Dearest People Near and Far,
Well it has been a fun and exciting week full of lessons and unique opportunities. I had started a few weeks ago to email with a French investigator in…. France… who has been meeting with the local missionaries, but feels as though things just aren’t progressing anymore because she wants to understand the Book of Mormon. She has been reading it and reading it, but for her it is enthralling and believable in all the same ways that Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings (Seigneur des Anneuax) are, she can put herself in the story, but with all the excitement it feels more fantasy than anything else. The exciting thing that happened in regards to that is that we were able to meet with her over google hangouts, so I got to rap the French to an actual person and not just type it out. She is an awesome person, but she has rough things that she has to deal with. She was also one that lived up to the stereotype of a French person that criticized my French even after last week being pumped up because a French guy told me I had a good accent… Peoples is confusin’!
Also we found a pretty awesome girl from Ireland who decided randomly to give up alcohol five weeks ago, and then felt drawn to the Church. Like most Irish families, hers is Catholic and provide her with plenty of opposition, encouraging her to drink regularly and just hating Mormons in general. She doesn’t care though, she says that she knows what she feels and what she has read and believes it. She even quoted Joseph Smith on her Facebook, “In one of the readings by Joseph Smith, The Lord said 'Behold, I do not bring The Book of Mormon forth to destroy the Bible, but to build it up'.” Pretty dang awesome! She also accepted the Baptismal invitation to be baptized on September 13th! (I’d like to point out that the Frenchie is running into the same family opposition as the Irish.)
The baptism that was scheduled for this week was postponed because we were unable to link up with the local missionaries, which is a downside to being so distant, but we are now able to just work a little harder and push through the anxiety of the nervousness and cold-feet. There really isn’t a downside to being here when it comes to the distance because, these three investigators are in Iowa, Ireland, and France… I don’t know many other missions that have such a wide range to spread the gospel. It’s a great blessing! I guess a plug to help the international missionary force, does anyone have friends that live a little ways away that would be interested in learning more about our beliefs, always happy to help! J
We had a nice little chat with our Mission President Thursday to help us get a picture of how to better work with members. We are always looking for opportunities to work with the members in teaching their friends and families all over. I guess we aren’t very well known, and members typically visit Mormon.org to send referrals, but not really introduce the missionaries and work with them in the interactive process of teaching. I don’t know about you, but I trust my friends more than some random dudes talking with strangers on the internet, and so we need to team up and work towards helping our friends together. So the plan is just a little more interaction with the members, but the refining of that plan hasn’t really taken place.
On the personal side, no advances on the nerve damage stuffs, but I do now wear the glasses stuffs. They are weird at first, hard to adapt, and if I walk in them I feel rather motion sick, but they work and are good at sharpening the images on the screen and my ability to read the endless lines of text that we pour through every day. I guess next thing on the list is braces, but that is going to be pulling a close second after the “I should probably lose weight” feeling. Anybody that was wondering, I have put on twenty 2-0 pounds in the 3 months that I have been here. :/ I guess sitting at a desk all day isn’t very beneficial on the health front. I’m not huge, but about the same as when I originally left to Africa, I just didn’t realize how much I lost when I was there. Words of wisdom about my back come the 28th of this month, but don’t know what light they will bring.
If anyone has questions for me, or just loves me and wants to like email me… or write me… or send me a package… or spam my mailbox with hate mail…. You can feel free to do that. I wouldn’t mind it. But you can probably not do the hate mail thing, that’d be appreciated… Love you all! Have a great week!
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Sincerely,
Elder Robert Haggard
Referral Center Mission
2007 North 900 East unit #80
Provo, Utah 84604
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