Week 5--Music makes the spirit go around

  Monday:

On Monday It was my birthday and I had a great day. I got to buy a couple awesome but inexpensive ties, I got to see pictures and read e-mails from friends and family, so many things. One of those ties was 100% cotton floral. :)  I also  got to write some piano music. I'm really liking how it sounds and I'm going to keep making it evolve into something cool. When we went grocery shopping today I bought a deep n' delicious cake. My favourite. Late in the day I got a package slip for something from my family. That was really exciting and I didn't know what to expect from it. I couldn't get it until the day after, however which was a bummer. That's cool, though. After we finished our P-Day we dropped by one of our investigators. We didn't get an answer at the door but we decided to go around and sure enough there was another door and they answered it. We haven't been able to meet very much with her, because of her economic situation and also trouble with government related stuff. We finally made it and had a lesson even though we only planned on a drop-by, we ended up talking about faith and things like that, because we didn't actually have a planned lesson or anything. She didn't have a Book Of Mormon with her as it was in storage, so we gave her one and encouraged her to continue to read and attend church. Afterwards we went to a certain neighbourhood. It's a neighbourhood we decided to go to the day before based on the promptings we got, but ultimately decided the daytime would be a better time to go by. We did meet someone, but he just wasn't interested.

      Tuesday:

On Tuesday, right after lunch we headed out to start tracting. We went to the area we had "previously designed to go" :P and we started knocking the doors. Some were accepting those Easter video cards, some were uninterested, and this one strong Catholic guy was really interested in poking jabs at us, but we told him about the Book Of Mormon and shared our testimony and he was kind of taken aback and said he'd read it. Along the way we saw a lady whom we went over and talked to. She said she has talked to missionaries before and has even gone to our church before but doesn't know about the Book Of Mormon! We set a time to meet with her in the week. Later that day, as we decided to head out for another drop-by, but there was a guy who we ended up talking to for a while and (though I was uncomfortably awaiting a washroom visit) we talked to him for a while and we set a return appointment for him too! We were pumped because that's two new investigators in an hour or so. "But that is not all," we waited at a bus stop where we waited a very long time (still waiting to use the bathroom) and my companion starts talking to this guy. I also remember seeing him before. They talked on the bus, and set up a return appointment! SO, today's going pretty great so far. It gets better, though. We went with Toronto Chinese missionaries to our favourite restaurant!!!! haha it's such a great place to eat. Shortly before that I had picked up my birthday package which I got from my parents through the mail. As we waited for the others to show up, I opened it up and it was glorious. Candy, chocolate, subway card, and a letter, then the missionary pillowcase with actual good bedsheets and more things written for me! There were even cookies my mom made which were so well done! This day was amazing. We showed up to help with ESL at the beginning and did a little planning and stuff, then we headed out.

      Wednesday:

Wednesday was district meeting. We talked about a lot of important things to improve on, but most importantly there was: Our personal conversion each and every day, How effectively we study, and do we complain. Several people talked about these things in more depth and many ways we can effectively study. Those things are already making big differences in our missionary efforts. We had to say by memory Joseph Smith's experience (A short version used in the missionary pamphlets) and trade off with companion every word, back and forth, and the companionship who is fastest wins. The sisters won as always. I was with one of our zone leaders as my companion is the district leader and was leading the activity. You'd think he did amazing, but it was embarrassing haha. It must have taken us two minutes because of that and the sisters did it in 36 seconds. Afterwards we had lunch and make-up studies. We have to make up for any of the studies we didn't do in the morning for the first 12 weeks. When we were done that, we tried to visit the investigator we met with on Monday, but nobody was home. Later that night we met with a family we meet with regularly. His brother isn't a member and we've met with him, and we met with that brother's girlfriend this time, along with the family. She was really receptive but the coolest thing in that meeting was at the end. We shared the church's Easter video with them all, and that touched everyone in the room, and at the end the sweetest thing happened. The baby in the family pointed at the screen at the very end at the picture of Jesus and started screaming with joy for a couple minutes straight, almost screaming like, "Hey I know him!". It was the greatest thing to top of the night and we always leave that home with a great spiritual experience.

