This last transfer was super super good. Sorry its been awhile since i wrote, so this email encompasses the whole last transfer. I learned that I'm being transfered to Odessa for my last 2 transfers in the mission. This area in Canyon has been my toughest for sure. I've never been rejected, cussed at, yelled at, kicked out, targeted, and had food thrown at me more in my life than here in this area. Especially the last 6 weeks. Their are a lot of Christians here who are VERY firm in their ways. But I learned a lot about how much God loves effort and faith, rather than outward results of success.
We had a really cool experience the other week. So the other week we were walking in a neighborhood and we felt really prompted to knock on this door. We knocked and we met Manuella and George. They instantly invited us into their home and we just got to know them. Then without us saying anything, Manuella said "I must come to church with you." That was 3 weeks ago. And she's come twice in the last 3 weeks. She loves it. This last Sunday she even brought a friend to church, because she's struggling in her marriage, and Manuella told her she needs our church.
Anyway, this last week we taught her and George about The Book of Mormon. They loved what we shared and the spirit was so strong. George is 92, and he said he would never read it though because he hates reading. He doesn't even read text messages haha. But we went back over 2 days later, and he had read from the Introduction to 1 Nephi 13!! Then by Sunday he had read even more! He can't put it down, it's so cool. Manuella and George have sadly moved to Georgia, but they're already working with the missionaries down there! I'm super excited for them.
I went on exchanges with Elder Regen down to Lubbock. It was super fun, especially because it's my old area. We got to go to Texas Tech and we found like 4 people as we were there. The coolest was a guy who claimed to be an atheist. He shared his reasoning as to why he doesn't believe in God, and then we shared why we believe in God and Jesus Christ. He explained his outlook on life and it was very sad, he said he just lives his life to the fullest and then when he dies it'll be the end. And he also said he views Christ Atonement as unfair, almost like Christ paid our price and is now holding it over our heads and requiring us to do things. He said he didn't ask for Christ to do that for him.
We gave him a scenario, I said imagine if you were in a white room where everyone was dressed in white and everything was perfectly clean and pure, and then you came in covered in mud and started hugging people and sitting on the couch spreading your mud stains everywhere. Would you feel comfortable? He said no not at all. Then we explained that we are all muddy, and cannot clean ourselves. Christ paid the price to clean us. As we follow Him we are cleaned, and we will be comfortable with our Father in Heaven. We were able to testify that he is a son of God. He suddenly became super interested and asked if he could read The Book of Mormon and for us to explain it to him! He said he'd never heard of a relationship with Christ that made sense in that way. Super cool!
Our area has been super slow recently. We've been really struggling to help what friends we do have progress, and to find new friends. We've been praying and praying and working and working some more. Finally this week we saw some fruits from our efforts! While walking and knocking doors on Saturday we found 5 potential People to teach, and one of those people has a family we are going to try and teach. One of the ladies we knocked on said she was just praying the night before for a new church to attend in Canyon! Such a cool little miracle. Please pray for Olivia, Joseph, Albert, Alvin, Margarita, Amy and Brad!
Had kind of a crazy xperience, our recent convert Melvyn got scammed by his online girlfriend. He met her on Facebook and then 3 days later sent her 300 dollars to come visit him, then another 300 dollars a couple days later. Poor guy doesn't know what scammers are. After talking a lot with melvyn, we learned he is struggling a lot with depression. He told us he doesn't want to go on anymore. We've had some powerful lessons trying to help him find joy in his life. Please pray for Melvyn!
Anyways, there was a lot that happened this last transfer, but these bits were the highlights. Love yall! Talk to ya next week!
Love, Elder Ryan
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