A Week of Rejection

Hey Mom!

 

Well, this was probably one of the hardest weeks of the mission so far. We didn't have any appointments with nonmembers, and we only had 2 appointments with less-actives, which were pretty good. We met with the Meckel family on Monday and had a family home evening with them. It went well, and I think we were able to clear up a lot of concerns that might have been keeping them from coming back to church. We are going over there again tonight for another FHE, so hopefully it just keeps getting better. Our other appointment was with Lutz, who is a pretty interesting guy and is tough to get to church, but he has been coming to our branch activity every Tuesday, so hopefully he can keep progressing from there.

 

Other than those appointments and a member appointment with Sister Doerlitz, we just got rejected all week long. We couldn't get one person to stop and listen to us for more than 15 seconds. We also wanted to have faith to find people, and one of the first people we talked to all week was a lady who had to be at least 70. We just tried showing her a picture of Christ (giving the Sermon on the Mount) and she called me a piece of ____ (you can use your imagination). I tried to imagine any old lady in America being approached by someone with a picture of Christ, and I couldn't for one moment believe that someone like that could be so rude. It is really sad how closed off the people are here. We also went out with a white board with the question "What is Christianity?" on it just to try and get some reactions, and we did, but not the kind we were hoping for. The first guy we talked to was an atheist (no surprise there) and he was kind of being a smart alec, but then he said something that I didn't understand and all I said to him was that I was from America and did not understand what he said so would he repeat himself and he said "That's your problem, not mine," and then walked away. Another guy, after just trying to tell him we were from the church of Jesus Christ was like, "Wow I am really sorry for you guys, but I guess no one is perfect." Shortly after that, we were sitting on a bench and a really old guy and his wife were walking past, and literally all we said to him was "Guten Tag," and he walked about ten feet away, turned around, and said, "Is that all?" and then walked away. That was pretty much how the whole week went, those were just a few of the worst ones that really put a damper on the feel of the week. It was really hard, but I took comfort in the first few verses of D&C 58 during personal study the other day.

 

On a brighter note, we have been feeling that the coordination between the missionaries and the members really needs to get better, and then with the training meeting broadcast throughout the church being all about the missionaries and the members working together, our feelings were pretty much confirmed. We are kicking into overdrive so that we can get what few members we have to do missionary work the way it works for them, of course with our support. We hope that things begin to turn around here.

 

Well, that is all I have for this week. Hopefully this week will be a better one. I hope you all have a great one!

 

LG, Daniel