I hope everyone had an enjoyable Valentine's Day
last week, and a pleasant President's Day yesterday!
Last week was good. We were able to pick up a new
investigator, a young man named Christian, who we had met while tracting and
had come to sacrament meeting two Sundays ago. We taught him the Restoration
and we were able to resolve some concerns that he had about the Church. We
talked a lot about the Holy Ghost, and when he told us that he felt at peace,
we helped him recognize that as being the power of the Holy Ghost. We invited
him to be baptized and he said he would once he prays and receives and answer,
so we talked about the importance of prayer and how through the Holy Ghost we
can receive answers to our prayers. It was a really really good lesson, not to
mention the fact that he is an 18-year old who is seeking God in his life and
basically is not sure which church he should join or be baptized in. I admire
him for his desire to seek God by himself as a youth.
On Wednesday we had a zone conference. I loved
it, I was reminded about several things that I can improve on with my
teaching skills. I got to see my previous companion Elder Hulterstrom, my MTC
companion Elder McLaws, and one of my companions from when I was serving in
Chino, Elder Morton. After 18 months down the hill in Chino and Upland, he is
FINALLY serving in the high desert. That evening we had a dinner appointment
with a nonmember couple that we had contacted the week prior, and we had a good
conversation with them. We were able to talk about religion and faith, and
Elder Olson and I shared scriptures from the Bible and the Book of Mormon about
having Christ as our foundation. After dinner the husband Frank showed us his
restored green Plymouth Duster in his garage; that car is cool. Then he took us
to his "man cave" and showed us a bunch of stuff. He showed us his
old school stereo system with all his records and played "Born to Be
Wild" by Steppenwolf over the system. And then I turned my head to the
right....and there was a drumset! I asked him if he played drums and he said
yeah, I told him that I played too, so he told me I could try it out, so I
played along to the rest of the song. It was a lot of fun. They really enjoyed
our company that night, I'm glad we could leave a good impression with them.
They even told us they'd feed us again, so we scheduled a day with them in
March. I'm looking forward to seeing them again!
Funny Story:
On Thursday we volunteered again at the community garden
place called Squash 4 Friends. I was wearing my work boots and I used a tilling
machine to mix a load of chicken poop that was going to be used as fertilizer
for the plants in the garden. I had no problem with the stench, so I worked on
that for some time until we had to leave because we had to go to the mission
office. Because we were running late and I didn't want to make the other elders
late, I didn't change out of my service clothes and instead just hopped in
their car and told them to go. It wasn't' even 30 seconds into our travels that
one of the elders spoke up and said "Dang, what's that smell?" Pretty
soon the other elders were saying the same thing. I didn't really pick up on
the smell until I actually started sniffing the air in the car, and then the
thought came: "Oh...that must be the chicken poop...wait a minute, I smell
like chicken poop, oh shoot!" So over the course of our car ride down to
Rancho Cucamonga to the mission office and back up to Hesperia I
unintentionally tortured them with the scent of poultry excrement haha. I'm
happy to report that there were no casualties from the smell. The kicker though
was when we got to the mission office and all the other elders and sisters that
were there were in their proselyting clothes of course...except for me. And
here comes President and Sister Taylor out of the office, greeting all the
missionaries in the foyer, and then they come up to greet me. As they are
walking towards me I could sense President Taylor looking me up and down
because I didn't have my normal proselyting clothes on (and I wasn't wearing
shoes or anything because I left my boots outside to try and not carry the
stench with me, so I was just walking around with some socks on and no shoes).
Even now I can imagine him thinking "Where the heck has this elder been,
and where are his clothes?!...and what's that smell?" just by the brief
countenance that he had on his face. Quickly I tried explaining the situation
to him, and he smiled and understood my situation and said nothing else of it.
So ever since that day I have banished my boots to the garage of our house,
never again to be kept inside lest there be a conquering of our home by the
powerful scent of chicken poop. And I also made sure to wash my clothes.
The End!
On Sunday a young man who is one of our other
investigators came to church and he even brought his nonmember friend with him!
The Young Men in the ward did a good job of fellowshipping them and including
them in conversations.
Yep so that basically sums up last week. I was
able to have some memorable experiences and also help others, so I'm happy. I
hope each of you have a good week! Remember the Lord loves you
Elder Ruiz
One of my previous companions, Elder Morton and I. He is serving in Big
Bear now, his first area in the desert.
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