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| Brian catching snake in church |
Apart from the food though, the actual missionary work is going good as well. Somebody that lived way out in the campo (jungly area), requested a Bible from us online. The problem was that we were never told that he requested a Bible, just that somebody requested to meet with the missionaries. So of course, when we arrived we didn’t have any Bible with us to give, and we were way to far out to go back and get one. So we just gave him a Book of Mormon instead. It surprisingly went over way better than we thought though. He wasn’t upset at all about not getting his Bible, and he actually ended up reading half of the Book of Mormon in like three days. I mean I can’t even read it that fast. He would have finished the thing too if his pastora hadn’t told him to stop reading it. It was funny when we were talking with him about it though. We asked him why she wanted him to stop reading it, and he was like “Well, she probably thinks that I’m going to end up finding out that it’s true.” So, it’ll be interesting to see how his next chat with his pastora goes.
We found some other super cool investigators as well this week. We met somebody at the very end of our night and we had like no time to get back to our apartment. So we just gave him a pamphlet and our number and then left. Normally we try to actually teach something or at least mention something about what we believe. Interestingly enough, he ended up calling us wanting us to come back and teach him. He told us that he’s never invited anybody into his house ever to talk about religion, but he wanted us to come over because we didn't try to talk to him or force him to listen to us. We just gave him our stuff and left. So I guess the trick isn’t to try and teach. We should just give everybody pamphlets and walk away. I wonder how that would work out?
We also had zone conference this week. So I got to see all of the missionaries in the West side of the island. It's always awesome to be able to get together and just learn a bunch from everybody. Especially since almost all of the missionaries have so many different insights because they have served in many other missions across the USA because of the hurricane. Not only that, but almost our entire mission is made up of experienced missionaries. I've almost been out for a year now, and I'm one of the newest missionaries with the exception of a few people. The main focus of the conference, however, was our purpose as missionaries, and how to measure the success that we're having. Sometimes all the work we put in yields no results at all. The important part is to keep giving everything you have and just doing your best. We’re getting transfer news next week as well, so it will be interesting to see if I stay out here in Mayaguez or head out to some random part of Puerto Rico. Either way though, I'll be able to take part in this wonderful work, help bring the gospel to everybody out here.