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| Dinner with Lori Lang at a nice Italian Restaurant |
This week has been interesting. We have so many referrals from members to go and visit people. It was nice this week to have the car. We have to share it with another set of missionaries. So one week we have it and then the other week we don't. It is pretty rough to be honest. We have a pretty big area but it is nice to have the Calgary Transit even though it is super slow. Since we had the car we were able to contact quite a few people which was nice.
Probably the highlight of the week was when we went to visit Byron and Rebecca. Byron is an eternagator, which means that he has been being taught for a long time. I think that he has actually been being taught for 3 years. Rebecca is his wife and she is a member who comes to church every so often. Rebecca, I had met a few days before, when we stopped by to set up an appointment with them. As soon as we walked in the home it was like walking into a brick wall of smoke. I really hate the smell of smoke. We helped her carry up some thinks from her basement to the big garbage bin outside. She was very grateful. As we were taking her garbage out to the dump there were a group of black people outside and one of the younger ladies, maybe in her 20's, asked me if we were J-dubs and I kinda laughed and said no we're not. And then she asked, "Are you mormons?" and I then said, "Yes we are" and she said, "Aw man I love you guys." I was able to talk to her a bit and found out that she was being taught a while back and isn't too interested in us teaching her right now but wants to sing in the choir over Christmas so I gave her a card and she said that she was going to call us, she hasn't yet but we will see. We got an appointment which happened to be yesterday.
We went over and started talking to them. They are both heavy smokers, each smoking about 2 and a half packs a day. Elder Crawley and I started reviewing what he and his companion had taught him last time which was the Plan of Salvation. And I kept getting a feeling that I should talk about their smoking problem which is why Byron hasn't been baptized yet. I felt that it would be super disturbing to them to ask them about it after only seeing Rebecca once and never talking to Byron, but I decided to ask them about it. After talking a bit about the CK (Celestial Kingdom) and Byron telling us that he wants to go there and to be sealed with his wife in the temple. It somehow got on the topic of them smoking. I asked them, "I don't want to be rude or anything but how many packs of smoke do you smoke in a day?" They then told us that they each smoke 2 and a half packs a day. I asked them, "Do you think that you could ever stop smoking?" Right away Rebecca said, "no, no way I can stop smoking." Byron was kinda hesitant but said that he thinks that he probably could. I told them of a quote that I really like that if you believe that you can you are already 90 percent there, and with the Lords help anything is possible. Byron said, "You know we could stop smoking, it costs a little over 10 bucks to buy a pack if we stopped we would be able to go on a vacation in a couple of months." That gave Rebecca motivation to stop. We then started talking about goals with them and they decided that they would cut out one cigarette a day. They are going to be starting on November first. If all goes well their last cigarette will be on November 30. I told them that for me, I like to write my goals down and put it somewhere that I can see it so that it can be a reminder. I pulled out a piece of paper out of my bag and Rebecca wrote down their goal, I got them to both sign it which was pretty funny and then to put it as the background on their cell phones. Rebecca also put the paper on their fridge. I then encouraged them to tell God their goal and to ask for his help and that we would be praying for them as well. Byron said the closing prayer and asked for help. It was really cool to see their thoughts change over the course of the time we were with them. They went from thinking that they couldn't stop smoking to believing in themselves that they really could stop.
Yesterday we also got a call from our Zone Leaders about this person who needed help unpacking from a move. They moved from down town which was in our area to the other side of our area. The people moving was Robby, and Swan. They had just recently been married. They are East Indian. Robby's Mom has actually been being taught by the zone leaders and is going to join after she gets through her divorce. She is going to tell us more about it but she said that it was a planned marriage and that she only stayed with her family because of her kids. We were able to help them a bit. Swan is really interested in us teaching her and Robby but by the sound of it Robby might not be too interested so we will have to see what happens there. Robby's mom gave us some curry soup stuff which is pretty good and also some indian dessert bar things. It was really good. Sorry I wish that I could write more but I am running out of time.
The work is going great we have been super busy. I am finally starting to get to know some people after only being here for a week and a half.
Well I hope that you all have great week I love you guys!
Love, Elder Allred
