October 10, 2011

MY FAMILY!!! HOW ARE ALL'YALL!!! This week went by FAST!!! We got 3 new progressing investigators in which we met all of them this week! One of them is Eric. We met Eric Tuesday night. We we're almost done for the day and were doing some tracting. When we first knocked on his door, we gave him our little shpill and asked him about his faith in Jesus Christ. After his response he invited us in. (THIS DOESN'T USUALLY HAPPEN TOO OFTEN HERE) We asked him about himself and got to know him a little better. He didn't mind, but he really wanted to talk about what we believe. To explain Eric; Eric is probabaly in his mid-30's and very smart, yet very very curious about life I guess you could say. He grew up and was baptized a Methodist. He lives by himself in a nice humble house. Hey is into computers and I'm not exactly sure what exactly. To say it the nicest way possible, Eric is kind of a nerd, but that's what I love so much about him. He is like someone I've never met before. Anywho, back to the story. He asked us many questions about our church and what our stance was on a lot of political issues. It wasn't until 10-15 minutes in that we started teaching him basic things in what we believe in and the Restoration and the BoM. He had so many questions and was very respectful. The whole time I was thinking, just keep this as simple as possible. We talked for perhaps 30-40 minutes with him that night. We gave him a BoM and was able to tell him the invitation/promise. We also gave him a mormon.org<http://mormon.org> card. So we met with him last night and boy, did he do his homework. But he did his homework the right way. Usually when we give people a mormon.org<http://mormon.org> card, they just go google us and that usually leads to wikipedia and that sorta jazz. Never good. BUT!!! He went on to mormon.org<http://mormon.org>! Like I said, he is very smart so when he was asking us questions, he was even quoting Brigham Young and giving us dates and stuff. Pretty much the lesson we were giving him last night was "deep doctrine" but we kept it very simple. It was like he already knew our message, but had questions about putting pieces together. He asked us a question about if God loves all of us so much, why did he regret creating us? I was very puzzled and asked him what made him think this. He refered to Genisis 6:5-8. He had read out of the NIV Bible, which instead of the word repent, it used the word regret. You can also see what it says in the foot notes and stuff cuz that was what I was trying to explain to him. I really wasn't sure where I was going with it cuz while I was talking, I was thinking, why would God need to repent. I was explaining the matter of this verse for about 2-3 minutes still pondering on the fact why would God need to repent? I was praying for the Spirit to say something the entire time. About 3/4 of the way into the confersation, I had realized what the Spirit had put into my mouth and what I was saying. I was explainging that repentance is the washing away of sin, not everything. If God would have washed away everything, including the righteous, we wouldn't be here. It uses the word repent as the analagy of washing away sin (the wicked people) After that last word, I just looked at him and said a prayer in my heart during the silence. Then he responed and said that that makes sense, and that he needs one of our Bibles. THE SPIRIT TESTIFIED!!! Like one of the Brothern said at GC, we do not teach infront of or behind. We teach BY the Spirit. I had something else I really wanted to share with you all this week, but I guess it will have to wait until next week. The field is WHITE!!! We just need to go find it. I love you all and am grateful every moment for you. I hope you all have a wonderful week this week! Com amor Elder Bowman omhiwdMb