Letter from Kelson - Week #11 - Another Week Bites The Dust!!!

Good Morning From Sunny California!!! Technically it has only been 5 days, seeing as how last week my Preparation Day was on Wednesday. This past week was hard though, we encountered lots of opposition, and when opposition rears its ugly head that means we as missionaries are doing something great. After Wednesday we had plans for a lot of things, such as lessons with investigators, Splits (going out with a member who owns a car) with one of our wards, and meetings with Less-active members are lined up for the taking/success of the area. Then tragedy struck...Cancellations of appointments, going to see 9 different people in 2 hours and only really talking to one of them, and finally the lessons with the Less-actives fell through because of life's great abundance of CRAZY!!! That was all on Thursday and Friday. Saturday rolls around and Elder Outlaw and I decide that after we are done with our service for the Catholic Church, feeding the homeless, we are going to go and Tract a couple of streets and try to fill our investigator pool. Here comes more opposition...service took an hour and a half longer than planned, then when we were going to go tracting we had mixed feelings about where to go, so we spent a good 45 mins of praying one after another trying to figure out the best location for HIS work to commence. By the time we had finished praying, and not really feeling good about going tracting, the time we had set aside for tracting was over, and we had appointments to go to. Thus we had a very aggravating morning...hehe hold on to your seat it gets way better...So after we had seen some less-actives we were leaving and I had noticed that I have a flat tire, , Why do these things keep happening...grrr Anywho after I noticed my tire was flat we found ourselves under a tree in front of some guy's house, who was willing to come out and let us borrow his air compressor and some lacher thinner so I could put a new patch on the hole in my tire (this is like the 4th time it has been flat from the same hole). We talked and found out that he was just really coming out to teach us a lesson on how our church is false because the Book of Mormon doesn't talk about the divinity of Christ, and some other hog wash junk that he was spewing. For the readers who are not of my faith, the Book of Mormon says on its cover "Another Testament of Jesus Christ", and in 2 Ne 25: 26 completely shoots this guy down the fail pipe. Unfortunately before I was going to tell him the truth and inform him of his mistakes, his wife conveniently showed up and asked him to continue his work around the house, this is also as he opens up a beer and tells me that when it gets this hot he needs a beer to keep himself hydrated... So his comments I took with a grain of salt, except for the fact that he was talking down to us, Missionaries who are ordained disciples of Jesus Christ sent out to help people come unto Christ by helping them Receive the Restored Gospel through Faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, Repentance, Baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End. This just really ground my gears because this man who claims to be a holy man, and spent 30 years studying the bible, being a lawyer and what not, was trying to tell me what I believe and then to add to that he wouldn't even let me tell him of his stupidity and lack of knowledge of our religion...GRRR I have just ranted and I should probably repent because I need to love them even though they are complete and total doinks!!! That was on Saturday and I just couldn't understand this guy and it bothered me all day, which made working a little bit more difficult to do. Then on top of all this that happened on Saturday, we came home to our apartment and found out that our A/C doesn't work and this week is supposed to be the hottest it has been so far...YAY, For OPPOSITION!!! I really felt like I was in the belly of the beast and the stomach acid was being merciless. Now that I have completely destroyed my weekend for you, let me tell you about my Sunday...We showed up to church and none of our investigators showed up, AGAIN. Elder Outlaw and I were once again in a position that we wanted to scream at the Lord and say "This area is just too Wicked, Burn them all !!!" It was awful. We endured church and were depressed because we have some other people that come to church, but they are mentally unstable and like to find themselves in primary, he is over 40 and crazy, not good for primary (kids 3-12). As we waded through church and felt that all was lost, the Lord blessed us with one of his many Tender Mercies!!! A lady who is not a member, but has been active for almost 5 years, and has a calling finally got permission from her husband to be baptized!!! She is getting dunked this Saturday and will look great for our numbers. Opposition leads to a mercy from the Lord. We actually didn't teach her at all because we didn't know she wasn't a member, but a funny coincidence is that her daughter, who is a member, was one of the roommates of 3 of my good friends at BYU, so a long story short is I knew this girl before the mission and now her mom is being baptized while I am here, not saying that I had anything to do with it, but it is a super small world. And thus we see that the Lord will bless his children with the things they need in the time and place that they are needed. We may not think it is the right time, but the Lord knows all and will never hold out on you when things are truly needed, as long as you are keeping his commandments, loving Him and following His Son Jesus Christ. That is all for this Segment, this is Elder Wheeler Signing off, Elder Kelson Wheeler P.s. Doo doo doo doo doo doo Subscribe...teehee