Week 62- October 22, 2014- Pomona

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!

Best Taco Place in Pomona!!!