North Carolina Charlotte Mission

Behold, O Lord, their souls are precious, and many of them are your brethren; therefore, give unto us, O Lord, power and wisdom that we may bring these, our brethren, again unto thee. -Alma 31:35

Monday, January 27, 2014

11/18/13 "Great and Marvelous"

"And there had many things transpired which, in the eyes of some, would be great and marvelous; nevertheless, they cannot all be written in this book." - 3 Nephi 5:8

 
While playing a game of Catch-the-Less-Active-At-Home yesterday, we knocked on a door and a lady answered. After a brief moment of introduction, I politely asked her, "What is your name?"
"I'm not interesting in talking to Mormons," she growled.
I replied, "What an interesting name!"

...Possibly not the best response, but I've been itching to do it for 16 months now and it felt so satisfying.

***

I am now companions with Elder Mejia, a bilingual elder from Kernes, Utah. He came out one transfer after I did, so we are both fairly experienced and close to each other in age. I am enjoying being his companion. He is very good at asking people questions that make them think.

This week we have had several days as cold as apostate Christian perceptions of the lowest circle of Heck. On the way home from transfers it started snowing, and Wednesday was pretty cold. Coming from a person who was quite happy walking amidst the snowdrifts at BYU in shorts, flip-flops and T-shirt in the middle of winter, this means that it was probably pretty cold here. It is wet cold, not the dry cold of Utah -- layers don't help that much. But it warmed up for the weekend. Saturday and Sunday we had heavy fog for most of the day, which is always cool.

Both Thursday and Wednesday we joined forces with the Spaniards to help people unload massive U-Hauls so crammed full of life possessions as to put an Egyptian pharaoh to shame. In both cases I did the majority of the heavy-lifting. I was happy that I am able to do it.

We found out this week that this Friday we will be having a surprise meeting with Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve. This was nowhere on the schedule earlier this fall and will be the third Mission Tour we've had in two months. Normally they are once every four months. Makes me wonder what's coming down the pipe here in Charlotte that keeps causing all these General Authorities to come our way. (My guess is City of Enoch-style translation.)

We also had it announced to us that December 1st we will be getting our iPads. This sadly means that this is the last transfer that I will be using my favorite little pocket planners. :(  Yet another example of the changing face of missionary work.

The Church has asked that ward buildings and family history centers be made available for missionary use during the daytime. We haven't been able to use ours because we don't have a key to our family history library. On Sunday a stake representative came to talk to the ward secretary about getting us the keys. Our ward secretary then informed us of the meeting.

When I thought a bit about this situation, I realized that it could all be summed up like this: 
President Monson, who has all the keys, delegated keys to our stake president, who then had authority to delegate the task to the stake representative to give the keys to the ward secretary who could then give the keys to us.
Sadly, someone made an error down the line and we still do not have the keys.

There have been many things this week that are great and marvelous but I don't have the time or space to write them here. And that is only a week. Imagine Mormon and later Moroni trying to sum up one thousand years:

THE LORD: "My son, thou must remember: only the important things shalt thou write."
Moroni: "Cureloms are important!"

I know that the Church is true and I love being a missionary. I look forward to telling you all about Elder Cook next Monday. Love you all. Hurrah for Israel!


Elder Fisher

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