What a week of miracles! Holy lowing cattle!
So Elder Smith recovered from his sickness just in time for the new week, so we were fired up to go out and find the elect of God and bring them into the fold of Christ. We had a very surreal day on Friday, where we went to a small town about 15 miles out of Bloomington called Trevlac. It was a puny highway town out in the middle of nowhere and the only people who lived there were from "Merica!" (they were all rednecks) :) We had set a goal to find 3 new investigators and teach 8 lessons while we were there. After knocking on the first door, Elder Smith got the brilliant idea to tell everyone that we were "ministers" from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints instead of "missionaries." Oh how rednecks LOVE authority! Almost every door we knocked that day we taught a lesson and some even let us come in. We left Trevlac teaching 5 lessons and getting 5 new investigators in about an hour and a half! We had prayed and exercised much faith before and during out adventure out to Trevlac and it was so cool to see that the Lord provided awesome new ideas to help us have success! :)
We are going to be having our "cookies and caroling" tonight with some member families and we are so excited! We have about 6 people to go and visit who are either lonely this Christmas, struggling, or both. We are excited to bring Christmas cheer to those who need it most.
There is a part of my testimony that has significantly grown these past few months, and that is that the Lord's servants "shall not be confounded before men." Yesterday we went out to another small town called "Bean-Blossom" and knocked several doors without much luck. When we were heading down a country road back to our car, a college aged kid drove into the driveway of his house. We said hi to him and he responded back positively and so we approached him and offered him a "He is the Gift" pass-along card. When I proceeded to tell him that the video "He is the Gift" explains that Jesus Christ was the first gift of Christmas, he snarkily replied "Is he? Is he the gift? What has he done for anybody?" and instead of replying to his derogatory question, I immediately responded "oh! Do you have a belief of your own then?" and he told me he didn't believe in God so I said "oh ok, so your an atheist then." and then that lead into another teaching moment! I said "So what we do as missionaries is we help people find out if there really is a God and help them get answers to questions they can't seem to get answers to. Would you be interested in us meeting with you?" In a defeated tone he said "I am lazy and don't care if there is a God so no thanks." So we thanked him for his time and wished him a happy holidays. That whole contact though I truly felt the Spirit leading the conversation. I was completely happy and felt love for this guy. It was really interesting.
Another experience similar to that that totally made my day was when I was on exchanges with Elder Dunn in his area. We were knocking college housing and we knocked on a family's door and the dad came to the door. We talked to him and he informed us they didn't have a belief in God. So we gave him a card and their little boy came up to the door and we had a fun little conversation with him. Well after we gave him the "He is the Gift" card his wife came to the door and in a defensive ton said "You want to know what I belive?" and Elder Dunn and I both energetic and happy said "what?" She told us that she believed in being a good person and treating others with kindness and that was it, no God involved. We were pretty sure she wasn't expecting our response cause we totally threw her off when we replied "Hey we totally agree with you! It is so important to be good people and treat others with kindness. We really respect your belief!" She kind of sat there stunned and we wished them a happy holidays and turned to leave and as we were leaving I think she finally remembered that she believed in being nice others and wished us a happy holidays. haha I love that the Lord helps us in those situations. :) I know that the Lord is in charge and he is preparing His children to receive the gospel.
I love you all and am happy that you guys are all a part of my life. You make me a better person and I look forward to seeing you all again soon. Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!
Sincerely,
Elder Young
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