Still in Nanaimo for now

Still in Nanaimo for now
Elder Samis on the ferry

Monday 24 August 2015

August 24, 2015 - Area 4: Surrey East


And the Days Go On...

If you read my last email, you probably remember me talking about that lady Elder Shelley and I were led to named Liz. The one who looked like she would be baptized, the lady who seemed to be more then ready to receive us? Well the bad news is she hasn't. The day of her appointment she told us that she couldn't make it but she would meet us at the church for a lesson a couple hours later. She didn't, and we haven't heard from her since. You can imagine by now that our companionship is frustrated beyond all measure.

Well, we are disappointed (not discouraged) but this is what happens when you serve a mission. You hope to find people who are ready, but more often then not, no matter how solid they appear, they will not make it to the water dressed in white while you are in the area. So once again, we're back to a  teaching pool that has only one person in it, Ian. His thoughts about God's existence seem to really be coming along now! We set a date for September 23rd which will give him plenty of time to prepare. He believes that he can't regard the entire Joseph Smith story "made up" because no one in their right mind would lie about what he saw and what he did and die for it if it was a lie.

This past Friday Elder Tolman and I went on an exchange with our beloved district leader, Elder McCown. We decided to go on a bit of an adventure into the roughest patch of Surrey during the evening. We talked to a lot of people, many of them homeless. I talked to this one older guy named Theodore who asked us if we were Mormons. When we replied yes he said that he was interested in a Book of Mormon. We had a great discussion and I gave him one to read. He told us that we could come by the shelter where he was staying the next morning. When we went to the front desk the lady said that there was nobody named Theodore living there. Oh well, who knows where that book will take him? 

After we left the sketch zone we talked to another guy named Joshua who is down to meet with us this Tuesday at the church. He's interested in the Book of Mormon as well and says he is on a search for the truth about God.         

Elder Johnson of the quorum of the seventy came to town to hold a conference this past Saturday afternoon about missionary work. He asked the question "what makes it so hard for us to share the gospel with our friends and families?" People were opened to answer questions during the meeting. One of the sister missionaries serving in our ward stood up and explained that all members of the church has what she calls "FOM" or "fear of man" as she put it. We're afraid to share the gospel because we are afraid of being judged by those around us. I was astonished when she said this because this sister is bubbly, she's confident, she's had 14 baptisms, she was even a star college volleyball player in California before her mission for crying out loud! She's the kind of person everybody and their dog wants to be! And yet she says that she gets nervous about talking to people. Wow, I guess even the great prophet Moses was too.

With that in mind, perhaps I've hopefully turned the corner in my attitude towards myself. Anyone who knows me well knows that I get down on myself a lot. Wish my companions and I luck and prayers as we plunge ourselves into the middle of another transfer here in Surrey, the place that is changing my life for the better! Love you lots and have a great week!

Elder Maclean Samis

  

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