Words of advice for the week.
Never bike uphill, while huge gusts of wind are blowing at you and it is 40 degrees outside. It's not fun.
So I realized this last week this thing- I did not know cold until I came to Iowa. And that is really sad, because it's is going to get ALOT colder here! This last week we had our bikes, because we had to trade off the car, and we had it last week. I realized I'm out of shape, and that biking is very hard- especially in Iowa since there are alot of hills in Des Moines and we bike up them (It's a killer workout, I've lost ALOT of weight [I came to Des Moines weighing 178- I now weigh 158- and the best part is I can eat alot and not gain weight). But the temperature out side the first day biking was about 55 degrees- and it just got colder and colder down to below 40, and you add the humidity and the wind to the equation and it is FREEZING! We're already wearing our thermals, and stuff!
I taught my first lesson to an actual investigator on saturday! It was legit! Her name is Kim Kroll Ballinger and she found the church when she went to Salt Lake to pick up a car she wanted and she thought she'd watch Joseph Smith: A Prophet of the Restoration! So she's been reading the Book of Mormon and now is meeting with us. She's so ready by the way- it's awesome. She has so obscure beliefs though-ish. Like she partially believes in reincarnation, but yet she believes in the Atonement whole-heartedly. Which is weird cause reincarnation COMPLETELY throws out the purpose of the Atonement (I've done my research) and is completely false doctrine. You do meet interesting people on your mission. But we answered some good questions- she went on some anti-Mormon website that compares us to other Christians; and some of the things it said made me laugh inside (not outside, I held it in.)
1. Mormons believe the Book of Mormon is better than the Bible and the Bible is less important than their forms of scripture???
-This one made me laugh because it was easy to answer. Brother Crewdson who is a convert, return missionary, and ward missionary in the Des Moines 2nd- who accompanied us- just held up his quad and said "this is my Book of Mormon and my bible. They are together in the same set, and that's what we believe- they go hand in hand and work together." We then showed her the footnotes in our scriptures and how they refer to each other and work in unison. That we believe that the Bible and Book of Mormon work together, and equally, and in unison testify of the same Jesus Christ and that He is our Savior.
2. Mormons believe that they will be Gods?
-This one was a little harder to answer. Because we do but we don't. I explained it that we do not believe we will be greater than God, or we will become God; but we will become in a God-like state, where we will be held in glory and I guess you could say fame-ish. Like we will recieve special recognition.
3. Mormons believe Satan and Jesus Christ are brothers, and therefore equal???
-This one made me laugh. It's simple- no we do not believe that. We do believe that we are spiritual brothers with Satan, and Jesus Christ. But we are not equal in that matter; Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer to us, Satan is the tempter and devil. How can those two be equal? The Savior recieves eternal glory, and we follow Him- we despise Lucifer who is a fallen being, and is so evil he never will have a body. It's that simple- Jesus Christ= Awesome Satan= big fat doo doo head who we do not like.
There were other awesome questions that made me laugh, and others really made me think. But in the end it just strengthened my testimony- cause you see how they're lost and what they say makes not much sense! And they don't have the spirit.
We also talked for like 2 hours with this pastor we tracted into- he was super hostile at first. Like instantly started Anti'ing us- "Did you know the Book of Mormon contradicts the Bible?!" "Did you know that Doctrine and Covenants teaches that if you are not a polygamist you're going to hell?!" it took us off guard he knew about D&C, but he was wrong! We instantly jumped up and stumped the guy (we bore our testimonies, and corrected the doctrine by showing it to him), and he ended up being really cool. But he turned out to be a pastor! And we figure he knows about D&C and BofM because he teaches Anti-Mormon stuff. He said he was shocked at our humility, and kindness though and how we talked to him rather than jump to defence and be like "NUH UH"! Instead we just were like, where does it say that? Did you read the whole thing, cause you might have taken it out of context, buddy. In the end we exchanged cards, and he says he'll come to our church, and we're going to go to his [We told him we'll take his card and go to his church, because it would be hypocritical of us to teach the Gospel and not learn of others- and Christ hates hypocrites. Besides, we all know how it'll end up anyways ;) ]
So we're going to go to his church sometime and then he'll go to ours and we'll see what's up- Elder Sonderegger and I were laughing about it, what if we converted him?! What would his congregation think?!
Anyways, we are also working with a less-active sister, who has been inactive for 6 years, and she wants to reactivate. Pretty awesome, no? Mary Lilley is her name and she has a strong spirit about her- I'm excited for her. And she was at church yesterday too! EXCITING!
My mission is going awesome, and I am loving it! there's the occasional pothole in the road that will maybe stump you for a second- but it doesn't matter. I know what is right, and I'm proud of it. I'm glad I'm here- and I'm loving it. Each day I lay down in bed I think- 'don't blink, Elder; don't blink.' Every time I go to sleep it's as if I shut my eyes, open them and it's 6 AM. Which means another day has passed, and I'm one day closer to leaving my beloved mission. Which I hate the thought of- shoot, I'm feeling like I'm gonna cry thinking about it now- I don't want to leave. I love this too much. We talked to person on the street the other day and they asked us what we do when we get back and it hit me- we press forward, and live a normal life again. But what is normal? What did I do before I came here? I don't remember home! I can't see the faces of people I left home- I can't remember the tunes to songs I loved back home, I don't remember my favorite movie quotes, I don't remember Topher Prows. I'm Elder Prows! I want to stay Elder Prows, and just teach people, and progress more! I hear it hurts- when you remove your nametag that one last time. I'm already dreading it; and I don't know how they'll get me on that airplane home. They'll have to sedate me or something.
Missions are the best.
Elder Prows- out
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