In Their Shoes...

     What does it feel like when two young men, for example Me and my companion, one 6'5'', and the other 5'10'' ha, walk up to you and start talking to you while you are on your front steps, sitting down. That is what I would really like to know, what are they thinking?   Or you see these two guys riding bikes and say, "hello, how are you," you know the usual greeting for pretty much everyone in Rochester, or just the head nod seems to do as well ha; But then you get curious and say to yourself, why are these two young men dressed so nicely, their white shirts and ties, sometimes matching ties even though we try to make sure that doesn't happen :) and also why they are riding around on bikes through all the neighborhoods being nice to everyone. You ask, "what are you two doing out here dressed like that and riding around." and we as missionaries tell them what our purpose is in doing what we do.

      So that was my thought from yesterday, what is going on in the mind of someone who doesn't know who we are and what are purpose is, and when they find out! I would love to know what they really think on the inside, but I really don't think that I will ever get that opportunity to know that, bummer :(   There was an instance yesterday when this happened. And I am very curious to keep a tab in my blog of what might happen just by a stranger saying hello to the missionaries.. through the blog I will try to keep an update on what I know of the progress of this person, and what can happen when you accidentally run into someone that is a friendly face. Will she ever want to learn more, maybe once, maybe none at all. Only time will tell, I guess I will just have to have some patience and see what happens.

     So this is how it happened.. We were visiting a recent convert on the other side of our area, and we start looking at our watches, which seem to be our enemies sometimes, and we are not sure how long it is going to take to get the the next appointment from where we are, because we have never ridden on bikes on that route. I tell my companion I think it will take like 30 minutes, and my companion thinks maybe an hour. So we meet in the middle with a compromise, 45 minutes it is. Off we go, and as we go we start to realize, wow! we really are getting there fast. Next thing we know, we are almost to our appointment, and it has only taken like 20 minutes to get there. To kill a little time because we are way way early, we decide to visit former investigators that we had written down earlier that morning. Of course none of them were home ha, but it was still worth the try. On we go to our appointment about 20 minutes early and knock on the door. No answer, this has happened before and we figure that he will be home a little bit later, and we will just wait on the porch. Straight across from us, the next door down, there is a college age women and a college age man sitting on the porch, Someone our age ha. We say the usual, "Hello, how are you," and he responds by asking, "Who we you." We tell him and he says that he really doesn't care for us, and bla bla bla. But the girl next to him who is at University of Rochester for a semester for a human body dissection ha, is nice and talks a little to us. Right as we are about to come a little closer and actually have a conversation instead of shouting from porch to porch, the door opens and our appointment decides to let us in now ha. So there goes our first meeting with the college kids that live next door. We have a good dinner with the member that we are visiting, Ghetto Burgers as

he calls them. And have a good discussion on Luke 24, and what happened after Jesus was

resurrected, and we are on our way out the door. Surprisingly enough, right as we are about to leave, the college girl, whom we will just call Samantha for now, comes out again. We say hello, again, the usual ha, and this time we are on our bikes and are right in front of her steps, so we can have a normal conversation, no shouting. We come to find out that she has a friend who is serving a foreign mission in Thailand, and that she won't get to see him for two years. And of course we hear 2 years, and go, "what, is your friend a Mormon!" She says, "Ya, and I won't see him for two years, I miss him." So the conversation goes on for a little while, and it is starting to get dark, so we tell her that we will be back in that area on Thursday, near the same time, and she said hopefully we will see you again.

     So that is the story, The life in the investigators shoes. This is where we cross paths with this person's life, and see in what way we might be able to bless her life with the gospel. She could have said nothing and let us pass by, but she didn't, and to think of all the times I just let things pass by astounds me. Never give up as a missionary at anytime in your life, young or old, you never know what will happen later. Maybe Samantha learned a little about the church from her friend before, but who knows. Maybe she was not interested then, but may be now, the only thing I can do is try to imagine myself in their shoes, and guess what she has the potential to do. Never Give up on someone that May receive the gospel at some point in their life, as a recent convert has told me that same day, "Never give up on the people you meet. The missionaries that first met me probably were really discourage all the time because I didn't make all the appointments, and I didn't listen that close all the time. But look at me now, They probably never would have guessed that I would end up where I am now now. Just never give up on your people.."