Well first off I'd like to start out with a shout out for the almost nine year olds! Hope you enjoy your birthday shaners and get my package on time! This week has been full of the good, the bad, and the ugly, but I figured I'd start out by explaining the joy of the rain we've had this week. With all respect to my companion, I really could not believe this plan that he had formed for us as a district to get to this past Zone Conference. It invovled us spending the night at East's apartment and waking up at 4 in the morning to get to the ever so effective Dallas Area Rapid Transit train station, which would end up taking us to Richardson where we had the meeting starting at 12. Well, while we were on exchanges, he had someone drive them to the East apartment and forgot to bring thier bikes, which left us walking to the Dart station at...4 in the morning. That night was crazy with thunder that kept waking all of us up as it shook the apartment and would set off about 15 or so car alarms. Well once 4 came...we dragged ourselves out of bed and got in our suits just in time to see that it was pouring harder than ever to help us meet a flash flood on our walk to the DART station. While we were on exchanges and everyone without rain jackets neccesary to battle this weather, we all trudged through the pelting rain at 4 in our suits for 45 minutes until we got to the station haha. But as the saying goes, "Nothing beats walking around in a flash flood for 2 and a half miles at 4 in the morning in suits in the heart of south Dallas haha." We were all just soaked to the bone as we got on the freezing cold train haha but we most definately got a missionary experience medal!
Another crazy expereince was when we had my most effective Bible bash yet. Well it started out just like any other normal day where as we were riding our bikes, we heard "Hey Mormons!" We turned around and saw a guy motioning for us to come and talk to him in this parking lot and we decided to go and see what he might need. So as we started talking to him, he started out with the, "I totally respect you guys for what you do, and I don't want to be racist or anything (still have no idea why he said that), but I've got a few questions." So he started questioning a bunch of beliefs that we have and we naturally gave him answers backed up with scriptural evidence. Then he gave us more doubts that we would answer and he would always refer to this little book that he had, and after answering a bunch of questions that he couldn't defend, he said, "Is it alright if we go over to my car so that I can get my book and that we and we can keep going from there?" We figured it would be alright since we had already effectively answered all of his questions that he was trying to battle with us, so we went to his car and he pulled out his laminated Anti-Mormon pamphlet, and everything that he had no debate on before, he threw down and the reasons why what we believed was false. He really started ramming on the Bible, even though we had backed up so many of our beliefs to the words of the Bible, he just wouldn't accept it and would say, "Well you need to give me something more than that." He would deny everything we said, until he finally said, "If you can prove to me that God and Jesus Christ are two seperate people with bodies, then I will believe that Joseph Smith saw the two of them." We had already explained and given him sufficient scriptures for that and it made me so clearly think of the statement from Korihor the Anti-Christ in Alma 30:43, "If thou wilt show unto me a sign, that I may be convinced that there is a God, yea show unot me that he hath power, and then will I be convinced of the truth of thy words." I knew through the spirit that he had already determined his heart to be hardend beyond acceptance of this truth, and I simply told him that whatever we say, he Is just looking to destroy or deny it. I then bore the most powerful testimony on my mission. It was an experience like never before, and instead of feeling like I was speaking, I felt like my body was just a vessel to deliver the words and testimony of someone else. I will never forget the feeling where I KNEW, and there was absolutely zero doubt about the truthfulness of my words. It was like I wasn't speaking, but my mouth was delivering something while my mind confirmed with a feeling I'd never felt before that whatever I was being directed to say is true. It made me think of the words of Elder Russell M. Nelson in the MTC, "Pure testimony is iirrefutable, It is undenyable, It is powerful." He kept trying to cut me off, but it kept going until it was guided to close. I knew something hit him, and hard, because after that he thew down every false conception his mind could concieve about the church, even speaking of doctrines as sacred as Exaltation. I simply said, "As Jesus said to the Pharasiees, why would we teach you of Celestial things if you cannot even believe temporal things." Then Elder Rodriguez said, "Our purpose is to call Repentance, therefore we invite you to repent. You have a nice day sir." As we left, my mind flooded with all sorts of other things that we could have said or scriptures that would have proved him wrong, but it was that moment that I knew that the spirit had ben working with us. We treated him like Jesus did the Jews in John chapter 8, and that was a testimony that what we did was right. It was an amazing expereince, but is sad to show how the world truly is ripening for destruction.
On a happy note, we have 3 baptisms this saturday with some solid members to keep the world and work going haha. Love and miss you all! Wish I had more time to tell you about all these amazing stories!
Love
Elder Justin Wilson
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