Dear people of my acquaintance,
So this is my last week of my first transfer in the Great Kentucky Louisville Mission! I can't believe I've been out this long, and I've grown more than I ever would have expected. Street contacting is cake now! Elder Koenig is having me bike in front a lot so I can talk to people and get to know the streets better, and it is amazing how easy it is to strike up a conversation with someone about anything! Elder Koenig and I read something called the Riccardi Letter and it is amazing, I'll send it out soon! We took a lot from it and apply it to our work, and something we do is go out everyday thinking "Fear NO man!" When we go out with that attitude and we put a smile on our face, then doing this work becomes a 1000 times easier! We actually biked past this big burly guy mowing a lawn, and I looked at Elder Koenig and said, "Let's go talk to that guy" and he said," Lead the way!". So we went back and started talking to him and he's actually LDS! His name was Brother Peterson and he's this really big guy with tattoos all over his arms, with a bandana on, and you would have never expected him to be LDS! He's actually been missing a lot of church since he runs his own business and we told him where the church building is and invited him to come back and he said he'd try to make it to a sacrament meeting soon!
Friday was a bit rough. Almost Everything we had set up fell through and we were going to sit with a member and her non-member friends for the E-Town Homecoming parade when this guy on his cell phone waves us over. He asked us what "Gospel" means to us and we told him it means good news. He proceeded to start teaching us the good news in the understanding of his Baptist faith. The guy kept rambling on and on and I was starting to wonder when he would stop, when I saw why he was still runnin his mouth: his MINISTER walked up and joined in the "teaching". We came to realize that when this guy waved us over, he was on the phone with his minister telling him he was going to stall us so his minister could come talk to the Mormons; we got played!!! This minister hands us each a little booklet (which I later looked through and tore to shreds), shook our hands, and proceeded to give me the biggest waste of my time and the most false doctrine in one sitting I have ever had to deal with. It quickly turned into a Bible bash, my firs one, but Elder Koenig and I didn't participate. He barely left room for us to get a word in and he would not stop talking! Over the course of 45 minutes, he told me: I'm going to Hell, I'm being influenced by the devil and I'm doing his will, Joseph Smith was a false prophet and was of the devil, The Book of Mormon is the devil's book, there's nothing I can do to be saved, and I should turn away from this terrible faith. I finally had enough, bore witness to this man that we follow Jesus Christ and we will never stop preaching his gospel, and I walked away. That's what I should've done in the first place, and that's what you should do. The spirit is never present in a bible bash and it's a waste of time; the best thing you can do is bear your testimony and walk away without saying another word.
Despite that negative experience, the weekend made up for it. I got to be a part of something called the mini-MTC. It is a mulit-stake activity where 1-2 youth are paired up with a missionary and they get to live a day-and-a-half of the life of a missionary! It was so much fun to do role plays and to teach my boys about missionary work! We got to do morning studies together, hear an AWESOME lesson from President Brough, and go out an teach someone! It was truly humbling to see how much I've grown and know, but how far I still have to go.
I don't have a lot of time left, so if you have any questions and some free time, please feel free to shoot me an email! I'll end by saying what I wanted to say to that Baptist minister. There is NOTHING about this gospel or the work I am doing that leads others astray! Every day I wake up and wear the name of Jesus Christ over my heart until I put my head on my pillow and there is nothing else I'd rather be doing. I am a messenger and a servant to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, it is his work I do and it is his work I will continue to do until they put me 6 feet under! This church is His church, he loves us and wants nothing more than for us to bring ourselves and other unto Him. I will never deny this gospel, not for anyone nor anything. I go forth with the "voice of a trump" and someone will hear the gospel coming out of my mouth while I live and breathe. Don't ever forget that you are a child of God, don't ever forget what you are a part of, and don't you EVER forget what you are to be doing.
I love you all and I can't tell you enough how great my joy is to be going forth as a light in the darkness.
Shine forth,
Elder Crow
Family,
Unfortunately I'm out of time to email today, so I won't be able to personally email you all, but I just wanted to let you know that I love you all so much and I use you guys in a lot of my stories when talking to investigators. People are impressed by how much I care for my family and they don't even know the half of it! I love you all more than you can know and I hope all goes well for you! And tell Sister Hendrixson that I got to brag about her in Elders Quorum in church and I told everyone how amazing she is and how much I miss serving her!
Love you all,
Your missionary,
Elder Crow
p.s. I love my cutout, you can put me in the window so I can creep people out and confuse them! Elder Koenig thought it was weird though haha!
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