Got a quick story on prayer that I
experienced this past week and half.
So we were on exchanges in my area
with an elder in our district named
elder Barnes. This day we were in a
trio, elder Merrill and Elder
Barnes. We were trying to contact
someone we had talked to the other
day, but she wasn't there. Her
neighbor was grilling some pork chops
on her front yard so we decided to
talk to her. She was a pretty nice
black lady that worked at a salon
and was open to have us over. Right
as she was saying that, this brisk
black man comes from behind me and
openhand SMACKS mean the face! He
just started cussing for no reason,
I just sat down on the ground
because I was really surprised! Needless
to say, he was an ignorant fool.
But anyways, back on track. The thing
about this is that when he hit me,
I didn't feel any adrenaline or
desires to hit him. This was an
answer to my prayer! How was this an
answer to my prayer, you ask?
Because that morning, I prayed that I
could be more patient and
charitable with and towards others. And lo
and behold! I get slapped by a mad
black dude, and God gave me what I
wanted. Morale of the story: prayer
works!
(This is my companion's account of the previous event!)
Time for the story of the week:
On exchanges this week in our area,
we were going by this lady we had
met on the street a few days
before, and got to her house to find that
her gate was locked. Next door, her
neighbor, a middle-aged black
woman, was grilling some chicken on
her grill, so we went over to her
to see if she knew if her neighbor
was home, or when she would be
back. She was really nice, and we
started explaining to her what we do
as missionaries. We're just
standing at the fence, with Elder Perez to
my left, kind of resting his arms
on the fence in front of him.
About 3 minutes into the
conversation, I see in the peripheral vision
of my left eye a black man getting
really close to us. As I turn my
head to look at him, there is a
huge black guy, probably in his mid
30's, right behind Elder Perez,
with his arm fully extended back. In
that moment, slow motion seemed to
take effect as I watched this man,
with an open palm, sock Elder Perez
in the back of the head with all
his strength. After the hit, Elder
Perez grabbed his own head in a
dizzied, confused state, and fell
backwards onto the ground, just as
you see on boxing or UFC fighting
when someone gets knocked out. That
sort of slow, stumbled fall
backwards. As he fell back, I'm pretty
sure I ran over and caught him
before he got on the ground, but
honestly I can't remember that
moment too well cause it was all a
blur.
The black man was just swearing,
yelling, and pointing his fingers at
us as his girlfriend in the yard
yelled at him, screaming at him that
we were missionaries. I just kind
of knelt on the ground, holding
Elder Perez, as I braced myself for
a possible other hit.
Luckily it didn't come. The guy was
drunk. We didn't retaliate or
anything. Just kind of took it
without any sort of rebuttal. Elder
Perez took it really well, and it
didn't actually leave any permanent
damage. He actually got up a minute
later and contacted someone on the
street like nothing happened. It
was crazy. Stinkin crazy.
Pomona kinda crazy. Nah, mostly
just people are crazy. That's the
lesson today kids: people are
crazy. Don't forget it.
Elder Merrill
Dear home,
I sent a bit of what I meant to send
off this week to Jakob, so please
ask him for it and you'll see.
Well, it has been a pretty great past
week and half. I definitely
ended up pretty tired, but going to
the Temple was worth it! It felt
like I hadn't been there in forever!
Luis is getting ready for his baptism
this week. He called us last
night telling us he feels a bit
underqualified to be baptized this
week. Even though he is doing
awesome! We told him we'd pray about it
and invited him to do the same.
Unanimously, we felt this morning
after the temple, very strongly, that
he is more than prepared. Now we
are just waiting on his follow up
tonight. We have had some great
lessons with him recently. He has
been making so many great changes
and has such great desires to be
better, it is awesome. We are really
excited to get him the priesthood and
have him come out with us on
lessons and such. Please pray for
him!
We've been having some great miracles
come lately. On the day we were
on exchanges in our area with elder
Barnes (and about 10 minutes after
the experience I told jakob), elder
Barnes (exchanger) and I contacted
this awesome lady named Delfina while
elder merrill was on the phone.
She is a really humble lady. We set
up an appointment for the next day
and we got to meet her son, Fabian.
Fabian is an 18 year old that is a
bit deep in drugs, but is ready to
make changes in his life. He too,
is a very humble guy. We invited them
to be baptized at the end of
November and they willingly accepted
it. And to put the cherry on top,
they came to church two days after
initially meeting them! We are
really excited to keep it up.
Lately, we have been focusing a lot
more on less actives. President
Villanueva is making a big push for
it, so that is what we are doing.
One of the main ones we are working
with is Eduardo Dillerva (he is
the one in the picture where we are
eating tacos). He's been doing
great these past few months. He has
only missed church once in that
period of time and his testimony is
growing very strongly. The only
problem, is that he is living with
his wife unmarried... Long story,
but to keep it short, it had to do
with some legal things. Now we are
starting to shift to bring back the
rest of the family now that our
Peruvian friend is coming back
strong.
So, not really any complaints! Things
are going great. I got to go on
exchanges with elder Fellows in Boyle
heights, that was good to catch
up. But yeah!
Love you all!
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| Best Taco Place in Pomona!!! |
