Meek and Gentle (and Guns too)

Watching General Conference as a missionary is incredible, because everything they say immediately applies to you, in seems. My favorite talk of conference was the one about meekness. The next day I studied meekness in the scriptures, and I found Matthew 11: 29. "Take my yoke upon you and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest to your souls." I love this scripture because I think one thing the Savior is saying is that when we learn about his character, about who he is and who he wants us to be--namely that what is required isn't flashy displays of intellect or incredible feats of talent or outgoingness or humor, but meekness and gentleness and willingness--then we find rest to our souls. This helps me a lot on days when I feel not quite enough.

Funny stories for the week:
I talked to two large, tough looking men on a bus. They actually started talking to me first--they were looking at my plaque and trying to see what it said, but the bus was too loud to hear each other very well. Luckily they got off at the same stop we did...and it was in an area I've never been in before, one that is potentially sketchy (just kidding, I'm really safe here...but you know...new areas...not a lot of people around...end of the bus line...can be a little scary). So they're all saying how we're a sect and so on, and then we start talking about our beliefs, theirs and ours. We explained how we read and love the Bible. We explained how we believe Jesus Christ is our Savior. We explained how we believe he's returning and that this life is the time for us to prepare. And then they realized that everything we were saying they already believed. Then one of them says, all tough, "You wanna know what? I pack guns with me every day. No matter where I go, I carry a gun in my bag. You wanna see it? You wanna see my gun?" And he reaches down into his bag and starts rummaging around. And I'm like, "AH I'M GOING TO DIE." (that's what I was thinking in my head). Then he pulls out his New Testament and is like, "Yeah. This is my weapon. I read it every day." In my head: "Cool that you read the Bible. Not cool the way you presented that information." Hahaha

Other funny story: I called a lady in the ward who we haven't met yet. I call and ask if it's Geraldine (name changed to protect the innocent heh heh) and she's like, "Yes, this is Geraldine." "Hi Geraldine! This is the sister missionaries. We just wanted to say hi and introduce ourselves because we haven't had the chance to meet you yet. How are you?" "This is who?" she says. "The sister missionaries. From the ward." "Oh, no no no, you've misdialed. I don't know any missionaries or any Church. And my name isn't Geraldine and this isn't my phone number." So that was cool.