What a week.
Let's reminisce for a moment. Remember conference in April? And Holland started conference with that bomb of a talk about discipleship, and how it wasn't going to be easy but it was always going to be worth it? Yeah. I remember it too. And remember that part of the talk where he mentioned the two sister missionaries who had things thrown at them because they were missionaries? Me too. And I am assuming a little but here but I think we all thought some variation of the following "I hope that never happens to sister Toone" or "I am glad that hasn't happened to her yet" or " if that happens to me I'm going home!" (Okay, maybe that was just me)
Well my friends, that moment has come. Let me tell you a story real quick like. Sunday we had an awesome dinner at a members house. I am sure you all got the picture. We had about an hour after dinner so we went to go and look some people up. We were walking through Harlem and I wanted to talk to some people because we hadn't had much of a chance to that day. So I get out my Jesus pass along cards to hand out.
As we are walking, I see a guy sitting on a bench talking to a girl. I get the thought that I should give him a card, but push it away because the girl is there. And then the girl leaves and the thought returns so I heed the prompting and give him a Jesus card. He says thanks and we get about three and a half steps away before he asks us to come back, so we do. He asked us to sit down, so we do. I sat a safe distance away because he was making me kind of nervous.
First he asks us if we are Mormons and then he tells us he was baptized as a Mormon when he was 10. So far, so good. Then he says "you guys believe in the celestial kingdom, right?" Yep, we sure do.
Then his face changes and I get a pit in my stomach. He looks me right in the eye and says "that's bull ****" he ranted for a couple of minutes, but I'll spare you the expletives. Then he tells us to hang on... And I get really nervous.
He walks away and sister smith looks at me and asks me if I'm ready to testify. I guess I am, even if I don't wanna be! He takes a few minutes to rally his crew but all he can get to come back with him is the girl we first saw him with. She walks over and shakes her head and tells us we sat down with the wrong dude. (Yeah, we know.)
He comes over and is now standing in front of us as he starts yelling.
Every other word is the f word and he's talking about how we didn't let black people into our church until the 70s (not true) and how we thought these horrendous things about black people (also, not true) and then he tells us to tell him he is wrong. Which we don't do because he doesn't give us any time. Then he tells us to get the
*blank* out of his face before he throws something at us... So I say "god bless" and we walk away. We get four or five feet away and he chucks his drink at us. Luckily he misses but we get splashed on.
Needless to say, I have been scared to walk through those buildings since then.
In other horrible news, the gates of hell have been opened on our investigators. Literally. Yasmine hasn't made it to church because she has been either really really sick or gone to visit her brother on the ONLY day they let them visit. Lilianna told us that not only does her aunt not want her to get baptized, but her dad also doesn't want her to go to church anymore. Nick cannot stop smoking weed and he hasn't made it to a full 3 hours of church in a long time. We are working SO hard. We are praying SO hard. Something amazing is going to happen soon... I know it.
We have started the madness of splits and interviews. We have done one of each, and so far so good. Hopefully sister Smith has caught on to things! We have had some good adventures this week, including getting caught in a monsoon. (Okay, it probably wasn't a monsoon... But it felt like it)
Ooh. On Wednesday after Pday we went to a legit gospel music worship service with a less active. It was SWEET! Pretty much everything the movies make it out to be. This guy got up to make an announcement and he was like, excuse me... I just need to do this. And then he broke out in song and the whole congregation joined him!!! It was too prime.
Then sister smith got to hail a taxi to take us home because our less active paid for it. HOLLA! Welcome to Harlem. :)
Um. Well. That's really all I have to say. Oh wait! YASMINE HAS A BAP DATE!!! July 5th. :)
Here are some pictures
Let's reminisce for a moment. Remember conference in April? And Holland started conference with that bomb of a talk about discipleship, and how it wasn't going to be easy but it was always going to be worth it? Yeah. I remember it too. And remember that part of the talk where he mentioned the two sister missionaries who had things thrown at them because they were missionaries? Me too. And I am assuming a little but here but I think we all thought some variation of the following "I hope that never happens to sister Toone" or "I am glad that hasn't happened to her yet" or " if that happens to me I'm going home!" (Okay, maybe that was just me)
Well my friends, that moment has come. Let me tell you a story real quick like. Sunday we had an awesome dinner at a members house. I am sure you all got the picture. We had about an hour after dinner so we went to go and look some people up. We were walking through Harlem and I wanted to talk to some people because we hadn't had much of a chance to that day. So I get out my Jesus pass along cards to hand out.
As we are walking, I see a guy sitting on a bench talking to a girl. I get the thought that I should give him a card, but push it away because the girl is there. And then the girl leaves and the thought returns so I heed the prompting and give him a Jesus card. He says thanks and we get about three and a half steps away before he asks us to come back, so we do. He asked us to sit down, so we do. I sat a safe distance away because he was making me kind of nervous.
First he asks us if we are Mormons and then he tells us he was baptized as a Mormon when he was 10. So far, so good. Then he says "you guys believe in the celestial kingdom, right?" Yep, we sure do.
Then his face changes and I get a pit in my stomach. He looks me right in the eye and says "that's bull ****" he ranted for a couple of minutes, but I'll spare you the expletives. Then he tells us to hang on... And I get really nervous.
He walks away and sister smith looks at me and asks me if I'm ready to testify. I guess I am, even if I don't wanna be! He takes a few minutes to rally his crew but all he can get to come back with him is the girl we first saw him with. She walks over and shakes her head and tells us we sat down with the wrong dude. (Yeah, we know.)
He comes over and is now standing in front of us as he starts yelling.
Every other word is the f word and he's talking about how we didn't let black people into our church until the 70s (not true) and how we thought these horrendous things about black people (also, not true) and then he tells us to tell him he is wrong. Which we don't do because he doesn't give us any time. Then he tells us to get the
*blank* out of his face before he throws something at us... So I say "god bless" and we walk away. We get four or five feet away and he chucks his drink at us. Luckily he misses but we get splashed on.
Needless to say, I have been scared to walk through those buildings since then.
In other horrible news, the gates of hell have been opened on our investigators. Literally. Yasmine hasn't made it to church because she has been either really really sick or gone to visit her brother on the ONLY day they let them visit. Lilianna told us that not only does her aunt not want her to get baptized, but her dad also doesn't want her to go to church anymore. Nick cannot stop smoking weed and he hasn't made it to a full 3 hours of church in a long time. We are working SO hard. We are praying SO hard. Something amazing is going to happen soon... I know it.
We have started the madness of splits and interviews. We have done one of each, and so far so good. Hopefully sister Smith has caught on to things! We have had some good adventures this week, including getting caught in a monsoon. (Okay, it probably wasn't a monsoon... But it felt like it)
Ooh. On Wednesday after Pday we went to a legit gospel music worship service with a less active. It was SWEET! Pretty much everything the movies make it out to be. This guy got up to make an announcement and he was like, excuse me... I just need to do this. And then he broke out in song and the whole congregation joined him!!! It was too prime.
Then sister smith got to hail a taxi to take us home because our less active paid for it. HOLLA! Welcome to Harlem. :)
Um. Well. That's really all I have to say. Oh wait! YASMINE HAS A BAP DATE!!! July 5th. :)
Here are some pictures
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