E-Mail January 30, 2012

Hey Randi,
Just a small update on what has happened these past couple days. I
know you are more of a visual reader so hopefully you will be able to
picture all this stuff in your head when you read. =P
Things are going well here. I dont know if you will really have time
to check this today or not but here is a little update on everything.
I will start with the most recent since that is what I can best
remember.
Last night we had a drop-in lesson with a guy named Herman. He is an
older black guy who used to be big time baptist. He used to see us and
say "Oh here day come! Erbody watch out!" and then he would laugh.
Haha. We were out in his apartment complex and a member stopped us and
told us that we might want to drop by his house. So we did and he said
that this lil ol' "miss julie" was tellin him that two young boys
would stop by to give him "the word." So he let us in willingly. He is
hilarious! We sat down and started to talk with him a little bit and
he is going through some kind of rough times right now. But, we
started with a prayer. We asked him who he would like to say the
prayer and he said Elder Carroll. He then started to hold out his
hands so as to sign that we would all be holding hands when we said
the prayer. So we did! As Elder Carroll was praying, Herman was over
there, "Oh, yes Lord. Come on in! Amen Lord, Amen!" Oh my gosh it was
SO hard to keep from laughing in the middle of the prayer! We got on
with the lesson. We started to teach the Restoration and Herman would
stop us periodically and say that he needed to get back to the good
word, as he pounded his hand against the Book of Mormon. Things like
that kept happening and we were laughing and all but the Spirit was
still there. I then got to recite the First Vision and Herman
responded with "Lordy, lordy that was deep." That was his way of
telling us he was feeling the Spirit! We finished the lesson and he
asked us if we were going to become ministers after our mission. We
told him no but we would continue to spread the word wherever we
could. Next we said a prayer and again we held hands. This time it was
my turn to say the prayer. Again he was shouting hosannas whenever
something was said. After the prayer he turned to me and said, "Are
you sure you aint gonna be a minista er somethin'?" I responded,
"Haha, yeah I'm sure. Why?" "You been fightin' a cold or somethin'?
Cause boy you could make some good money usin' those words right
there. You just got that voice where you can HEAR the Lord speakin'
through ya!" Hahaha. We got out of his house and we couldnt help but
laugh! He was awesome! We hadnt had a lesson like that in forever and
it was great! He is amazing but, unfortunately, he is moving soon so
we probably wont be able to teach him again. If we do it would be just
once but, man is he prepared. It was sweet.
On Friday, maybe Saturday, we taught this guy named Marcus. We got his
name from the referral center. They send us a text with a name and
address and a small description of how he got interested. Half the
time they turn out to be uninterested but Marcus had a question that I
have never been asked before. "Is Jesus Christ real?" I had never
heard that question! But, we went into his home and started to talk
with him. He is 30 years old, bald and plays in a "guild" on World of
Warcraft. He said that he had believed that Jesus was real all his
life until about a year ago. He has asked all different faiths for an
answer, some sort of solidity, and they werent able to give it to him.
He then heard that Mormons were "real knowledgable" on religious
stuff. What derailed his faith in Christ? Wikipedia... The most
reliable source ever! The site that anyone can change anything at any
moment in time and post it for absolutely everyone to see. And Marcus
believes every word of it. We tried to resolve his concern by going
through the topic of God is Our Loving Heavenly Father. He said that
he didnt car about that right now, he doesnt even know if God exists,
but he needs to know if Christ exists.... You cant have one without
the other! Haha, so we tried to bear testimony of all this the entire
time and he just wouldnt really have any of it because he would read
something on Wikipedia that said otherwise. So we left him with a Book
of Mormon and told him to read it and pray about it. And that as he
does so he will come to know of the divinity of Christ and that he is
real. He told us he would read as long as when we come over next time
we come with some answers to his questions. Hopefully he reads...
I cant really remember a whole lot else but, I sent a spiritual
message in the mail. I think that is how I am going to do it from now
on so I can respond to individuals and then to the family through
snail mail.
Love you and miss you Rand!
~Elder Daniel Peterson