Thursday, December 5, 2013

Happy Thanksgiving! (week 11)


Time is starting to fly. This week has been pretty good; we have done a lot of exploring in the boondocks/sticks (finding inactive members in the middle of nowhere). We had some pretty funny experiences; you can tell a lot of the people live in the boons to get away from civilization. Literally, the first house we pulled up to there was a guy sitting in his tractor that asked us what we wanted. We told him if he knew where so and so was and he glared at us and said, "Well she's gotta live somewhere in the world." We asked him again if he knew her and he told us it was time for us to go, we awkwardly said "Okay, have a nice day."

There was another house that we tried to visit that had a large open front yard, and towards the house about 20 feet from the porch lay a rather large dog with a chain linked to his collar. We gradually walked towards the porch. As we got closer I started to notice the many Beware of Dog signs placed around the yard. Elder Bushman, quite unaware of the situation, led the way to the door. The dog that was once laying down, now stood staring me down. We got about 10-15 feet from the door and the dog bolted at me. I quickly ran back toward the car. The dog's leash was a lot longer then it looked from afar. The dog wasn't fast enough to catch me. 

Now Elder Bushman stood on the porch knocking on the door with me awkwardly standing 40 feet from the door. The dog still didn't notice Elder Bushman standing on the porch. Finally when no one answered the door after two knocks, he started to very slowly make his way off the porch with the dog lying back in its original place. Elder Bushman beckoned me to make some noise to distract the dog, so I moved the leaves on the ground with my foot while he stepped off the porch. As soon as he reached the last step the dog saw him and bolted at him. Elder Bushman who was speed walking, realized that the dog was faster than he thought. The large dog came within a foot from biting him. He ran around the telephone post and he barely got away. I could not stop laughing, I seriously thought the dog was getting Thanksgiving ham early. We had a good laugh about it once we got back in the car.


 A cool fishing pond in the boons.

We had Thanksgiving dinner at J~'s house, who is a recent convert that was baptized about year ago. She had her entire family over from Blackwell and Ada. We had a wonderful dinner and had a really good conversation with J~'s step dad who is a Baptist minister (kinda). We shared our similar beliefs with him and we eventually got to talk to him about the Book of Mormon and explain where it came from. We were even able to give him a copy to read for himself. We explained to him that the Book of Mormon and the Bible go hand in hand and support each other. He was really grateful for the Book of Mormon and he said he'll read it. We left their family by having everyone go around and say what they are most grateful for. It was a really good Thanksgiving. I'm grateful to be able to be here in Oklahoma and to share this gospel that I know to be true and that has blessed my life so much in so many ways. I'm grateful for Christ's atonement and to be able to know that he died for my sins so I am able to return to my Father in Heaven through repentance. We are so blessed!

One of our investigators is getting really close to baptism. We have been teaching W~ for quite some time now and we are really pushing her to find out if this is the right one for her. W~ is in her early 70’s and lives with her sister in a 1920’s manor. It is the coolest house and is in pretty good condition. Recently, her sister L~ has started coming to the Book of Mormon classes and is now interested in hearing from the missionaries. She is a pretty depressed lady but we are helping her see the greater joy in this life and God's plan for us. We are so excited to start teaching her. Good things are going to happen. All W~ needs to do is quit smoking and come to church (she is worried that she smells like smoke) but we explained to her that everyone at church loves her and have been through similar struggles, they are there to encourage her.

Next week looks promising!

Sincerely, Elder Watkins


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