Week 40: "Yeah, it would be hard to read...no pictures."

March 17, 2014

Well, it's that time of the week again. Where does the time go? I literally just asked my companion what we even did last week. Not that we didn't do much, but I feel like the week ended before it even began. So goes life. I better not blink, because when I open my eyes, my mission might be over. Woah.

So, the fantastic weather from last week hasn't remained SO perfect, but it's still nice. Literally, right after I finished my email last week, it dropped like 6 degrees Celsius. I walked outside in basketball shorts and a t-shirt (we'd played frisbee earlier in the day), and I was the only one outside in shorts. In fact, I was the only one without a coat on. I looked like a goon. But hey -- it was good while it lasted. Now, we really do have early spring weather. I won't complain.

Last  Wednesday, we were teaching some of our investigators. They're a younger couple from Poland, and they are total homies. Anyway, the husband was telling us how the Book of Mormon is a little hard to read, unlike their son's children's Bible. Somehow I couldn't restrain myself and responded, "yeah, it would be hard to read. No pictures, you know?" Fortunately, we all enjoyed a good laugh about it, and no feelings were hurt. I still can't believe that that slipped out.

On Saturday, I was on exchanges in Hilversum with a greenie, Elder Clement. He's been here for about three weeks, a little more. We decided that we wanted to spice up our finding that day, so we decided to use a few creative questions amongst the many that had been suggested by the APs. We walk up to the first guy -- "hey, why do you think that the freedom of choice is important?" He responds... "I don't know. I'm kind of fried, not in a state to answer that, you know?" Then we realized that he was a little high. Well, on to the next...

"Hey, excuse me, quick question -- why is love so important?" The younger man and woman we asked responded with typical answers -- because it helps you feel wanted, it leads you to do good things for others, etc.. Eventually, we discovered that the young couple wasn't actually a couple. We spent a little bit of time convincing them that we weren't trying to be matchmakers, but that we were actually just volunteers from our church.

Walking up to the guy in line for the ATM... "Excuse me -- yeah, my companion and I are here in the centrum today asking questions, and we'd like to ask -- what would you do if you found yourself in a room without light?" "Well, I'd probably just go to sleep." Well played, my friend. That's probably the same exact way that I would respond.

"Hey man, can I ask you something? How do you know if someone loves you?" "Well, you can feel it. The way they act. They're happier around you. They're willing to help you out when you need it; they're always there." Sweet. Perfect let-in. We had a nice little conversation, but this cool cat didn't want to share his information. He asked for a pamphlet, then left, saying, in English, "just spread the love, sexy!" Will do.

I gotta roll. But, it's been a really good week. Not a special week, or so exciting. But, a good week of missionary work. Keep it real, and keep spreading the love. Until next week.

--Elder Bonney