So just an example of what this missions like: we weren't allowed to email the week of Christmas since our "emailing" was skyping home. Man, so much as happened in the last two weeks, I don't know where to start. But assuming you don't want to hear the nitty gritty, I'll just go over some very broad highlights. First off: I need to repent, because I hardly took any pictures of stuff we did at Christmas. Sorry. But the senior couple we had a Christmas party with took pictures so I'll get them from them some time.
I guess the first highlight is the present to myself for Christmas, that is, Star Wars Rogue One pajamas. Just because I can't see it doesn't mean I can't support it. Christmas Eve we went to the senior couple in Cairns, the Housers, for a Christmas party for our zone. The rest of the mission was down in Brisbane having a Christmas zone conference or party or whatever, but since we're so far away we had our OWN Christmas party. We had dinner first. We were meant to prepare a talent for a mini talent show, but honestly me and Elder Bullock were clueless, because his main talents are basketball and roping and my main talents are playing the piano and super smash bros. And they didn't have a piano so we considered doing bottle flip tricks, but at the end of the day we just had a couple riddles. It's okay because the zone leaders just blew their badges like kazoos to the tune of "Ding Dong Merrily on High." If I had another week I would've thought of doing ASL to a Christmas song but I only thought of it on the way to the Christmas party. After that we watched Elf, which was awesome, but we watched it on this AngelVid program that basically cut out heaps of the funny parts, like when Buddie and the fake Santa get into the fight in the store and when Buddie pelts the one kid in the head with a snowball from like a mile away. It cut out all the stuff like that so it wasn't as great, but hey, it's something. Then we opened presents. The Housers got everyone stuff, but the main stuff was everyone opened the Christmas packages they got from home.
We slept at the zone leader's flat (we didn't even get back til midnight-dodgy!) But the next morning we had breakfast at the Houser's and opened a couple more presents. We got back to our own area, Atherton, in time for church. And holy cow, we didn't expect everyone to get us stuff. We have soooooo much chocolate and candy.
Got to call home of course, which was great, and then we had a 3 course meal with a member's family. They had prawns, Moreton Bay mollusks, and oysters for the first course, meat and potato bake for the second course, and trifle and ice cream for the 3rd course. It was really good.
Okay, in Australia they have something the day after Christmas called Boxing Day. Basically it's the day where everyone takes back what they got for Christmas to the store because it doesn't fit, or they don't like it, etc etc. But it also kind of doubles as their Black Friday since they don't celebrate Thanksgiving. It was p-day for us but the assistants told us we weren't allowed to do any personal shopping, just food shopping. We had a lunch and played games with some other members in our branch, so that was pretty fun. We rode around on the dad's ATV. Don't worry, we carefully examined the handbook and couldn't find anything that condemned it so we took it for a spin.
Wednesday we went on trade-offs with the zone leaders, and what do you know-I went with Elder Smith. Father and son, reunited for a day. It was pretty weird being with my trainer again but now we were on MY turf, in MY area. Haha just kidding, but he hasn't changed in most ways but has changed it a couple others.
For example, we were door knocking and this guy started off by smugly saying "You know, it says a lot about a religion when they write their own Bible to fit their beliefs." Suddenly, the eyes squinted, the hands tightened on the Book of Mormons we carry from door to door, and the Spirit filled us with the power of testimony. That's when you know: It's on. Honestly in the past I've always sidestepped people's complaints and bore testimony, because that's what Elder Smith did. But now that he's been out a bit longer, weathered and beaten by those who would speak ill of the Church, he was not so. He asks "What do you mean?" and the guy replies "For example, where was Jesus born?" We look at each other, because we easily see where this is going. It's the oldest one in the book. "Bethlehem, of course," we say. "Ah," the man says, growing in confidence that he has at last caught us in a trap, "but your Book of Mormon says he was born in Jerusalem!" We look at each other again. Yes, this man had indeed tried the oldest one in the book. A Primary child could have refuted his claim. The scripture he's talking about was Alma 7:10, which says: "10 And behold, he shall be born of Mary, AT Jerusalem which is the LAND of our forefathers." Which, of course, is NOT the same thing as "IN Jerusalem, the CITY of our forefathers." I won't bore you with the details, because this concern has received sufficient addressing, but basically "at" can mean around, nearby, in the same general area as, etc, which Bethlehem is only a few miles away from Jerusalem, which could indeed be considered as part of "the land." Elder Smith opened his mouth and began to unfold and expound the holy writ, but this guy wouldn't have it. He went on about alllllll these other claims he had against the church, but wouldn't even listen to a single rebuttal. He kept interrupting and cutting us of which indeed showed his heart was hardened. We did what we could but alas, we informed him we were going to leave, which we did, but he continued to say all these things about the church. And none of them were things we didn't have an answer for, it was all really easy stuff to answer, but he wouldn't listen so we just left. But man, Elder Smith had some really choice words for this guy. One thing I remember him saying was "Who are you to say that God can't have another book of scripture written? Who are you to tell God what He can and can't do?" Man, it was savage.
Anyways, I'll wrap this up, but it's been a good couple of weeks. Saturday we had to go back to the flat at 5 for new years. But Sunday (yesterday) we had everything back to normal. Gave some blessings to a single mom and her family for the upcoming school year and visited a couple recent converts. But yeah, hope everyone had a merry Christmas!
Elder Cummings
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