Hello everybody-
That's pretty funny that Brother Garner said that Jamaica Plain was too dangerous for the Missionaries-it's probably one of the tamer regions of Boston. (Other than downtown/South Boston). Most of the crazy experiences come from Dorchester, Mattapan, or Roxbury. Every part of Boston seems to have its own nickname-"Lock your Dorchester," "Murderpan," and "Gloxbury." Nothing's really all that dangerous, because folks respect "Jesus people."
There were some pretty cool things that happened this week. Elder Woodard and I were running across a street in downtown Boston to catch a bus (we had just finished a teaching appointment at the Harvard Medical Library), and suddenly this car starts creeping forward, like they're going to go and run us over! I freaked out, and then I saw our Bishop just laughing his head off in the car. *sighofexasperation* We shared a good laugh at Church on Sunday :)
Another time, we had a lunch appointment with this Haitian lady, Gladys. She was telling us about her aunt in Haiti. Gladys described her as "As big as the moon, and as tall as the building... AND she had a mustache!" Needless to say, this ward is great :)
Elder Woodard and I also found a pass-along card stuck to a phone pole near a bus stop, with the Spanish Sisters' number on it. Since our phone is new, they didn't have our number, so we called them and played a prank. I pretended to be a Jehovah's Witness named Tyrell, and really had the Sisters quite flustered. They told us about their mystery contact, and I told them it was us. They went from angry to just laughing along with the rest of us. Good times in Boston :) haha
We have 3 sets of Missionaries in this ward, and we all share a teaching pool. We rotate appointments with investigators, less-active members, recent converts, etc. so that we can really build Zion here in the Boston 1st ward. It requires a LOT of communication and openness, but we are really calling on all the knowledge and gifts of 6 people rather than 2. Definitely a huge advantage for us :)
This Sunday was a really great one. We heard talks on parables (I could write an entire email on those, but time's short), learned about honesty, and had a potential with an AWESOME mohawk come to Church! :) But mostly, I found this quote from Elder Neal A. Maxwell: "One’s life...cannot be both faith-filled and stress-free.... How can you and I really expect to glide naively through life, as if to say, “Lord, give me experience, but not grief, not sorrow, not pain, not opposition, not betrayal, and certainly not to be forsaken. Keep from me, Lord, all those experiences which made Thee what Thou art! Then let me come and dwell with Thee and fully share Thy joy!”... Faith also includes trust in God’s timing, for He has said, “All things must come to pass in their time.” Faith likewise includes faith in God’s developmental purposes, for “the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people; yea, he trieth their patience and their faith.” Still, some of us have trouble when God’s tutoring is applied to us! We plead for exemption more than we do for sanctification, don’t we, brothers and sisters?"
I found this so instructive-how many times do we plead for exemption? Accepting the Lord's will is something so easy to preach, yet so difficult to practice. Not a lot of real insight on that yet, but it certainly causes me to ponder. Maybe I'll have more next week :) haha
Love y'all, and hope you're having a great week!
-"Eldah" Boone
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