Okay people, I have some legit stories this week.
So we got a text message last Monday from our black Christian rapper investigator, with one word in it, “Brethren”. Upon further inquiry, we were told that he wanted to meet with us this week. We couldn’t fit him in Tuesday, so we got over there first thing Wednesday morning. When we sat down to talk, he told us he had knelt down and prayed before going to bed for God to show him what to do next, and that night he had a dream.
ABOUT US!
So he told us he still wasn’t totally sure what it all meant, but he knew he had to keep meeting with us to increase his faith for whatever reason. He told us he wanted to come to church too, so on Sunday he showed up with his two boys (10 & 11). We were so excited, but alas, things can never go completely right, can they?
Well, our investigator had his trial by fire at church. It was one of those disasters you only hear about and never think you’ll experience. First of all, the talks in sacrament were bad. Just not good at all for a newcomer. We heard all about the “Patriarchal Order” from the first talk, and the second one was really disjointed, but its two main points were chastisement for those not holding weekly family home evenings and also that we should all eat healthy. The second speaker also took special care to plug that hamburgers and hotdogs were the worst possible thing you could do to your body, and got really emotional when he talked about his friend deciding to start BIKING to work.
One of the speakers had mentioned that his friend from Africa was in the audience today to hear him speak too, so after the meeting, everyone was coming up to our investigator and asking him “Are you the one from Africa?” Crazy white folk…
I thought it couldn’t get any worse, but I was sorely mistaken. You see, our investigator is a Christian rapper fixed on fulfilling the “divine commission”. He quotes from Isaiah to us regularly. So a Gospel Principles class full of lifetime high priest members was just a recipe for disaster. The lesson just happened to be on Adam and Eve, and all the members in the room were talking about what a blessing the fall was, and how joyous an occasion it was. Add in the speculation that Adam and Eve knew everything that would happen before they ate the fruit and you have got a classroom full of, what looked like to him, some seriously messed up people. So he voiced his concern calmly and collectedly, because he is a really nice, intelligent guy. He said that joy didn’t come by Adam and Eve’s transgression, but it came by the grace of God. He warned that we not over-focus on the Fall for fear that we might justify sin.
And you know what he got? Hammered with disapproval. People were trying to tell him why the Fall was so great and no one even mentioned the word Jesus Christ for a solid fifteen minutes. It was SOOO uncomfortable! The exchange of words was basically mormons using their extra scriptures to tell him to worship Adam and Eve, or at least that’s what would be perceived by anyone without LDS background. It wasn’t until our assistant ward mission leader and a new face to the ward stepped in that things began to cool off. They were able to testify of CHRIST and say that the Fall made it possible to experience Christ’s grace. They acknowledged that our investigators input was valid. Finally, the two parties were reconciled. It was really admirable of him to stay as cool as he did during all of it. Most people would have up and left the room with that kind of heat on them, especially being brand new to it.
Then our investigator went on a walk (probably because of the ordeal in Sunday School) without telling us, and we spent the next fifteen minutes in panic looking for him. We were able to find him, though, and get him to Elders Quorum. And as if it hadn’t been a rough enough Sunday already, the lesson in there was on Temples and doing work for the dead. By this time, though, we were all so burned out by the day that we all just hung out quietly in the back.
We had to apologize to him afterwards for the experience he had. There were people after Sunday School apologizing too and thanking him for his input. But man, it was just really bad. Still, the end of the day seemed to give us some peace of mind. His kids loved Primary, and he asked if we could come over even later that same day. We couldn’t so we scheduled to meet Tuesday.
I learned something from this whole experience, though. It’s that faith transcends bad experiences. It’s that the doctrine the church is built on is not owned by it, but stands independent. Our investigator, despite all that happened, is still willing to meet with and talk to us. He’ll have questions; how can he not? But that’s okay, we can handle those. What he’s tapped into on his own, though, is faith. He has faith enough in us because of the dream God gave him to keep meeting with us. That is the x-factor that we gain when we are living worthily.
That’s been my emphasis with my district because I see it time and again. When we live the commandments–when we don’t fight, seek to cause harm, lie, or argue, and instead build each other, the human family, up–miracles happen. Miracles like dreams, miracles like money right at the right time, and various others. Every single true conversion starts with one, and when they don’t occur it’s because we lack the faith to keep the commandments. I have found that the key to success in missionary work is in simply living the commandments, and then God leads me to the right people right at the right time.
That was the main theme of this week was this experience at church, but the usual stuff happened too. Basic lessons, trying to stay out of the spotlight of the higher-ups, so on and so forth. It was a good week, actually, and even our experience at church was alleviated by the fact that our investigator still is willing to talk.
Elder Rushton – Missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
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