"I might look like I'm on drugs..."

Quote of the week explanation

On Saturday we ate dinner with a member at a restaurant in Chinatown. We arrived several minutes early to the establishment, and we therefore waited outside for a little bit, talking to the people who passed by.  One guy, who had a bit of a frenzied look about him, came up to us and started a conversation. He was being very civilized throughout the whole of it, but you could tell that he wasn't all there. We talked for a while, and then he randomly started proclaiming how clean he was living his life. He was acting like he wanted us to commend him for "living on the street for three years." He began to talk about how he had never done drugs in his life, and a moment later, turned it around and said "I may look like I'm on drugs" to explain the fact that, by all outward appearances, he had definitely partaken of something interesting. I'd love to believe the guy about the high quality life that he's lived, but unfortunately... I really don't.

Good Morning

I hope your day is going pleasantly thus far.

Mines going alright, if you were wondering.

I'm going to start off by getting this out of the way. Unfortunately, our friend Olivia did not get baptized this week. You see, the water heater in the stake center is undergoing some repairs, and will not be operational for the next several weeks. She was all set to be baptized, even in the cold water, but then she talked to her husband (who is a member) and changed her mind. We gave her a new baptismal date of August 17, when the hot water will be restored to the building. So we will continue to work with her until that time comes. 

That was a little bit disappointing, but she is still super solid and has a fantastic support group, so I'm not worried about it too much. 

We had a bit of an adventure this Saturday afternoon. We were driving down the freeway to go visit this one potential that we have been trying to contact since I got to this area. Everything was going normally, but, as we were about to get off the freeway, a truck swerved into the lane, causing us to miss the exit. Now, this wouldn't have been all that bad in most situations. We could've simply gotten off at the next exit, and turned around from there. A minor inconvenience, to be sure, but nothing catastrophic. In most situations. Unfortunately, this was the last exit before the bridge. So, we were one moment obediently heading to contact somebody, and the next moment we were literally hurtling towards Treasure Island! (That is the island between the east and west bays, and the bay bridge crosses over it). We were able to turn around at the island, luckily, and did not have to go all the way to San Francisco, but it was still a very annoying inconvenience. We ended up contacting the person a half-hour later then we had originally intended to. We had a super good contact with him though. We ended up teaching him half of the first lesson, and setting up a solid return appointment. The crazy thing is, he said when he opened the door that he had only just gotten home moments before we came, so... Who knows. Maybe the truck who swerved in front of us was inspired by the Lord. Because, if we hadn't taken our little... Detour across the bridge, we would've missed him and not had that good contact.

I don't have much else to say this week beyond that. Just continuing to do missionary work. Puttering along, just like always. So, I'll let you all get back to your increasingly busy lives.

Bye

-Benny

P.S. Actually, though, I do want to tell you this story from a few weeks ago that I don't think I wrote about when it occurred, just an interesting experience that you can read. If I am mistaken and have indeed already relayed this account, feel free to skip this section. This happened back when I was in Hayward with Elder Evans. We were just having a typical evening knocking doors. When we get to one house, we see an old man sitting in front. A very old man. We talk to him for a few minutes, and he says that he doesn't have any energy to meet with us because he had a heart attack recently, but he was very genuine and wished us well in our way. Well, we didn't think much of it, and we just continued on with our tracting. Well, by the time we got to the other side of the street, the man had apparently gone back inside his house, as he was no longer out front. When we knocked on the door directly across the street a woman answered who was not interested, but still very kind. We asked her for referrals, as we always do, and she paused for a moment. She thought about it, and then pointed to the house where we  talked to the old man. "You know," she said, "they could use a message. Their dad just died from a heart attack."

I'm not saying anything, but...

P.P.S. The Good Samaritan

P.P.P.S. We have some super bowl 51 plates and napkins in our apartment.