Week 3/4: Meeting the Messiah

So because of the transfer schedule and when I had my P-Day in the MTC I wasn't able to email last week so I'll try to catch up.

My MTC companion and I were able to walk around the two new MTC buildings before we left so I'll send pictures of the inside and the view from the top floors. That's really all I can remember from my last week at the MTC so sorry!

So my trainer is Elder Etheridge who is from Alabama. He loves cars and he loves music so we get along really well. When we're not talking about the Gospel we're talking cars. Our first lesson together was teaching an investigator named Ken. He welcomed us in and was sporting some nice shorts and nothing else. We taught him about the Word of Wisdom and challenged him to apply it and live it in his life. We are going back sometime this week in order to follow up with him. Before we left I was able to give him a blessing that he will be able to find the strength to avoid temptations and live up to his commitment. He told us that he definitely felt something during the blessing and described it like something "even better than a high." I already love the people here. They are always willing to listen to the messages that we have for them and they're super nice. Most of the work that we're doing is contacting and teaching less actives and teaching investigators.

Yesterday I was able to attend church for 9 hours! We cover two wards and we have to be there for the ward council meetings. The Samoan ward is awesome. If you ever doubt that the Spirit testifies of truth, just go to a ward that speaks a different language because even though I wasn't able to understand what they were saying when they were speaking Samoan, I could still feel that it was true through the Spirit. The Samoan ward is also in charge of feeding Elder Etheridge and me and they have dinners scheduled for the next two months. The other ward we are in is the Adelanto ward. This ward reminds me a lot of my ward back home (South Carolina). They feed the other elders that we live with, again pictures should be attached. After church is when I had an experience that I'd like to share with y'all.

After dinner on Sunday we were driving around visiting some less actives when Elder Etheridge stops and decides to go to a certain home. We knock on the house and I ask him if these people were less actives or investigators or what. After a few seconds he just looks at me and says The Messiah. Now when I first got to the area I had been informed that there was someone in our area that believed that he was in fact the Messiah and had lots of "evidence". So now we were standing on his front porch, well actually we were standing in the front of the main door to the house and he comes out of an attached garage. He greeted us and thanked us for coming back (Elder Etheridge and his old companion had tracted into him previously). What then proceeded was either the most intelligent lecture I've ever received or 45 minutes of rambling from a crazy person. He connected the dots between the belt of Orion in the stars with the Chevy Bow-tie and the rising sun with the Nissan logo. He showed us a comparison between a photo of him and a picture of a cotton cloth that supposedly has the face of Jesus on it that some archaeologists found. Then he pulls out a 4" binder full of articles and pictures and notes. Literally everything is connected and everything points to one conclusion, he is the Messiah. He was quoting scriptures left right and center (including scriptures from the Book of Mormon) talking about gate keepers and eagles and the gathering of Israel. Then he gave us some physical evidence by taking his glasses off, turning his head, stretching out his neck and showing us that he has the face of an eagle. Then he turns around and says to look for the mark on his right leg (which was actually on his left calf), apparently it's prophesied that the Messiah would have a leg injury??? It reminded me of National Treasure. But after we were enlightened we met Wyatt who is around 12 I would guess and lives with his grandma in the main house (and I guess rent out the garage bit to Jesus Christ?) We started talking to him about how his mom was doing since the previous elders had talked to him before and learned that his mom is dealing with cancer. He told us she was still not doing well. We gave him a Book of Mormon and read the introduction with him. He said that he would keep it by his bed and begin reading it. He invited us back to have lunch with him and his grandma so we're going to go visit them sometime this week. Before we left we prayed with him that he would be comforted and that he would be able to read the Book of Mormon. As crazy as it sounds I know that we went to that house for a reason and even though we met the Messiah the reason was so that we could talk to Wyatt who could really benefit from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The very first verse in the Book of Mormon shows this. "I, Nephi... having seen many afflictions in the course of my days, nevertheless, having been highly favored of the Lord in all my days; yea, having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God" Even though Nephi had seen and experienced many afflictions in his life he believed that the Lord favored him. He was able to believe that the Lord was blessing him (see the footnote for afflictions) through the many afflictions that he had. And it was because of the knowledge that he had of God that he was able to have this outlook on life. As we learn who God and Jesus Christ are we will be able to see that they bless us even with afflictions. Joseph Smith promises us that you will get closer to God if you read the Book of Mormon and because you know the goodness and mysteries of God, you will be highly favored of the Lord. This is the message we bring to all who will listen. "Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life." 3 Nephi 5: 13

A study area in the main lobby of one of the new MTC buildings