...and for such a great week, it kinda stinks that I left my notes back at the flat. I'll do my best to remember.
The first Tuesday in November is a special day for Melbournians. We were on the train, headed to the branch, and we started to see something was different that day. People were dressed funny and had unusually large grins on their faces. Lots of women in bright dresses and fake hats and veils. Lots of men with top hats and bow ties and suits in every imaginable nasty color. All these people were all headed in the same direction: The Melbourne Cup.
The annual "Melbourne cup" is a huge deal in Victoria. It's this huge horse race. Aaaaaaand that's pretty much everything I know about it, except that a horse named REKINDLING won. Melbourne is pretty weird.
The Chinese, on the other hand, don't really care about things like that. Our investigators are still great. This week was so good for them all. Liu passed his interview. Leo read and prayed consistently. Stacey is consistently meeting with us and even offered to make us dumplings. Lian Rong is incredible, her scripture study honestly might be better than mine. John is still great. So many others are starting to open up their schedules and are willing to meet and learn. It's so incredible.
The musical The Book of Mormon is playing in Melbourne, and it's a big deal for a lot of people. This week in particular, we got a lot of people who made the connection between the show and us. I was called Elder Price at least two or three times. It's funny, the reputation we have. The show definitely doesn't portray us well (if you don't know the show, PLEASE don't google it. Please please please don't. Yes, Porter, that includes you), but people know our tags. We're representatives of Christ, despite the slander. We're here to set an example as He would have done.
The highlight of this week wasn't in the food or in the places or the lessons, though all those things were great. We got off the bus the other day and were walking to the branch when we - Elder Hu, our investigator and myself - were approached by a man who didn't seem to be completely right in the head. Kinda staggering, he was wearing a neon green construction vest, he had a small carton of milk in one hand and a cigarette in the other. He started shouting something mostly in cohesive, something about Mormons and the Word of God. Whenever we're approached by this kind of person (there's a lot of them in Melbourne) we typically just smile and nod and move on by. This guy followed us, kept shouting, asked us if we had the Word of God with us. I told him I didn't have a copy (I had no English copies, this is true) and he went off about something. We got to the branch entrance, so I stopped to confront this guy. I was ready to tell him that we didn't have time, that we had to go, to tell him to go somewhere else, but when I looked at him, something stopped me. I'm supposed to be a representative of Christ. This man, crazy as he was, is God's son. So I put my hand out instead, introduced myself. His personality did a u-turn, and we had a friendly conversation. His name is Michael. He's got two kids. He wants to get off the streets so that he can go to school and get a degree and get his son back in his custody and show him that he doesn't have to end up like him, that his son can be whatever he wants to be. He wanted to talk to us because he just wanted to find more of God's word, because he felt it was God who was guiding him, God who as giving him a second chance. I sent another set of missionaries (who conveniently came by at the right time) up to the branch to grab an English copy of the Book of Mormon. The glow on his face when I gave it to him was indescribable. This guy was schizophrenic and went from crying because he was so happy to know God, to crying because of the horrible things in his life. Here's the thing. This guy isn't going to get baptized. I probably won't ever see him again. But I was willing to give this stranger a hug and tell Him that God has a plan for him because that's what Christ would have done. He smelled funny and the hug was moist and there was a weird stain on my jacket afterwards. But that doesn't matter. Because he went away better than when I found him and that's what counts. He's in my prayers. I'm grateful to have met him, and I hope and pray to be able to have more experiences like it.
I hope you all have a great week. I know the church is starting to roll out Light the World material for this upcoming Holiday season (yeah, yeah, I know. It's November and I'm talking about Christmas. In Australia, they have no Thanksgiving, so after Melbourne Cup, Christmas is fair game. There's Christmas lights and candy canes everywhere already. Take that, you Scrooges). I highly encourage you all to look into that - service is the greatest thing. Start thinking about ways that you can share your light with those around you in the coming months. I miss you all and hope the best!
Elder Blackhurst
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