Something they don't teach you in the MTC is looking out for someone's physical well being. I think the thought behind it is that when you start to teach someone lessons and they go through the repentance process of wanting to change, they will naturally work at the physical things they need to to do in order to be able to attend church and eventually get baptized.
After church last Sunday we went to see Anna, and her car was there, but she didn't answer. The next day we went to our appointment with her and her car wasn't there. We came back an hour later and lone behold she came home and we knocked on the door and it was pretty apparent she also had been smoking. She said she couldn't do it and she didn't feel like talking about it and pretty much left it at that. We were with the bishops wife and she said well, that's too bad, cry it off and start again tomorrow. Christ was constantly rejected by the people he taught and even though he was perfect he even was killed by the people who rejected him. That was a big humility pill to choke down. I kept beating myself up before that about what if we just weren't good enough teachers or if we took a different approach, but really everyone has they're agency and this is all part of the plan. Since then we have stopped by her place all week and she doesn't answer the door.
When I first got here I met a lady who lived with her boyfriend and 3 kids in his mom's house along with his step dad. We stopped by their place about once a week and she seemed somewhat normal when I first met with her and then a couple weeks later we saw her briefly on her doorstep as she said she was worried her boyfriend was cheating on her and then a couple weeks later we finally talked with her step dad who said we didn't need to bother coming around anymore, because his step son dragged her by her hair a block and the cops finally took him in. Her kids got taken away and she moved to somewhere on Boston street. I talked with a member who saw this lady before I got here and was convinced she was on drugs, because all the itching she did. Anyways, obviously we dropped her because we had no idea where she was and we figured she just needed so much more help then we could provide.
Well we got a referral from church headquarters and we went to her neighborhood and she was like I was just clicking around on mormon.org and didn't realize what I was doing, so she wasn't interested. We were walking along and we talked with a lady walking home with groceries and she was interested and invited us to come see her later that week. Well we come back later and guess who is friends with this grocery lady, the original lady. Well when we first walk up to their ghetto backyard she see's me and I see her and this is what she looks like. She is unhealthily skinny, her thin hair is messily pulled back into a ponytail and she has on jean shorts that you can't even see because of her oversized ripped brown t-shirt that is wet. She reeked of alcohol and she came up and we hugged and I was just praying her t-shirt was wet with water, so I didn't have to go around knocking on doors smelling like I just came from a bar.
She just was the epitome of rock bottom. She talked about how she got there and what it was like growing up for her and really, she definitely was given the short end of the stick. l tried my best to motivate her to do something about it, through describing Heavenly Father's love for her and her need to do something for herself about it. She said she prayed ever night, but really if we want to receive some sort of divine strength, I think it would take a little more than just calling in saying, hey my life is in the crap hole, wanna help me out? I'm realizing everything with my investigators is a give and take relationship, just like our relationship with our Heavenly Father. I remember this clip they showed us in American Heritage, at the beginning of the year where Jerry is telling his client, HELP ME, HELP YOU, over and over again, but that's exactly how I feel like all the time.
I don't know exactly why Heavenly Father needed us to see her again, but we got her address and oh by the way we had the stake president's wife with us during all of this and I think she was traumatized, but anyways, I tried convincing her to walk to church the next day and if she did we would find a ride home for her (it would've been like a 2 hour walk, but we already set up rides for her before and she didn't show) Anyways, the sister with us volunteered to drive her, but once again she didn't come to church.
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| We had lunch at this little hole in the wall diner, it was awesome, but the chocolate pie was like really sad. |
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| Some kids did this in front of our house....now we get weird looks from the neighbors. Just kidding, we always got weird looks from them ever since we decided it was a good idea to tract in our own neighborhood and not mention, we actually live there as well. When we pass by them, they have these looks on their faces, like we already slammed the door on them... why are they still here? |
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| There's another Oregonian somewhere in Kansas!! |
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