Slammed

Hello from Wenatchee!

   This week has been... weird. Just flat out weird!

Sister B and I are both new to the area and the sisters before us pretty much only left us with a recent convert to teach, we knock a lot... like all day everyday. And barely anyone is home. When they are, they either bash us or they just slam the door in our faces. For example, we were knocking this one street and we met this one lady named Claudia. She opened the door, super cheerful and friendly. I introduced us and asked if she has met with missionaries before, and she started laughing. She said she had and pretty much told us that we were going straight to Hell. She started bashing us hard core and pretty much told us the Book of Mormon is the word of the Devil. You can tell that she was getting frustrated. Sis B asked her why and she said our belief and lack of knowledge makes her frustrated. She was practically yelling at us about how different our beliefs are! I don't care if you're a different religion, you should not be yelling when you talk about Christ! You have your own beliefs and we respect that but you should not be yelling when talking about Him. All of the questions she was asking could be answered by reading the BoM. We offered to give her one and she said flat out "I will not read that book because its not true!" Even if it is per say, there is no harm in reading and praying! But she was so closed off that she would have nothing to do with it. Another example: Katie. The previous sisters left us an appointment with her (the only one). Ya she just invited us over to bash us. She said she wanted to prepare to bring stuff up if she ever encounters Mormons again. She also went to a temple open house so she had a lot of sacred questions about the temple that we can't really talk about outside the temple. She had such a hard time with temples, prophets, and the priesthood. I pointed out scriptures the Bible that prove our need for them and you tell that she understood, but she did everything she could to prove us wrong. She made herself believe it was false. Ron: just pretty much telling us that we go to the church of the devil. Mike: his grandson was a referral from a little girl in the ward. He was such a hater over the BoM it was ridiculous. He originally thought that we were Jehovah Witnesses and was telling us that we don't keep the 10 commandments then we corrected him and told him that we were LDS and he said that we don't either because we don't keep the Sabbath Day holy (they think its Saturday). He said he couldn't find a church that obeyed the 10 commandments so he made his own church. He talked to missionaries before and said the BoM was a flat out lie and that its sad that we believe a lie. He told us to throw it in fire and watch it burn! I'm sorry but that's too far! You have your beliefs and I respect that but you don't need to tell people to throw their BoM in the fire! I will never throw my Book of Mormon ,the word of God, in the fire! Every Thursday nights, our bishopric and us go visit people on our ward list that no one really knows who they are. They one guy opened the door and said "Oh you guys are Mormons. Well you excommunicated my grandma for being poor so go get off my porch ok bye!" then slammed the door. To top it off, our water got shut off. So we have to shower every night at the Lewis' (an elderly couple in our ward) and drive to the church every morning to get ready. Every time we walked away from getting bashed though, we had a smile on our faces. We bore strong testimony and felt the Spirit so strong! We could feel the Spirit working through us to them and they used their agency to reject it. We did our best and that's all we can, and we left them all something to think about!

       God knows us! He really does! Every time we started to get discouraged, God put someone in our path to make us laugh! For example, on night we were trying to contact a former investigator and knocked on the door. This old man opened the door... without pants on. Apparently, the person who we were trying to contact moved and now is an old man who does not believe in pants. Luckily, his shirt was long enough to cover everything. Normally, we try to get the person talking as long as possible, but we just let this conversation die. Another night, we were trying to contact a referral named Kyle. It was about8:30 at night so Sis. Bledsoe knocked pretty quietly. I told her that they probably didn't hear it. A lady opened the door and screamed super loud on the top of her lungs... she didn't hear the knock. She was going to spray paint something outside and just sees 2 people in front of her door and screamed. We also knocked into another preacher (or pastor... I don't really know the difference) and he had his black robe-type thing on. The demeanor that he spoke with was just so weird. He asked us what God's name in Greek was and asked us what our first names were. It was just really weird. I don't really know how to describe it.He invited us in but there wasn't a woman there so we couldn't even if we wanted to. Plus if we did, he was probably bash us. On a good note though: Saturday was Make a Difference Day so we did service all day and it was so great! It feels so good to serve people! And to top it off: Sister Linda K. Burton from the General Relief Society Presidency came to Wenatchee!!!!!!!!!! She spoke in the stake center about the Atonement and it was SSSOOO great! She is such a funny woman and she is so human! She definitely knew what I needed to hear and said it word from word! This week has been really hard/funny/ flat out weird and it ended great by being about to be in the same room as Sister Burton and being able to listen to her inspiring words. 

    Hope all is well with all of you guys! Love you all so much! Thank for all that you guys do for me and I always have all of you in my prayers!

-Hermana Rebekah Williams

The people I live with like trolls A LOT