one of them went under the car. When I went to go check a couple minutes later with my flash light luckily it was gone. While I was looking some pass along cards fell out of my pocket and sacred the crap out of me because it made a scratch sound, I thought it was the Raccoon. To end the night we walked downtown and we sat by a homeless man and talked for about 20 minutes. He has had a crazy life and he said he is so happy to be an American, He is free to be himself. He was also a little crazy but we had a good time. Just another crazy week in the Plymouth area.

                  3 Nephi 13:14

     "14 For, if ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you"

     In life we go through many troubles and we get hurt or offended. We have done the same to others but it was in our best interest. Life is crazy and we want to help other best we can. When some one is different than you we shouldn't judge them, they are on their own journey for themselves. We are all children of God. As we forgive others for what they have done to us, God will forgive us for what we have done to others. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen