Kindness goes a very very long way

June 23, 2014

Mormons are pretty cool I guess. 

Today is my roommate's birthday (a sister from the other companionship we live with) so we decided to go to panda express. When we walked in we heard a "hello sisters!" which either means that someone has mistaken you for their parents' other children or.... they’re Mormon! It was the latter. A man of like 50 started talking to us and asked if we went there a lot. We expressed that it was just for sister Tatioli's birthday (subtle shout out goes unnoticed by most of the blog reading audience) he insisted on paying for all four of us. It was so generous! He made sure that we knew that we could get anything, including dessert if we wanted. We declined, but when we were half way through our meal, he came up to us and handed each companionship a $50.00 gift certificate! ho. ly. cow. 

Moral of the story: be friends with Mormons. Actually, just be a MormonJ. 

anywhoo. 

This week was great! I would give you photo evidence, but the card reader is on the blink. Which is better than being on the wink, because we're not supposed to flirt as missionaries, but either way it's frustrating. So instead, let me paint a picture for you.

Two sister missionaries: the exhaustion is evidenced in their worn shoes, sweat stains (TMI? it's 120 degrees here so sweat stains are practically a fashion statement.) They wipe their brows as the mirages of future investigators start to appear before their eyes..........o.k. o.k I exaggerate. They walk toward an apartment complex where a man of about 50 is exiting. shortish. rotund. may or may not be Hispanic (you can never tell now-a-days. I've met blonde, blue eyed Mexicans) the girls lift their faces and give their signature sister missionary wave. "Hello! How are you?" They brace themselves for the passive grunt, or -if they're lucky- a slight head nod. but no. he stops. "Are you missionaries?" "yes" "for what church?" The sister missionaries become super animated as they talk about their unique and important message in about 30 seconds. "Can we come teach you more?" They are praying that this isn't a dream caused by a dehydration induced coma. He looks at them "Yes. I'm ready for your message."

Wow. Every day we pray probably.....oh I don't know 5 times a day to find people ready to hear the truth. To have someone say those exact words "I'm ready" was like the space mountain of missionary work. Even after an exhausting day, it didn't even matter, we were floating on air. 

He's going to be taught by the English missionaries, but it just reinforced to me that we never know who may or may not be prepared to hear the gospel. Don’t be afraid to open your mouth and share!  

And thanks for being kind to the missionaries, we really really appreciate it!

-Hermana Thomas