Saturday, March 29, 2014

Unbeatable Questions



So, one area that we work in a lot is a poorer area. And, being a poor area, the people love us even more, but they speak less English... in particular the little kids LOVE us, buuuuut they know virtually no English. Frankly, I speak more Spanish than they speak English, which isn't saying much! BUT, one phrase that they do know is "I love you!" So, whenever we walk through this part of this city we have tons of little kids come up to us and shout "I love you!" Do they know what that phrase means? Probably not. But, I think if you only know one phrase in English. "I love you" is probably one of the best things you could know! :)


Here's an observation I don't think I've shared with you before. So, in India, most people go to whatever church is closest to you. Kind of like everyone has a neighborhood church. Well, that concept holds true for every church out there. Everyone EXCEPT for Jesus Christ's church. We almost NEVER have people that live right by the church actually go to church.

Hmmm... why would this be??? Well, my theory is that (not to be rude) people that just go to the church that is closest to them are lazy Christians. Or, Sunday Mormons as we term them in the church. But Jesus Christ's church isn't for the weak. It's for those who are willing to devote EVERYTHING. So, if you are looking for an easy way to worship Christ, this church isn't the one for you. No matter HOW close you live to a church building. 

So, as a missionary, I like to give people "unbeatable questions" when I am trying to introduce them to the Gospel. Unbeatable in the fact that only illogical people would give an answer other than yes. To a Hindu I might say "We are sharing a message about how to have a happier life/strengthen your family. Would you like to be happier/have a stronger family?" Or to a Christian I might say "Would you like to learn more about our Savior Jesus Christ? Would you like to receive more blessings from God?" See what I mean? Pretty tough to say no to those kind of questions. 

And people DON'T say no! Instead, they just give a response that has no relevance to what I just asked. 

"We are sharing a message about how to have a happier life/strengthen your family. Would you like to be happier/have a stronger family?"
"Uhhhh... I'm Hindu"
I didn't ask what religion you are! 

"Would you like to learn more about our Savior Jesus Christ? Would you like to receive more blessings from God?"
"I'm already Roman Catholic."
Sigh.... I didn't ask you what church you go to.... 

Also interesting is that whenever we contact a Hindu, they tell us we should go and teach Christians, because Christians are the ones that are interested in learning about Jesus. But whenever we contact a Christian they tell us they already know about Jesus, so we should go teach Hindus that don't know anything about him.

Haha... People's illogical-ness is fairly frustrating for me, but I can only imagine how frustrating is for Heavenly Father when He hears His children say things like this. 

I always find it interesting when members tell me about the story of how the missionaries found/taught them. Two interesting stories are heard this week were from our branch president and a YSA guy in our branch. President Anthony told us that missionaries had been teaching him for 8 months, and they kept pushing him to be baptized, even though he didn't really want to. But, he didn't want to hurt their feelings. So, he got baptized anyways, hoping that would get the missionaries out of his life! haha :) Little did he know what would follow in his life...

Then the YSA guy told us how he didn't really want to get baptized that much either. In fact, he knew when his baptismal date was, and he knew he would be signing up for the military before that date came. But, the army rejected him, so he didn't leave for military training... so instead he got baptized! :)

Neither set of elders had any idea what was going on with their investigator. But that's okay, because God knew EXACTLY what was going on their lives. :)

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