Elder Dallin Stout

Mon, Sep 15, 2014 at 1:07 PM

Awesome Week!

    Tuesday

We did service for Maurice, who we met Sunday at church, a friend invited her.  She has chickens, roosters, turkeys, rabbits and horses.  We trimmed hedges, I dug up a small palm tree and tilled hard dirt with a pick ax. We had lunch with her after and she invited us to come over again to go swimming.  We said we'll come by again but to do more service instead!  We taught Bob the plan of salvation. As we started, he mentioned that his Dad died when he was 7 and he doesn't know if he was a man of God. He asked "will he get a chance to know the truth?" Then said "I might be crazy for thinking this, but that means he needs to be baptized. Is there a way that I could be baptized in his behalf?" We said "YES!" we were completely blown away by that. He had a cup of coffee, so we addressed the Word of wisdom and after teaching it, he committed to live it.  As we were leaving he grabbed his cup and said "well this cup is staying empty tonight!"

     Wednesday

For exchanges Elder Banks came with Elder Slaugh and I. We did service for Tony, the hoarder, for 41/2 hours and didn't make much progress.  Then we biked to Elliot's house. (the Jew guy we just met).  But he wasn't home.  So we went to the Crows and read Alma 32 with them and Brett. 

     Thursday

Our shower wouldn't turn off completely, so it stayed at a small steady stream all day and maintenance never came.  After district meeting all 5 of us (Elders Banks and Grey) went to a sushi place for lunch. I had a lot of wasabi left over and the Elders  dared me to eat it all at once.  So I did and so did Elder Banks.  After dinner Elders Banks, Grey and I felt sick, so I'm not gonna do that again!  Our neighbors were watching the Ravens/Steelers game. I saw that the Ravens were winning 24-6 with short time left, so that made my day!  Elder Slaugh and Jimmy rigged our leaking shower head to slow down the flow.

     Friday

We did service for Brother Buck Poulsen,   In his attic are hundreds to a thousand canvas paintings!  We sorted huge piles of them!  He played minor league baseball as a pitcher and got into painting at 28. He's been doing it for 50 years and has had a TV show ("Painting with Poulsen") for over 20 years!  He gave us each a season of his TV show on DVD.

     Saturday

This morning we rode along the coast and rode up the back side of Correo Street. "The Correo" is a huge hill, we went down it at about 42 mph!  Later we went to Bueno Vista (The care center where Bob is) and the receptionist had some questions for us.  We had a little lesson and gave her a Book Of Mormon.  We met with Bob, he told us that a lady asked him what his religion is and he said Mormon!  She wanted some scriptures to help her out and he gave her Book Of Mormon and Bible verses!  We took Bob to stake conference and he stayed for most of it before he had to go.  I saw Elder Bartholemew there!  Before he left Thousand Oaks I told him in his Shout Out Journal that we would meet in Santa Barbara... Prophecy fulfilled!  The plumber finally came and fixed our shower after the 3rd time we called.

     Sunday

We went to Bueno Vista and the Mormon lady that works there took us to their church service with all the old people.  We sang hymns, that was awesome (Even though they had voices only a mother could love) and they bore testimonies about Jesus.  We met a lady named Hannah who just turned 101 years old!   We read 1Nephi 3-4 with Bob and she sat in.  As we left, the receptionist told us that a Catholic priest was just there, saw her reading the Book Of Mormon and told her that she shouldn't be reading it.  He said we don't believe in Christ and she said,  "Well that's not true!"  Then he said we don't believe in the holy trinity, and she said, "Neither do I.  Look the boys are right in that room, why don't I get them so you can talk to them?"  He said, "No I have to go." So she totally backed us up!  She has read the whole intro to the Book Of Mormon and started 1st Nephi yesterday, when we gave it to her!  It has been a great week! 

Elder Stout