New Bikes and New "Doctrine"

9/21/15   

   Transfer calls came in yesterday and it looks like my visa has not quite come through, so I will be in Modesto for a little while longer. In the mean time, I am being assigned to work in a trio with the Assistants! So my companions will be Elder Murdock and a new assistant, Elder Jones. Saturday night I believe I got food poisoning, because I had to wake up every two hours to relieve my digestive system. It was absolutely horrible. Even Elder Shepherd had to throw up a few times. Consequently, we both found ourselves sick in bed all of Sunday. I don't know whether it was the lamb our Hindu investigator cooked for us, the huge glass of apple juice I drank in an attempt to have a lucid dream, or the sketchy DQ we went to in memory of the Centerville DQ, but boy did it knock me out. 

   So I discovered why Elder Shepherd kept leaving me in the dust on his bike. I mean, he has a torn hamstring and joint problems and I still couldn't keep up. I don't have a bike and his was in the repair shop, so we got two bikes from the Mission Office that had been left behind by other missionaries. Elder Shepherd got his bike back from he repair shop and so I got to have the other bike, and that is when I figured out that it was the bike. This new bike I am on is like the Lamborghini of the bike world, and the old one is a power-chair. Now I'm the one that leaves Elder Shepherd in the dust.

   We have an interesting investigator named Francis. I'm not sure if I have ever heard more crazy doctrine than we have heard from her. She says things about the Bible that I have never heard before in my life. For example, she is obsessed with this Lilith character that was created with Adam when God blew dust, and the reason Adam was thrown out of the Garden of Eden was because he cheated on Lilith with Eve. She also believes in a 'scientific study' that showed water is alive and can talk back to us by turning red and murky or clear depending on if words where mentioned about Satan or God. Stuff like that. She absorbs everything she is taught. Literally. However, she illustrates a a good point as well. We have taught her so much and she listens to all of it. A lot of times, I think we as church members believe we know everything, or at least understand the basics. What others have to say isn't always on the top of our priority list. Granted, we need to examine everything before we take it in and accept it as doctrine, but I think we could all become a little more teachable and look at things from different perspectives as Christ has asked of us and how Francis has shown me. "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear."