What up yall!! Another week another email!! So I hit 6 months next Sundaywhich is crazy! No I'm not counting I just think it's insane that I've been a missionary for so long already!! It feels like yesterday I was just a kid and now I'm just a kid but set apart with power.
Anyways this week was awesome sauce!! Tuesday was a pretty normal day, we went to the farm and had a blast, then came home and immediately went over to a lesson with a guy we are teaching at a members house! The lesson went great as far as I could tell except for the fact that our friend didn't really pay attention, he kinda just sat on his phone and looked at the wall for a while. We taught him the plan of salvation...again! But at this point we are having a hard time trying to figure out if he is accountable and interested. Because he's a genius when it comes to mortgage and loans and stuff like that because that's what he likes to do but then when we tell him to read the Book of Mormon he never remembers anything he reads and at this point we aren't sure if he's reading. So that’s gonna take some time, prayer and revelation to figure out if we should keep at him. Obviously this gospel is for everyone regardless of whether they accept it in this life or in the next so now we understand and have taken the thought to continue to meet with him as long as he wants to meet with us and when he's ready, he'll be ready.
Wednesday we had a pretty awesome day. We had a lesson with our most progressing guy and we finally got to go in person!!! And I’m so grateful that we were able to go in person cause we had an amazing lesson about the temple and we all shared really heart warming experiences that just filled the room with the spirit! It was a fantastic lesson and he is so ready for baptism. He even wants to go to the temple to perform baptisms for his family which we told him he can do that once he gets baptized! He also can’t wait to get sealed to his wife so they can live together forever! Then we went to go have some lessons with a couple people and the first lady didn't answer so we went out knocking around her and actually found a guy who was really interested! We gave him a Book of Mormon and set up a time to come back! He was so interested and hey it’s cool to see how the Lord directs the work even when we don't see why we go places. We then had another lesson with a lady and it went really well as well! We taught the plan of salvation and shared awesome truths about everything and then got to talk with her about the temple and she was super interested in learning but when we invited her to come she said no... so that was awkward but we told her we could come back and talk with her more and hopefully she'll be interested then. Then we got to go have a conversation with a member and actually talked more about the temple. They fed us some delicious fried rice and shared about their conversion stories and it was so awesome to hear how much trial they had but how much faith they had and how many blessings they received from it.
Thursday was an awesome awesome day. I was feeling really motivated to just go to south Norfolk and spend all day there, so that's what we did. After lunch we drove up to the north part of our area and just parked the car and walked around. We talked to a lot of people and got like 5 numbers and gave away like 3 book of Mormons! We knocked on a lot of doors and actually there was this house that was across the main road we were by and I don't know why but I really wanted to knock it so we just walked down to the light, crossed the main road and walked to the house, we saw a couple people on the side of the street chilling though and one guy actually was in a bush behind a building smoking a cigarette, we just said hi and went to go knock the house thinking we were gonna talk to the home owner. Well not really, nobody answered so we just walked back but then we were like, let's go talk to that guy we said hi to. So we went up to him and told him who we were, he seemed really interested in a prayer and we then talked about the Book Of Mormon with him. We then got his number actually and gave him a Book of Mormon and he was so so happy we came to talk to him and that we gave him the Book. He told us he has been going through a lot and that he just really appreciated us stopping to talk with him. I didn't actually realize it till today but what I now know is that God sees more than we do, we only see the first part of what God has in store for us and we think that's what is gonna be the miracle. When in reality, we didn't go knock that house because we were supposed to talk to whoever lived there, we went over there to talk to that guy and give that guy a Book of Mormon, it was so cool to see how the lord directs our feet to places and it may not be for the reasons we think but there is always a reason to the paths we are prompted to walk.
Friday we got to have an exchange with our district leader and I got to go with Elder Allred! It was an awesome exchange, we had so much fun, we got to go to a baptism interview and got to call a guy and then we talked like all night and just had a ton of fun. It was awesome! We then went to bed really late cause we were just up messing around, lots happened and it was so funny.
Saturday we had a pretty busy normal day. We talked to this one lady who was very much against the church, it was kinda funny cause we said we were missionaries from the church of Jesus christ of Latter Day Saints and she didn't know who that was but as we continued to talk to her about the Bible and stuff we brought up the Book Of Mormon, and she goes ohhhhh yall are Mormons! I don't like that, i don't like you. It honestly was a really long conversation with someone who was never going to belive us. She told us at the end that we shouldn't put our trust in prophets and books that aren't the Bible and that we should only put our trust in Jesus, and at this point I was like, we just argued with her for like 20 minutes, I don't really want to get into more stuff with her right now because it's not gonna help us or her. Here's my stance on bashing, if it's a nice bash where the people are respectful and understand what we believe and take into account that we have a testimony of what we believe then it can be a good conversation. But when people just argue with you and you try to correct people and tell them what we actually believe but they just disregard all you say then it's a waste of time to be there when you could be out finding people who are actually interested. But needless to say we tried. That was really the highlight of that day.
Sunday we had a pretty cool day, a couple people we invited made it to church and we actually got to talk with a lot of members. I'd say the relationship we had with members my first couple months has grown so much since I've been here, we actually have been putting in a lot of effort to reach out to members and it works! But then we got to go have dinner with a member that night and it was a delicious dinner. We then had an awesome lesson with them about the temple and the spirit was just so so strong. I can honestly say whenever we bring up the temple, a very unique feeling comes into the room and it just fills your whole soul with peace.
Today was pretty fun!! We went fishing at a members house, didn't catch anything but then we got to shoot some pellet guns for a while with made the day better. Had a ton of fun with this member, then he actually gave us some deer and hog meats to cook so I'm superrrr excited about that. If yall have any venison or pork recipes that are good lemme know cause im tryna cook some delicious steaks.
Anyways that's my week!! One thing I did wanna add in here is that I don't want yall thinking I'm like not happy being here, I'm the happiest I've been in my entire life, there is nothing I would rather be doing than serving the lord and specifically serving the people of Chesapeake Virginia! The weather is great! The people are fantastic and there will forever be a place in my heart for Chesapeake! I've been able to see someone progress from nothing to almost everything and it has blessed my testimony so much, I've seen miracles and have seen my testimony strengthened by all my many trials. Being a missionary is hard! One thing my brother said to me before I left was that the mission is gonna be the best experience I ever have, but it's also gonna be the hardest thing I'll ever do, and I truly do see that but nothing compares to the love I feel and the peace I feel when I testify of the truthfulness of this gospel to anybody I can. I love it here and I love the work and I love the gospel. I love this area but I can't wait to go serve even more of God's children in the other areas God has planned out for me.
I'm so grateful for my blessings and for my hardships and for my joys! I love you all and I'll talk to you guys in the next one!!!
-Elder Milius
Blurry Elder Allred
Exchange pics
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