I would like to calm your fears about the title of this email, but it is true: I went on a date on my mission.
On Tuesday night we were invited by an investigator we are teaching to go out to lunch because Elder Glines is leaving and Wednesday would be the only day that she would be able to do it (she left for Hong Kong on Thursday). The only problem was she did not have a car and had no way to arrive at the restaurant. So we thought about it for a while and then decided that we would invite our recent convert Laura who has a car and doesnt do anything during the day anyway. So on Valentines day, after district meeting, we show up to the restaurant and take our seats and wait for our investigator Farren and Laura to show up. To be completely honest, I did not think beforehand that it would be valentines day, or that we would be going out to lunch with two women (one old enough to be my mother and the other old enough to be my grandmother), we were just excited to get out investigator a member friend and our recent convert an investigator friend.
So they arrive a few minutes after us and Laura is decked out in her white fur coat, make-up and freshly dyed red hair and immediatley blurts out, "So which one is my date?!" That is when I first started to feel uncomfortable. The rest of the lunch continued like so: Farren started ordering for us to the waiter in chinese so we didn't really know what she was saying; Laura, who is hard of hearing anyway thought that Farren was asking if she wanted "popsicles" instead of "potstickers" and then Farren complaining that the food wasn't up to her level of perfection. It was such a funny experience and now that I look back, I am so glad that we were able to take those two ladies out to lunch...even if they ended up paying. I'm sure it made their Valentines day.
On a more spiritual note, we have been working with a man named Adam for a very long time and he has showed so much potential, but he just wouldn't make the effort to come to church. The whole time he was saying that he really wants Sunday to be a family time, but that his wife was not really having it, and so he wouldn't come to church. Well this week, we tried our absolute hardest to get Adam to come to a baptism for the other ward. He was all set to come, but 5 minutes before, he told us that he would be too late to be able to come. We tried reaching out to him, but it just seemed like it wouldn't work.
So we sat through the baptism and it was a great service, and as we left the building to go get in our car, we hear a voice from behind us say, "hello Elder Glines." When we turned around, there was not only Adam, but his wife Yasenia and his daughter Samantha. He had dropped by his house, had picked up his wife and daughter and had come to the church building, all at around 8:30pm. So we quickly ran through a church tour with them and had a great lesson and even invited them to be baptized. They were very open to it and committed to come to church...AND THEY DID!
I know that when we pray to our Heavenly Father for help and then try our hardest to follow his Spirit and do what we are supposed to, He will bless us with exactly what will be the best for us.
It was a fantastic week and I hope that it continues for all of you in your own lives and struggles. Love you all!
Elder Arkoudas
Pic. 1: transfer calls
Pic. 2: dinner with Laura and my new companion, Elder Champneys
Pic. 3: my date...
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