November 15

Last Sunday: Elder Homes from the 70 came to our ward and talked. It was a great talk and he really focused on talking about how important the Holy Ghost is in our lives. We should always be striving to have the Holy Ghost with us. Elder Homes only speaks English, so he would say a line and then a translator would translate what he just said. Afterwards we shook his hand and thanked him.

Monday and Tuesday I felt pretty sick with the flu.  But by Thursday I felt a lot better. It's flu season here! 

Monday was a holiday here which I used to hate as a missionary because that just meant that everyone was getting wasted or partying in the streets and you can't even think because the music is so loud. But now holidays here are my favorite because it means that all the stores and businesses are closed so we have little to do and get to go teach way earlier and have a super great day of teaching and serving and finding awesome people to talk to and help! And I have found that here in the area that I am serving in is better on holidays than in Los Cocos because the people are more calm and not just in the streets drinking and stuff.

The other day we had a super intense lesson with a super intense person. He kind of just attacked us and asked us questions that were confusing and didn't make sense. He is pretty smart and knows the bible really well. But I'm afraid his ignorance will keep him from progressing. He doesn't seem willing to accept what we have to say about our beliefs or at least pray to know if what we are saying is true. It's just such a simple thing that so many people aren't willing to do and it keeps them from understanding something so important. We don't find very many people here though who actually really know the Bible or have lots of knowledge about religion. He is the kind of guy who you literally have to prove your point or answer with a scripture. And I am okay with that, no problem. But then he finds a way around the scripture to make it have another meaning or not apply. So it was just really frustrating with him because even the scriptures couldn't convince him. But I was thankful that he really tested us and our knowledge. There is definitely a lot of things we need to study and get better at explaining. And questions came up that I have never really had to think about or answer so I am thankful for that because that helps me get smarter and have to study a little harder, little more specific, and ultimately helps me get better. So the next time we go to teach him we are going to bring one of our members who knows the doctrine really well and establish our purpose for being there. We are not there to Bible bash or prove each other wrong. We are simply there to help him understand what we believe, why we believe the things we do, and give him the opportunity to find out for himself if this really is the only true church on the Earth with the fullness of the gospel. And if he continues to not accept to pray about what we say or at least try and understand us, we will say sorry we aren't coming back. Not because we don't like him or don't want to come back, but because there are so many other people who need our message and will be willing to do what we know to be the greatest way to find an answer which is pray and search the scriptures diligently for the answer. It's always sad dropping investigators but we don't have time to waste!

Well that's about it for now. Congrats to my cousin Ethan for getting home from being a G on his mission for the past two years and tearing it up! Atta boy.

ELDER GREER