It's been a BASH-- I mean DASHING week XD

Happy Birthday Tyrell!

"Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles..."

So, first off, before I get going, Halloween was rough.  It was just another P-day, and just another proselyting day, except that we weren't allowed to knock doors at all that day-it was supposed to be appointments, but nobody wanted us over because it was Halloween and trick-or-treaters and all that.  So we had basically nothing to do, so it was about 730 when we text a recent convert of ours, Will, if we can go for a visit at 8.  We end up meeting with him, they (him and his wife) decide to feed us dinner (because we hadn't had a member sign up, and we hadn't had it yet) and it's time to share a message with them.  But he has this friend there who moved in with them and is starting to make them less-active (no bueno), who's kinda a bum about religion-- he mentioned mountain meadows massacre to us and that should tell you enough about him.  He would sit in with us with the lessons we had with Will, so he would listen and all that, but wasn't really actively participating or anything.  During that visit we had with them, he had actually left to go buy alcohol, and he brought it back (while we were still there).  Anyways, so Elder Proctor has a tendency to throw me under the bus, so we're sitting in that awkward silence after dinner, and Elder Proctor just says, "Well, Elder Dial has a message for you."  I'm used to this happening, and usually I'm good at whipping out a scripture and applying it to their needs, but I was completely lost on this one.  So, I grab my scriptures, and I say a prayer that I could share the scripture that they needed, then I open my scriptures without opening my eyes, and it opens to Enos.  I think to myself, "nah, my thumb was just on the tab" or even, "that's just where it always opens up in my quad" (both of which were true) so I close my eyes and my quad and I move my thumb up and down and around, and I do it again-- still Enos. Then I was staring down verse 6.  I knew this was no coincidence so I just jump in and share it.  And while I'm sharing it, I realize, that the friend that was there (don't know his name), I was basically calling him to repentance, but it was not directly.  So I feel like I'm dying inside, that he's not going to like what I'm saying, but after I was done, he comes over, sits at the table, and opens right on up.  This stubborn man just starts asking questions, and confessing sins (basically) and we just start teaching him the Plan of Salvation- which answered all of his questions.  It was awesome- but we haven't been able to meet with them since.

Now for the actual bashing part--  so I went on exchanges twice this week- one with the Fort Bliss Elders, and the other with the Zone Leaders, so I had 2 whole days of being in charge of the area- first with Elder Hancey, then with Elder Jones (Spanish missionary).  So, one guy when I was with Elder Jones, in Spanish told us that he used to be a member of the church but that he started to doubt when Spencer W Kimball did a stake thing and everyone was told not to record anything.  We compared that to Christ, and how after a miracle was performed He told people not to tell anyone, and the guy stopped talking about that.  He then tried to tell us that Melchizedek (the guy who Abraham paid his tithing to) was Jesus, because Melchizedek was king of Salem, and Salem means peace, and how in Hebrews 7:1-3 Melchizedek didn't have a father or mother, but was like unto the Son of God, so that means that they're the same person so on and so forth.  So we moved on.

 The next day we met a guy who asked meaningless questions, so when we couldn't answer them he told us that we should talk to the "Jehovah's Witnesses, cause they know what they're talking about"  XD

Later that day was the third guy- who called himself the "Reverend Veteran" and was on the bus with us-- so I got a whole 30 minutes of being told I (I say I because Elder Proctor wasn't going to take any of that so he started acting asleep) was wrong, how every church is hypocritical, there won't be a World War III but there will be an American Civil War, and that Christ won't come till after 3000 AD.  He tried to trick us into saying a Catholic Prayer, but when we didn't he said that we worship Satan, and we just didn't say anything because he was talking THE WHOLE TIME. The only 2 times he was silent were when he stopped mid-sentence to say a prayer for all the people on the bus, and when he had me read Exodus 19- (I didn't actually read it, I stared at the page for as long as I could before he started talking again [I managed to get 5 minutes]).  I started to think that God was giving him power or something, cause someone's gotta have God's power in order to say that many words without taking a breath and keep it going for that long. I mean, JEEZ.  ;)

Anyways, we got 3 new investigators this week, 2 of them on date to be baptized, (they came to church yesterday and they're going to a family home evening tonight, woot woot!!)

This video is the rainstorm/hailstorm that hit us- it was raining like this for about 30 minutes, and we were at the bus station so we had to run to our car... let's just say that if you think the streets flood there, you're wrong.  I didn't get a video or a picture of how bad it was, but that was nothing.  We were driving up a hill (when we say hill, we mean that last mile of hiking to Table Rock, the hills by Grandpa D's house, or the hills to get to Jameston (by the South Stake Center in Shelley)  and it was flooding so bad that streams going down the hill were reaching about halfway across the road-- whole intersections vanished.  Needless to say, IT WAS AWESOME.

This week has been super eventful, and there is work to be done!  I've never hated the first 20 minutes of the day more than I do now, it's never been harder to stay awake when I'm riding the bus, but I've never loved talking to people... until now!-ish. It's still a work in progress. ;)

The gospel's true, study it like it's your last day on earth and like you've never studied it before!  Take time to understand what you're reading, otherwise it's just like schoolwork-- in one ear and out the other!!
Actually take time to prepare for the sacrament, and leave church each week with something you're going to improve on!

Christmas is just around the corner, so you'd best be getting ready to go CAROLING, cause that's what I'm gonna be doing (with just my companion, so I actually have to sing)!  So just remember, "The best way to spread Christmas cheer is by singing loud for all to hear!"  So start practicing now!! ;)

Te whanaunga mo ake tonu!!

Elder Eli James Dial