Elder Pier Dick

I believe in miracles.  We were having a spiritual conversation with 3 guys on the street when this lady interrupts us and scares away the 3 guys. But, not to be dismayed by the lost opportunity with those guys, we started talking with this lady and the conversation started being led by the Spirit.  Well, on comes another distraction. Drunk guy comes up and starts yelling at us to preach to him! Recognizing that he was completely incoherent I told him we had a baptismal service on October 21st, and invited him to be baptized that day. He screamed his praises and whatnot, and we thought it was funny because we weren't going to pursue a drunk guy saying yes to being baptized.  But the lady was still there listening. She immediately spoke up and said "I want to be baptized. Can I come to the service on the 21st? I want to learn about what you talked to me about. I need direction."  We were so excited to help her come unto Christ. The Lord works in mysterious ways. So

Yesterday I heard an analogy I really liked.  You know those old style walls that were made of just rocks? Like, no filler to hold them together... Just rocks that fit together. Let's say that wall is your testimony you're trying to build. All of a sudden someone hands you a rock, and it's really oddly shaped, and it doesn't fit at all in the part of the wall you're building. It just doesn't fit, it's weird shaped. So what do you do? Just put it on your wall anyways and try to build around it and risk your entire wall being unstable and imperfect and risk it crumbling? No. You just put it to the side, and keep building your wall until you find where it fits. And in the gospel of Jesus christ, everything always fits perfectly!  People have a terrible habit of taking one principle, one rock out of the wall, and expanding it greatly and then trying to shove it back in and cry and complain that it doesn't fit, so they leave or go less active. Keeping ev

As missionaries, we share a unique message. We look (or try to) for every opportunity to talk to people about it. But there's a reason we look for people to talk to!  Here's why: On Sunday  my companion and I were heading to church. Because of how far away it is, we have to take a bus to get there. We had been held up earlier (he just took kind of long to get ready this day) so we got out to the bus stop later than usual. We missed the  10:35  bus we always catch, so we caught the next one. When we got on, there was this 25 year old girl kind of near the back, and she had Happy Birthday balloons and flowers! I sat down right by her and asked, "so it's your birthday today huh?!" and she told me, "No, actually it's my grandpa's. I'm heading to his grave to put these down, and say hi to my dad too." Usually, when things like that happen and someone tells me someone died, I automatically go into consoling mode. Tell them I'm sorry for them

Today started with district meeting. Elder Lindberg and I were asked to role-play with the Zone leaders the topic “Use the Book of Mormon to respond to objections” Objections like, “I don't believe in the word of wisdom.”  As we started the role-play, it was completely different than expected. The investigator we were teaching, his “objection” was completely vague. He just talked about how hard his life was, and work and his family and how he was tired and he had problems with family and no time and blah blah blah. Well….that was honestly the most accurate potrayal of how people treat us and our how our lessons go so it was really special for us to be in that circumstance, in that role play, to receive that special inspiration on how to handle those objections.  I learned a lot about the power of teaching to someone’s needs. Sometimes that’s just helping them find the desire to open the Book of Mormon every night. They need help realizing what they need help with in their life.

Today was my first P-day in the Bronx! Started out by taking a bus ride to Aldi, a super cheap grocery store (because everything is outrageous here) and carrying all of my stuff back to the apartment. Then, we went into Manhattan for the day. We went to the Museum of Natural History, which was kinda cool, and went by the temple in Manhattan, and that was about it. Then we headed back and ended the night trying to find some people. Elder Lindberg is very new to the mission and it kind of feels like training all over again. He’s from small town Utah. For example, as we are here in the Bronx, he (after much pressure from his companion) decided he was going to try and talk to someone on the street. Here was his phrase, “Excuse me, sir, could I please ask you a question? Have you thought about Jesus Christ today?”........May not sound that bad. But remember BRONX. It was a huge black guy. What was the result? Well, he didn’t pass out the card haha. 

First day down in Olmstead! The Bronx! Haha it is absolutely hilarious here. The people are so funny, and they're from EVERYWHERE. Angola, Pakistan, South America…..literally everywhere. It’s super cool. My companion is Elder Linburg from Nibly Utah. He’s only been out for 3 months! He even seems to be super new to this whole missionary thing. Scared to talk to people, not really sure of himself...but that’s okay. I plan on teaching him that missionary work is largely about making friends and teaching people because you love them. I’m really excited to spend some more time in the Bronx. It’s gonna be a blast. Tomorrow we are going into Manhattan to the Natural History Museum, and all around South Manhattan. I’ve never been in the city, and it’s gonna be so exciting. I’ll take plenty of pictures.