Worshipping Pagan Saints.... written March 18, 2013
Hey Mom and Dad!
Quite the title, I know. It refers to a story that happened yesterday, I'll get to it in a moment.
So this was another fun week in the Rockaways! I guess it's always a
fun week in the Rockaways though. We tried doing a bit of normal
missionary door knocking in a non-Belle Harbor area last Tuesday. We had
a day full of rejection. We went from place to place trying to find
anyone willing to listen and we just got dominated everywhere. It was
pouring rain at one point when we happened to be knocking some doors
outside. After that we decided it was time to go dry off. We headed over
to a grocery store nearby and used the blowdryer in the bathroom to dry
off our suits. I like to call that a missionary moment. For the rest of
the day, more knocking, more lookups, nothing but rejection. At the end
of the day, it was like 8:40 and we had still gotten nothing that day.
It was too late to really knock any more doors and we had to head home
soon. So we just walked to the beach and enjoyed the crashing waves for
five minutes. Another glorious missionary moment. It was a really
disappointing day, but it was still a good day because we tried our best
and we did all we could.
Friday we tried to get involved in a community event. It was
described as a movie night for survivors and volunteers of Hurricane
Sandy. Well that's us. So we thought we'd go and try to meet families to
possibly teach. On the way there we saw a car stuck on the side of the
road so we stopped and helped some people who had a flat tire. Good
thing my companion is a genius with cars. Because I would have taken a
very long time to change that tire and probably screwed it up in the
end. It turned out the people were going to the same event as us. They
were super excited that the Mormon Helping Hands had helped them change
their flat tire. Crowning event of the night for them. At the actual
event, it wasn't a very good turn out. There were maybe twenty people
there. They pretty much all knew each other and we didn't know anybody
beforehand. We talked with a lot of people, but nobody was interested.
Met some very nice people though.
Saturday was exciting, we had a baptism in the branch. He's a
really nice guy named Mario. He's from Italy, and he speaks Spanish,
English, and Italian. I think that's amazing right there. His mother
came to see the baptism. She only speaks Italian. It was interesting
because she could understand us for the most part when we spoke Spanish,
but we couldn't understand a thing she was saying. It was a very nice
baptism. Now we just need to get his wife and two kids baptized. That's
the next step there. I think they'll come along with time.
I think the most exciting part of the week was yesterday. Elder
Hart and I were all decked out in St. Patrick's Day adornments. Green
ties, the shamrock pins that you sent us, and big smiles on our faces.
We were going to go out to Belle Harbor and just talk to everyone we
could. It's a super Irish community, so we figured we were a shoe-in at
every door. So we picked a street and the plan was to knock one side of
the street all the way down and the other side back up. It was going
well. We met a few very nice people. Nobody was interested, but
everybody recognized who we were and thanked us for the help after the
hurricane. One guy invited us in to chat for a bit. It turns out some
other missionaries had met with them and so they talked with us for a
bit. We kept on knocking and this woman opens the door and tells us to
come on in. It sounded like there was a bunch of people in the house and
they were all pretty excited that some brothers were here. Then they
said wait, you're not brothers. Who are you? I told her we are Mormons
and she told us that we could leave. I said fair enough. But as we
walked out she said unless you'd like to stay and get taught. We're also
having dinner if you'd like to join us. I told her that we'd love to
stay and discuss our religions with them and that we'd be happy to join
them for dinner. At which point she asked us if we were hungry. I asked
if she meant hungry for the word of God or for actual food. She said
actual food.
So we went in the dining room, there were six people sitting around
the table. We found out that they were all Jehovah's Witnesses. We sat
down and enjoyed some wonderful pasta and meatballs with some sparkling
water. It was a really nice dinner. They began by pointing out the
shamrocks on our suits and how that clearly meant that we worship pagan
saints. They didn't give us a chance to explain why we were wearing
green, but made sure to tell us that we worship pagan saints. Then they
started asking us some questions about what we teach and what our
purpose is as missionaries. It was quite the interesting experience.
They dove into their schpeal about Jehovah and the Bible. We listened to
everything and asked questions about things explained unclearly or
potential flaws in their interpretation. They were very good at ignoring
our questions and moving on, or simply telling us that the King James
version of the Bible isn't as accurate as their New Interpreted version.
My favorite line was when one woman said, "You must be quaking in your
boots right now to hear a woman preach to you about the Bible." We told
them that we weren't really concerned. They taught us all about the
Bible for 45 minutes, at which point I asked them if I could have a few
minutes to explain our beliefs to them now. They said that would be
okay. But as soon as I started talking they would interrupt me with
arguments and talking. Eventually I just kept talking over them and did
the best I could to explain the restoration and the Gospel of Jesus
Christ in a few sentences. I don't know that they got anything out of
it, but I had to try. In the end, we all agreed that nobody was going to
convince anybody. We all have faith in God, whatever you want to call
him by, and we're all doing our best in this life. It was quite the
adventure though. I don't think that happens very often. Two Mormon
missionaries sitting down to dinner with six Jehovah's Witnesses.
I guess if I learned anything from the whole event, it's that I'm
really grateful for my testimony of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.
And it really helped strengthen my testimony that Jesus Christ is the
son of God. And that it is only through faith in him and obedience to
the commandments of God that we can return to live with our Heavenly
Father again after this life. That we have a loving Heavenly Father that
knows each of us personally. And that He wants the best for us. And
that even though we mess up all the time, He will always love us and
forgive us of our mistakes through our faith in His son and his
Atonement.
I'm doing well out here, just trying my best to help others come
unto Christ. Thanks for all the love and support, I miss you guys a lot!
Hope you have a great week!
Love,
Elder Erickson
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