March 30, 1988
On Thursday, we gave a short Book of Mormon presentation to Leslie down on Corina. Unfortunately, we did not have a marked copy of the Book of Mormon with us, so we will have to drop one by tomorrow. I don’t know why we went all the way down there only to give her a short presentation instead of taking a little bit longer and teaching the first discussion.
On Friday, we tried to see one contact, but he was not at home. Transfers are next week, and my trainer is convinced that he is out of here. I guess that explains why the work has fallen off.
The Menlo Park Stake had its conference this weekend. After the adult session on Saturday night, our ward mission leader, as he was driving us home, said that he wanted to take us out for pie. As we were trying to think of a place to go for pie, our WML said that he had been craving Chinese food all night, then he mentioned a place called Chinese Delight, which he said his car automatically goes to everyday, and then he goes from there. Moments later we were pulling into the parking lot and we all said "What the heck, let's do it."
Earlier in the day, Elder Golf and I rode all over our area -- some elders, a long time ago, divided the area into five subdivisions, and we went to all five -- dropping off thank you notes and trying to see contacts. Additionally, we hopped the zone boundary to visit Golf's aunt in Mountain View.
On Sunday, we had the general session of stake conference at the Menlo Park chapel. President Douglas was in attendance and was asked to bear his testimony. Afterward we attended a baptism for a family of five. The lucky missionaries were Elders Victor and November. The whole thing was beautiful and the spirit was so strong. It fired me up so that I can’t wait until my first baptism, even more than before. That strengthened my determination to work hard.
This area has been dead since October. Golf and I have not worked very hard these past two months. I wonder how hard he worked with his previous companions. If we had worked harder and given it our all, while living the mission rules, we might have had success. But we did not give it our all and our Father in Heaven did not give us all his blessings. If Golf is transferred, I hope my new companion will be a hard worker, one that will give his all so that we can breathe life back into this area.
On Monday morning, Elders Golf and Lima had a minor bike accident. They were riding down Hamilton Avenue, which parallels University Avenue, when they saw two guys point at them and start running after them. Golf and Lima sped up to make their escape by turning right onto Hale Avenue. Golf was in the lead and was hugging the curb; he saw the cause of his demise at the last second.
At the corners of many streets in Palo Alto the sidewalk is flush with the street and underneath is a drainage culvert. Golf saw too late that he had hugged the curb too tightly, he tried to turn away but he was out of room, so he smashed into lip of the sidewalk. His back wheel flipped up and he walked his bike four steps before Lima smashed into him from behind.
Lima had heard the noise of Golf’s collision with the culvert and he thought, “No, he’s not dumb enough to hit that.” Alas, they both fell in a heap, fortunately for Golf, his arm kept his face from hitting the pavement. Neither suffered any major injuries, just bumps and bruises, their bikes, on the other hand, were not so fortunate. Golf's front rim, which struck the culvert head on, was bent inward, a total loss; Lima’s front forks were bent out of shape. As they lay twisted on the ground, a police car pulled up and the officer asked if they were okay. Their pursuers were nowhere in sight.
Meanwhile, back at the flat, I was passing off the fourth discussion to Elder Fox. Elders Victor and November came down later and November and I passed off the fifth and sixth discussions. Tonight we went over to our ward mission leader's home and they invited us to stay for dinner. We earned our keep by teaching family home evening after dinner.
On Tuesday morning, we went to see two of our contacts, Todd and Lloyd, but neither were at home. In the afternoon, I went with Elder Fox to see one of their contacts who had become one of ours with the ward boundary changes. Nicholas had some questions about baptism, as taught in the second discussion; he thinks a lot and seems to be teachable.
Transfer calls came around noon. Elder Golf is finally getting out of here; all week he has been impatient to move on. Elder Fox is going as well; he has been called to be a zone leader in Los Gatos -- couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
Last night my companion got a call from his trainer. I was in the other room, but I could not help but overhear some of what was said. It was no surprise to hear that he was happy to be leaving, but then he said that his last two months here had been a joke. Yeah, that might explain why we haven't been working all that hard. That really got to me, that he would consider my training period to be a joke. I don't think my companion ever really accepted my quiet personality. I love the guy, but what a jerk.
I'm sorry, I never wanted to write negative things about my companions, but, wow! When I wrote in my journal last night, I had been in a mood to be magnanimous. I admit that I am feeling less so today.
For the transfer, we drove Elders Golf and Fox up to Edgewood chapel in Redwood City to meet the transfer van. This mission is small enough geographically that the mission mechanics can pick the elders up at different points in the mission and take them to other points to meet their new companions. Golf and Fox would ride in the van, which was pulling a trailer with their luggage, south to the next zone. My new companion got out of the van after riding south from San Fransisco (the City).
Elder Lima's new companion was not on the transfer van as he is actually being transferred in from the Fresno mission. He was recently diagnosed with cancer and will be getting radiation treatments at the Stanford Medical Center. We took my new comp, Elder Lake [as usual, names have been changed to protect the innocent -- it may have been obvious that I have been using the phonetic alphabet, but I couldn't have two Elder Limas] back to the flat so he could unpack, then we went to get a pizza before returning to Edgewood chapel to pick up Elder Lima's new comp.
When we got the pizza I noticed that Golf had left a note in my wallet reminding me that I still owed him a few bucks from a previous pizza purchase -- I had also found a note in my closet. I was surprised that he hadn't talked to me personally. There were a few times during the last two months that he gave me the "silent treatment"; I guess he wanted to see how I would like it -- it was not a particularly effective approach.
Enough about my trainer. I've got a new comp, who seems like a good guy, and a chance to start over. Life is good.
