Mid-March Email

Hi hi!

We've had an okay week this week. We met a lot of new people knocking on doors last week but when we went back this week to see them, very few have been in at the time they said they would be or are willing to talk to us or anything. So that was a little disappointing but it's alright, we just keep working. 

We met a lot of people this week who are completely against the idea of God. Atheists. Actually there was one guy who we met last week who's a retired High School Science teacher named Kevin, who now lives alone and likes to travel and hike, who lives up in a little town North of Ilkley called Addingham. Anyways this guy invited us to come back and see him on Thursday, so we took an hour long bus ride out to go see him. We had a really long discussion where we basically explained the restoration in as much detail as we could to him, but he still struggles with the whole concept of God. He can't believe that there is an all powerful creator. 

A lot of people this week have been presenting to us that same argument! On Saturday we were knocking on doors again in Otley and one guy talked to us on his doorstep for like a whole hour. He was another older retired guy who was really smart and a science guy again. We tried to explain how we know that God exists and how the Book of Mormon is true because we've felt the Holy Ghost touch our hearts - but when you try to explain it to some people, their argument is always that thoughts and feelings only come from you, not from God - and there really is nothing you can say to these people to convince them that what you've felt is really divine inspiration, because they just laugh. 

But just like I said a few weeks ago - these experiences only work to actually strengthen my faith and belief in God. Somehow people telling me that I'm wrong only allows me to understand more about how right I am. I've also seen that anybody who actually tries it out - who actually has an open heart and a sincere desire to know the TRUTH - anybody who reads the book of mormon and prays to know if it is true will receive an answer that IT IS! Because it is! Because it's true! Joseph Smith really was called to be the prophet of the Restoration! God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him in the Spring of 1820 in a grove of trees and he in due time was led to find and translate the ancient record of The Book of Mormon. It actually happened. It had to happen. It was divinely appointed to happen before the foundation of the world. It is true! And all any of us need to do to find that out is to read it and pray about it! God will make the TRUTH of it manifest to ANYONE who asks sincerely. That I know, and that I promise. 

Anyways yesterday Elder McBride and I taught Gospel Principles and Young Men's. Both classes we taught a really similar concept. The Gospel Principles was about charity - and we talked all about how doing things out of love for others doesn't ever make sense logically. Take for example the parable of the Good Samaritan. He gained nothing from helping the poor man, and logically it was not a smart decision, but he did it. WE discussed how charity comes from the heart, how in order to become like God is (perfect: 3 Nephi 12:48) we need to learn how to have charity, and make decisions from our heart. Our decision making process needs to involve empathy. It was a great lesson. Then we taught the young men about the atonement, well repentance really and how we need to experience a change of heart like Alma. IT's funny because changing our hearts is what President Pilkington mainly focused on in the last zone conference.

Oh also this week we had a zone training and the AP's instructed. They talked about the Titanic funny enough. They talked about how if the Titanic had hit the iceberg head on, it would not have sunk. But the captain, like anybody would, instinctively tried to swerve around it and the iceberg sideswiped the ship and actually hit it at its most vulnerable point. They talked about how the iceberg represents concerns that an investigator has, and that as missionaries our natural instinct is to push their concerns aside, but what we need to do is hit them head on.

Anyways I have some good pictures to send. I hope you guys have a good week!

Elder Thompson

The weather was warm enough one day to not wear a coat

A house we knocked on (they weren't in)

Gathering the lost sheep

We've been finding a lot of these really old parish churches and checking them out. Actually we went in one Anglican church this week and talked to the vicker for a long time it was really cool

Sheep and lambs. I took this picture while we were standing at the bus stop in Addingham. Right across the road were these sheep

Creepy cat and creepy elder