Elder Pier Dick

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.

Today I was on a split with Elder Nielson! I learned a lot from him today and it was really great. I learned about street contacting and the how-to's of that. I learned a lot about being bold and more confident. I've made goals now to improve my studies. As well as my memory. I feel that if I can have spiritual experiences every morning during personal and companionship study, I will be so much more spiritually prepared to take on the day and receive promptings throughout. And a better memory just because it would help.

Finished up my split with Elder Myers this morning. We visited this guy during companion study, and man he is cool. But he also has some serious attachment problems and abandonment problems too. We visited Regina, and I had a couple really strong spiritual prompting during our lesson (which was the April 1st presidency message about faith).  She was saying some really rash things like how she doesn’t believe in miracles anymore and this and that. I felt prompted to promise her that if she read the plan of salvation pamphlet, she would understand God’s plan for her. She seemed really taken aback by that and promised she would read because she really doesn’t understand what her plan is. It was cool. We also visited another sister  today. She is a 26 year old member whose husband cheated on her when she was 8 weeks pregnant. She has 2 kids, divorced once, and in the process of getting divorced again. At 26. How difficult. This was my first time actually having a conversation with her