--
As I wrote a few weeks ago, around Christmas time I got a card from my trainer in which he thanked me for everything he learned during our two months together, and also that we sat together at lunch during the mission Christmas conference. To this day we are still friends. I want to add that, during those two months, he was sick a lot, so the lack of hard work was not all the result of his attitude at the time. After few weeks in his new area he had another bike accident, this time it was because he simply passed out while riding. It appeared that he was dealing with some persistent virus -- like Mono, or something. A few years after my mission I had a case of Mono that left me feeling fatigued for 15 months, so I can imagine what he might have been struggling with.
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April 6, 1988
This has been an interesting week. On Thursday and Friday, we worked hard; we went around and checked on some part-member families, finding almost no one home, so we did some serious phone contacting Friday night. We were able to set up a few appointments.
On Saturday and Sunday, we attended General Conference at the stake center. Sitting in the chapel, dressed in Sunday best, made conference so much more special.
On Monday, we went on team-ups with the elders in Menlo Park -- actually, we went over to the Stanford bookstore before going up to the top of Hoover Tower and then visiting the Memorial Church. We did find someone to chat with about the church, so my new comp is calling it pros-time [proselyting time]. I thought it was a waste.
We had a spiritual experience on Tuesday. When I picked the streets we were going to tract, I prayed that the Spirit would guide me in my choices; I prayed that I would pick the streets that Heavenly Father wanted me to pick, a street where one of his sheep was ready for us to stop by. After much prayer and consideration, I picked two streets and we headed out the door.
We stopped at the first street I had picked and locked up our bikes. There was no interest at the first door, no one home at the second, but at the third this teenage girl answered. Elder Lake gave the approach, "We're sharing a message about Jesus Christ today and if you have 15-20 minutes, we were wondering if we could come in and share that message with you?" The girl replied, "Uh . . . yeah . . . I guess."
So in we went, and we taught most of the first discussion. We talked mainly about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. The girl seemed to be interested in what we had to say, but she said that she would have to talk to her parents about it first. We had a closing prayer and gave her a pamphlet dealing with our Heavenly Father's plan for us, as well as a copy of the Book of Mormon.
We finished tracting that street, but no one else who was at home was interested. We then went back to the flat for lunch. But that is the only way to tract, by the Spirit.
After lunch, we went to see Leslie down on Corina. We talked with her and gave her (finally!) a copy of the Book of Mormon. Then we went and tracted the second street I had picked that morning. That street didn't turn out as well as the first; we ran into a born-again Christian and had a near-bashing situation. After that we went to see Lloyd; he was at home and we were able to commit him to hearing a discussion of Friday. Things may be looking up.
This morning we went and played basketball at the stake center. We had a few serious, physical games; I ended up on the floor a few times and banged up my left leg a bit. After basketball, we went over to the Menlo Park apartment with Elders Whopper and November. As we were sitting around, talking, there was a knock on the door. Some J-dubs had knocked on the landlord's door, and he brought them back to chat with us.
At first, we pretended to be Stanford students -- we were still in our sweats and street clothes. One of the other three elders, as part of our pretending, asked if they were Mormons; they said that they were not, of course, and then proceeded to rip on the church. They said that Mormons believed that Jesus was God and that Mormons believed in the Holy Trinity; they also said that Mormons did not believe in the Bible.
Going along with the ruse, for the moment, I pretended that I had talked with some Mormon missionaries recently and said that they had told me that they believed in God the Father, the Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. One of them interrupted me to say that Mormons believed no such thing and, in any case, God and the Holy Ghost are one and the same.
It was at this point that we confessed that we were, in fact, Mormon missionaries. I said that just yesterday, we had been out tracting and that I had had my Bible with me. The J-dubs said again that we didn't believe in the Bible. I picked up a copy of the Bible from a nearby table and turned to John 15:26:
"But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me."
One of the J-dubs, likely the senior of the two, countered by saying that God and the Holy Ghost are the same person and that the Spirit is only the force used by God. I flipped back to John 14:26:
"But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you" (emphasis added).
"Whom" would denote a separate person. The J-dub pulled our her New World Translation, which changed "whom" to "which". Now, I wasn't trying to bash, just present a scripture to support my beliefs [that's what I told myself, anyway]. I was trying to steer the discussion into the Joseph Smith story, but darn if they didn't keep on interrupting me. The other three elders, my comp included, were no help -- they were trying to bash.
A discussion of competing translations got us briefly back to John 14:26, but from there all control was lost. The senior J-dub continued to tell me that we didn't believe in the Bible, so I turned the copy I was holding so that she could see the spine, "See, The Holy Bible, King James Version." I said it three times!
Eventually, the J-dubs decided to leave, and as they did so they parted with: "When the day of destruction arrives and Jehovah is come, and you are destroyed, just remember, we warned you!" I shot right back, "And you just remember, we warned you." Sorry, I couldn't resist.
Then they ran into the landlord, who said to them that he once looked into the J-dub faith. Well, that got a reaction as they quickly condemned him to hell!
The whole experience was rather educational. First, there is just no talking to J-dubs and, second, love and sincerity is where it is at. Their whole attitude and approach were completely wrong, calling us to repentance and telling us over and over that we did not believe what we said we believed. That's just not how you spread a message, whether you're a J-dub or an LDS missionary [you cannot antagonize and influence at the same time]. Instead, you should use love and sincerity. We do not have the power to prove our words, that is the job of the Holy Ghost (may the Force be with you!). If your message is truly from God, then you have no need to tear down the other person's beliefs.
After all the excitement, the landlord, a member, took the four of us on a drive to San Gregorio Beach, on the Pacific side of the peninsula. I love the ocean.
As I said, it was an interesting week.
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