Better Than Average

So the goal this week was to have an amazing week 6. Well, we had a good week 6 instead.... but that’s better than average. :D

So for CDM Elder Gourdin and I wore fake mustaches and changed our name tags to elder batman and elder robin (and pronounced it Baitmen and row-bin) basically everyone ignored us.... but we had fun anyway. Also, I showed an elder from my zone one of the songs I wrote and he was amazed, but then he asked me to show him how. I was hesitant but then remembered emulation is the best complement. Unfortunately he learned it and is now playing it all the time... :( even more unfortunate, he showed his companion, who then took it and made it into his own song that’s better. :(

Well, I’m sorry but... I really don't have any good missionary stories to tell you for this week, but I can tell you about the up coming transfer (transfer meeting is tomorrow). My companion is leaving, he is going District leader in Rigo Park. I am staying in Richmond Hill. It’s gonna stink to see half the pad leave while I stay. :( On the up side, I heard that elder swain and elder write are both getting transferred (so its possible one of my MTC mates will be my new companion!)... we shall see though. I just pray its not some p-dub... because this area cannot afford that right now. We need to jump on all this opportunity that’s all around us. I will fill you in next week with how all that goes.

We have so many medias, potentials, part member families, and less actives in this area its really hard to keep track of everyone and people are slipping through the cracks.

Well, I don't want to waste any y’alls time so I will end with a random comment and then a story. :)

Deep fried PB&J's are really tasty, but once you are finished you feel like you just drank a gallon of oil.

So, at our CDM we had a surprise "soap box preaching/street sweep" in Jamaica. In Jamaica you can count the white people on one finger. The church building there is above a food court. Jamaica is so weird... I'll tell you why... its almost fake. it seems like Disney built it to look like a real place, but the energy is so different. The two don't seem to fit together. I had this visual-spiritual dissonance. anyway, Jamaica is full of masons, hee-bee-gee-bee's, Muslims, and everyone else seems to be an ordained minister of their own denomination. When I stood on the soap box I talked about the book of Mormon and its origin and how you can know if it is true. I ran out of material fast.... then an old lady came and asked if she could have the book, when I tried to give it to her she told me she already had one. Ha, ha. It was fun but not effective. I also talked to this lady who seemed like she was into it and listening, but then this guy with a triangle shaved into his head came up and her whole attitude changed... for some reason I told them I was pleading with them to read the book for they didn't know what they were missing... they kind of just said, "Don't you plead with us! uhnt-uh! Then, they snapped into z formation". Then I went and talked to this other guy for a really long time. He told me I had no idea what the roots of my religion were, and that our church pretended to be bible based and wasn't. He also told me that I had no Idea what happens in the temple. He tried to tell me that Joseph smith tried to "run off with someone’s wife" and that’s why they went to go kill him. He was not crazy... just miss informed, so i tried to stick with him and testify. Eventually he let me know he was a Mason. That’s when I understood why he was telling me I didn't know what the church was about. So I tried to inform him that Joseph smiths connection with the Masons was for protection purposes because of all the persecution. then I told him about how Christ’s church while he was on the earth is the exact same church on the earth today, and that similarities with other religions or sects are only because they have pieces of the truth but not the whole truth nor the authority. He agreed, but then... he told me I didn't know. He said our church was good, and that they taught good true things... but that he would not budge. So I shook his hand and went on my way.

Crazy, huh. I'm telling you, if you live in New York as a Mormon you are either less active or way strong, because this kinda anti-doctrine is all over the place! It is hard when your testimony is not strong. But the funny thing is your testimony grows a ton when you hear all this stuff people use to justify their position and put down our church.

I love you all.

Love, Elder Morris