Ups and Downs

November 16, 2015

Ups and Downs

First and foremost nothing as exciting as getting into a car crash
happened this week so I apologize in advance!
Anyways since my last week there's been great things as well as some
troubling bad things. I'll start off with the good. Me and Elder
Hasson have decided to keep seeing Sloan (the Jehovah Witness) so we
could learn more about what he believes and try to transition with us
teaching him what we believe. As usual he took over the conversation
and totally tried to shake our testimonies. I won't go into too many
details but we asked a question that he couldn't answer and I guess he
had never thought of, and it was a fundamental part of his religion.
So we left him a little stumped, so tonight when we revisit we will
see what he has to say.
On Thursday we had a huge Zone meeting where President Taylor and his
wife came. All in all we had 3 zones there which accumulated to about
60 missionaries. We're talking about member missionary work and by the
end of the meeting I had been called on me 3 different times to voice
my opinion and say something. Internally I was freaking out, speaking
to that many missionaries who I knew had better opinions than I and
having the mission president right there listening to me. After the
meeting my zone was making jokes about me becoming an AP (assistant
president) but I told them that president just needed a good laugh
which is why I was asked to talk so much! ;)
After leaving that meeting everyone was pumped to go out and do
missionary work, so we had a couple regular appointments with some
progressing investigators that went well. One of my favorite things is
when you knock on a door and someone starts yelling at you telling us
that they are a follower of Christ and only through him can we return
to heaven and they just go on and on about that kinda stuff, and then
at the end of their shpeel saying "yeah, we agree". People are so
confused, I guess people think that we worship Joseph Smith haha! So
we dispel a lot of myths, which there are a ton of.
On Saturday morning we tracted (knocked doors) and we came to this old
lady's house, knocked, and she opened. I introduced me and Elder
Hasson and she was going off about how Jesus atoned for our sins and
we agreed with her, which caught her off guard. Then she went off
about how the bible is the only word of God and I could tell she was
hinting that the Book of Mormon isn't true. Then she went off about
how it's the word of man and how there are so many things wrong with
it, so I asked "have you ever read the Book of Mormon?" And she
replied "no!" And I said "so how do you know that it isn't true?
"They're the wrong teachings in it?" She replied saying she wasn't
gonna go into details but it was obvious she had no idea what she was
talking about, so elder Hasson ended the conversation.
Later that night we got into another bible bash with a guy who
believed in the trinity, we proved him wrong and he was stumbling all
over his words and didn't really have anything to say back to us. It
sucks bashing cause since there's contention the spirit isn't there,
and the people you talk to have a harder time seeing what we're
teaching is true. So by all means we try to avoid it, but it's Texas,
everyone down here has a religion. Still gotta love the people though :)
Last night I got news of my grandpa passing away. I still don't know
what to feel right now, it's hard to focus with my missionary work.
But I know that grandpa Harmon would want me to stay strong and keep
pushing forward with the work! It's so cool and an honor to think that
he and my grandma served so close in Fort Worth. I'm gonna miss him
and I know a lot of you will too. He's in a better place.
Well that was my week, I hope y'all had a great one as well!
I love and miss all of you!
Love Elder Hyatt :)