      Thursday:

This is the day I lost one of my missionary tags. We started this morning to plan for the week ahead of us, and we got a lot done. When we were done with planning We headed out to meet with one of the investigators we met on Tuesday. When we went to his apartment,  we realized we don't know his floor and room number and we didn't know it was going to be an apartment. We ended up heading out but we went back inside later and the lady who supervises the apartment building let us in and asked if we were soliciting or if we were visiting someone specific. We told her we were visiting someone specific who set a time to meet with us, and she actually helped us find the room number. We didn't expect that at all, but the Lord works in mysterious ways. We found out the room number and then he called back at a convenient time and we set a better time to meet. He said that he had been reading the things we gave him, and we were glad and we set a different time to meet with him. At lunch time we met with a non-member who has been talking to missionaries for a very very long time and he's a different religion with similar beliefs. He gave us food and we talked about different scriptures, and then he offered us a ride to our next appointment. The lady we went to visit was there but we didn't have another male member so we couldn't visit. We basically went in her doorway and as we start to explain the first vision, but there was a distraction. It was a long-distance phone call so we ended up leaving so she could continue it. That was alright though. We then did some things on a computer and as were were leaving to dinner, I realized I didn't have my tag on. It fell off in that guy's car from the seat belt. Now someone else is holding onto it for me and I'll get it back soon enough. Later that night we met with a returning member and we discussed the temple with her, and how she can get the recommends needed for those things. That was great, and we headed back after.

      Friday:

Today's mornings consisted of studies and travelling to do an exchange with the zone leaders. We got home and had some Kraft Dinner with hot dogs. Yum. After that, we went to meet again with that lady but the bus system was unexpectedly slow that day and we had to walk mostly. Because of how late we were, we again had nobody to go with us, because the guy who I invited to go left, and I don't blame him, we were half an hour late! We called the lady and asked how her reading is going, if there's anything we could do for her, and when we could meet again, we decided we'd call her and decide later. After that we got dinner at home, but it wasn't anything special. We're running out of food for this week. We had an appointment but we had to reschedule so we took our time eating and did some 12 week studies. After that, we had a meeting and talked about the different people we're teaching and how we can help them. We did that for a while and then we went home.

      Saturday:

Saturday morning was different from the rest, because the missionary I was exchanged with worked out the whole time without stops and encouraged me to do the same, and that's something I lacked on was working out for the whole half hour. I heeded him though and I worked out for the whole half hour. Then, we went to one of our meetings with a bunch of non-members. A lot of teaching opportunities and it was great. One of our regulars brought us egg-tarts!!!! I love egg-tarts. After that, we finished our exchange. We didn't have a lot planned for the day, because that still isn't one of my strong-suits. We did contact a few people. but not a ton got done that day when it came to appointments. For dinner, I made up some rice and cooked some ground beef with Thai curry sauce. It was really good and much to my surprise it tasted glorious after adding tomato soup into the rice.

      Sunday:

This was a great day. We started ward council and got to talk about how to help the people we're teaching even further, then we had church. None of our investigators showed up which was unfortunate but a less-active member who we met with once showed up and left afterwards. I hope he got something out of it. We did, however, see other people show up that had committed to go, which was good to see. They were new member and returning members. After church we got to participate in one of the new convert fathers being given the Melchizedek Priesthood. That was amazing and we talked to him briefly afterwards and set-up when we will meet next. Afterwards we had a dinner with a great married couple. They made an amazing dinner and they love the missionaries. They even gave us snacks and things to take home, and leftovers, and the husband joined us for a lesson afterwards. We went to meet with a guy who was a media referral. He actually requested to have a Book Of Mormon brought to him a year ago and the sister missionaries saw it and they decided to send the referral to us and we went and brought it to him, explained what it's all about, and we're gonna have a return appointment soon. The awesome thing was that he was still eager to learn and receive it, and we did the typical picture perfect visit of 15-20 minutes, explain some doctrine, extend commitments, and set a return appointment. 

I'll write more next week, so be sure to read it and send an e-mail if you want to talk more specifically or want to hear more and I'd be glad to e-mail back.

Love Elder Rodgers