Missionary Wednesday

Here is the next update in Elders Fields' adventure as a missionary.

Dear family and Friends
This week was loaded down with activity just like last week. Last week in an email Elder B. told the Mission President that if he kept our companionship the same, and let him stay one more transfer with Elder H.; that in that time he could get him 10 baptisms. The Pres immediately replied that his request was granted and all I can say is we had better work very hard so Elder B. can deliver on that promise.
Last week I also did something that missionaries in this mission sometimes do that I have never done before. Wednesday and Thursday night we attended non-LDS church services. Wednesday we went to the Pentecostal church; a church that I had never even heard of before until I came out here. They are very big in the Chicago area but I don’t know about everywhere else. This church was all black; we were the only white people there. It was also very loud with random shouts of joy during the pastors’ sermon. The people there were very friendly but even so, I don’t think I will be going back. I caught a small portion of his speech where he admitted that he didn’t have the power or authority of Christ but he quickly covered that by saying you didn’t need it as long as you followed Christ and did his will.
Thursday night we attended another church, ‘God’s House of Prayer’. This was a small hole-in-the-wall church that looked run down and had very few people there. I don’t think this one extends beyond the local area. These people were also very nice to us and even let us say a few words. In both of these churches I thought it would be easier to pick out the bits of truth among all the falsehoods, but it was actually the other way around. They were both very convincing and now I see how people can be so confused. Another thing about these churches is that just like how some of the doctrines are confused and twisted it’s the same way with the spirit. Our spirit does not reside there but they do have a twisted form of the spirit that to the untrained mind and heart could appear to be the real thing. But the feeling I got there was that it was way wrong even though they were trying to be on the right path. The second congregation was very small but they invited us back and we plan on teaching them all about the restoration. It should be fun to see how that goes.
Sunday we actually got an investigator to church! She liked it and is currently working on quitting smoking. Once she does that a baptism won’t be far behind. After church we went to the south-side Irish St. Patrick’s day parade. This holiday is very big out here, almost like Christmas. Never before have I ever been surrounded be so much degradation, drunkards and filth. The parade wasn’t even that good. We had planned on maybe teaching a lesson or two in the crowd but nobody was sensible or sober enough to really listen and pay attention. Instead we just handed out a few hundred pass along cards and taught mini-lessons about what was on the cards. We figure once the people sober up a bit, the calls will come in and we can teach the elect who would be willing to change their ways. The parade wasn’t that bad actually and the pass-along card thing made it worth going to. Sunday night we checked out our numbers for the district and discovered that we all did flat out amazing. Unfortunately these last two weeks of absolute hard work took a toll and we had a slow start on Monday. Once we got out we started feeling better.
Tuesday night we had a district activity because transfers are coming and we needed a reward for all our hard work. The transfer call came and our trio is staying the same, just as President R. promised. The zone leaders are staying; Elder T. form another area has completed his mission and is going home. Elder K. will be training and new missionary! That’s awesome, this means that I’m not the greenie anymore in the zone and now it’s my turn to have some fun. Hopefully the new greenie will be cool and not a hassle. Sister B is staying and Sister P is leaving, she will be missed, but her replacement, Sister Cl is another sister missionary I flew in with, so she’s cool.
Today we went to Sister C’s again. We talked about how during the time of Christ people only lived for 22-28 years(Editors Note: With some help from Yellow M&M, we found out that the mortality rate is a little skewed due to infants dying young, and that Josephus documented that many lived to their forties and some to the age of 100), so their old and ancient men, and priests, were actually very young by our standards. The second thing was that in the law of polygamy, when it’s allowed, a man can’t just divorce a wife, he has to get permission from all the other wives and they all must dismiss her from the household. Luckily we don’t have to worry about this anymore. 3. When they built the tower of Babble, the Lord wasn’t upset and destroyed the tower just because of that. He was mad because it was actually a form of the temple and they were trying to establish a false priesthood, that’s why he destroyed it.
I am staying in Beverly for at least 6 more weeks with a cool district. I look forward to this next transfer; I will hopefully get some baptisms here soon.

Love Elder Fields.