So this week was pretty cool. We have 7 new investigators and 3 on date for baptism! We got to eat dinner at several members houses, we got to keep the car for this transfer, and the weather has been so nice! The weather has been rainy and cold or sunny and cold, either way I'm happy because it's been in the 60s and that's perfect. We got some Thai food from members for dinner and one member even took us out to Olive Garden!
The first Saturday of every transfer we do a "car fast". For the whole day we don't use the car, it sucks!!! Luckily a member who is also an awesome missionary named Paul goes out with us on Saturdays and drives us everywhere. The only time we had to walk was from our apartment to his condo, which is about an hour walk. On our walk we met a guy named Sadiq. Sadiq is from Pakistan and has been living here for 3 years. He has 3 sons and a daughter from 5 to 17 years old and they are all awesome! He said he talked to some missionaries in Pakistan and they gave him a Book of Mormon. He said we could come over and talk to him about Jesus Christ, so when we went to his house later, we had an awesome lesson. I thought we might teach him and one other person, but they all came in the family room to listen to our lesson! They all payed attention and participated, and they all agreed with what was taught. At the end I asked if they believe Joseph Smith was a prophet and they all shook their head yes. They are excited to come to church this Sunday, hopefully we can baptize them all, this family is so prepared. Meeting Sadiq was truly a divine appointment.
We also got to meet up with August again this week. He is the barber where we get weird looks when we walk into his shop. When we were talking with him we invited him to read Alma 32. He said when he was in jail, he had a vision that this would happen, he had seen the exact page we showed him. Seems legit. He is a super cool guy, he just says some weird stuff. He was convinced that revelations from the Bible were coming true. For example, he figured out by himself that celebrities have a secret society where if you want to climb up the popularity rank you go to a party and dress up a specific way. You could imagine I was very confused and just shook my head like I was agreeing with him and wanted to get back to talking about the Book of Mormon. Very odd, but August is still a cool guy.
There is a corner in one of the neighborhoods where a lot of people BBQ or play horseshoes. There is a pharmacy that Elder Norton calls "the cona" (the corner). We found a car decked out with cowboys stickers, it's pretty funny.
One day when we were walking we met a guy who wanted to call himself Bob. He didn't trust us with his real name. He asked us if we wanted some tree.......when Elder Norton gave a confused look he asked if we knew what tree was, I just told him "we don't smoke dah ganja mon" and then started to teach him, he wasn't too interested. He didn't want to give up things that made him happy in this life (drugs) if he was probably going to be happier in the next life either way. I don't quite understand why you wouldn't want divine happiness here and now, instead of waiting. Satan has a powerful grip on people's hearts, people like to wear chains and they don't even know it.
I'm glad I get to receive your emails during the week, I love getting pictures and notes about how you are all doing. If you're ever bored send me an email and some pictures.
Love you all so much,
Calvin
