One day this week I was on an exchange with Elder Naumov, one of the Mission President's Assistants. When a morning lesson fell through with an inactive member we got the great idea to contact and invite people to English club and to know more about our message all the way to the Church. We were something like 6 miles from the Church...and after two hours of walking and talking to people I was pretty well beat. My favorite part was that when we got to the Church, Elder Papok informed us that he'd just set up a lesson with a member, about a kilometer from where we had started that morning. Needless to say, we took a bus.
While I was on that long trek to the Church that morning, I realized just how many people there are to talk to. So many times we stand on a corner and look one way and say "there isn't really anyone there" then we look another way and say "that isn't going to be much better," when all we really need to do is start walking. When you walk the Lord can direct your steps and lead you to where he wants you to go. When you simply stand still not a lot happens. When we open our mouths the Lord fills it.
We also had a kind of interesting contacting experience last night. After walking with Elder Papok for a long time, meeting some nice old JW women, but seeing really little success we ran into an...acquaintance of ours. A man who goes to Church regularly, but no one really knows where he came from or who he is. Sometimes he hisses at people or causes little problems, but he just keeps showing up every week and we aren't really sure what to do with him. Well we met him on the street and he decided to go contacting with us. He said "I'll walk with you as far as the bridge." We thought he meant the big bridge they're building across the bay to center, but we weren't going anywhere close to that bridge. We tried to explain that to him, but I guess he meant a figurative bridge instead. So here we are trying to meet people who might be interested in English club or in the Church, but we have this half-way crazy 3rd wheel.
Needless to say it made for a very interesting experience. We kind of ended up taking turns distracting him while the other would talk to people on the street. In the end though we just let him stand with us and he would point out where the Church is on a map so that people would know where to go...his idea. We met some cool people though and it actually wasn't too crazy, he didn't even hiss at anybody. Who'd o' thunk that the crazy guy in the back of the room would turn out to be a missionary? Not me. Oh well, good times.
Crazy situations just find me. A lady at English club this week came up to me after we ended and said "Elder Fife, I have a proposal for you." When I hear the words "I have a proposal" I automatically am worried that something really sketchy is going to follow. Sure enough she invited me to take two weeks off of my mission to teach English in a local school. Well, as fun as that sounded, after much thought I turned down the job offer and decided to stay a missionary. Tough choice right? The kids would probably think I'm boring anyway.
Well those are just a few of my interesting stories from this week. No real connection or theme, but I hope there's someone, somewhere, who gets a laugh out of the ridiculousness of the life that I live. Sometimes I forget that my life was always pretty crazy, but it's just who I am I guess.
Have a great week.
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Elder Fife
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