Gean, Erule, John the Pastor, and The Baptist Missionaries

Okay so this week marks one month in the Mission field! 23 left! I still can't believe how quickly days go by out here!! I wake up and its already Sunday! Its unreal! This week was crazy!! I believe that our cover has officially been blown and people now know that we are not with the Landmark Baptist College. I'll explain more......

Monday-

So when we left the computers last week Elder Heluo and I went down to the church and I found out that I am currently companions with the reincarnated Mozart! Seriously one of the greatest pianist that I have ever heard in person! We sat at the church for about two hours while we planned for the coming week and finished the last hours of our prep day which ends at 6 pm.

We left the church and went to our new favorite teaching spot! A lower income housing apartment complex located about half a mile from our apartment! We met a ton of great people, and just like last week we prayed with everyone we met! It was all going great until 8 pm rolled around and the last person that we made contact with for the night, a Hispanic woman sitting in the car with her two kids. We asked her if they would like to pray with us and her daughter says, "She can't speak English, but my Dad's a preacher and he will be down in a second." So at this moment I'm thinking "Alright Elder Street, let's go. This isn't going to turn out well. He isn't going to want to talk to us and most likely he will try to tell us that we are wrong." Well, we wait for him to come down (Elder Heluo is more diligent and brave than I), and we invite him to pray with us. Well he says a quick prayer in Spanish then begins his attack on the church. Knowing how this conversation would go ( "in revelations it says the bible is complete, oh well here's another thing, okay well here's another...." ) I decided to go on the offensive.

Knowing that any night in Haines city is dead after about 7:30, I decided that we had a minute or two to waste, so I quickly moved a crossed a few theological points (Trinity, History, Doctrine, Gnostics, Creeds, Schools of thought) and ended the discussion 30 minutes after it started with the pastor telling me that he has been a pastor for 36 years and I was wrong-just wrong. He couldn't explain why, but I was wrong. I just want to say that I stood my ground pretty well folks. Elder Heluo laughed and we ran home and made it in at 8:59 pm (curfew).

Wednesday-

We tracted all day loooonnnnnngggggg. Seriously pretty much just a blur. The one great moment that we had was we met a young Haitian named Gean (aka the greatest person ever), and we talked to him for about an hour. He could have taught the lessons better than us and he wasn't LDS. He had feelings and thoughts about religion that were exactly on point! He told us when we got up to go that he felt like God had guided our paths to each other that evening. Gean was on fire! Seriously the smile that this 21 year old had, and how humble he was! It was unbelievable! We've gone back to see him twice now!  

Thursday-

John the Pastor -- So we were out knocking doors again, and what do you know -- we knock on a pastor's door. John came out, and let me tell you, he was the greatest ever! After our run in on Monday I was feeling like really not wasting time with people who weren't interested in the message. So I wasn't really wanting to spend too much time at his door step. Well John came out and said a quick prayer with us, then we proceeded to have an amazing discussion about Jesus Christ! Seriously a completely different feel from the previous encounter with a pastor. It wasn't a bashing contest; it wasn't who knows more; it was simply "This makes me happy and I share it with others." John is Pentecostal and we sat there for a good 45 minutes talking to him about our views on the need for a restoration, and for why we feel that God the Father is a separate being that Jesus Christ. It wasn't negative and he expressed his opinion on different topics! Seriously John was a great Christian!

Friday-

By Friday we had visited our new Haitian friend Erule three times! He's really understanding a lot and his nephew June is growing a lot as well!

Saturday-

Enter the Baptist Missionaries--So our cover has officially been blown! Last week we were slipping by teaching a lot of people because they assumed that we were with the Landmark Baptist church. Well, our cover was blown Saturday morning/afternoon. It first started when me and Heluo were doing companionship study at about 11 on Saturday morning. We hear a knock at the door. "Who could that be?" We were all excited because we knock doors all day but no one ever comes by our place, so we hopped up and ran to the door! And what do you know, its two missionaries.... for the Landmark Baptist Church... Remembering the experience that we had had the other day with John the pastor I decided that we would open the door, great them, pray with them, and listen to a great message about Jesus Christ.... Well these two had other ideas. I open the door being 100% sincere I say "How's it going?"  We talked for all of twenty second's before they said they had to go. I invited them to say a quick prayer with us and share the message that they were going to share, when the younger more timid missionary goes, "We would prefer not to, in the book of Revelations it says that if any man add or subtract from that book, he will be accursed. So we think that you are going to go to Hell and we don't want to talk about your 'Jesus'." Well I don't know if any of you have ever heard how quickly I can go from "How's it going" to full on Theology rage!! I'm all for sharing messages nicely and improving others lifes, but when this kid jumped straight to the 'you're going to hell' line something snapped. This was the second time this week that Elder Heluo saw me go full-on theologian. These two young Baptists didn't have a chance. I was eight pages into the apocraphy and the doctrines of Creation ex Nihlo before they could even answer when John the Revelator finished HIS "book" of the bible compared to the rest of the apostles and why it says the same thing in Deuteronomy Chp. 4. I unleashed a theological wrath that left them dumbfounded. I was so annoyed it was unbelievable.  

Sunday-

Sunday was just a great day for spiritual recharging. nothing too crazy just a nice day to remember the Savior and relax. No more Bible bashing, and theological debates for me. I love you all! Have a wonderful week and stay awesomeeee!!