I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!

Hey there everyone!

Another awesome week has gone by! A bit slow...we had two or three

days where everything cancelled. But it was good! We met some awesome

people that were super prepared for the gospel that we wouldn't have

met had everything gone according to plan. Dashon and Mariah. Super

cute together! Boyfriend and girlfriend, and they don't live

together...haha I think they're the second couple we've found in that

situation! Everyone here just loves together. It's super sad. Marriage

almost doesn't even exist anymore. And the few people that do want to

get married get married so they can get divorced in a few years. The

message of the family has never been so important as it is today.

So I have a challenge for you! And a request! Please go home and read

The Family: A Proclamation to the World, and sometime during this next

week or month, use it as a missionary tool! Find someone and share it

with them! And if you can't think of anything to say, just go for it!

It might sound awkward to you, but be confident! Stand up for what you

believe in, and SHARE what you believe in! It can be as simple as,

"hey, there's something really cool I read the other day that the

leaders of my church put out a while back, but it has implications for

everyone, religious or not. I read this really cool part right

here..." And then go for it! Practice in front of a mirror if you need

to ;) that's what we do! As companions we practice almost every day

with each other. We teach each other :) super powerful! Sometimes it's

kind of awkward and weird, but if you can't tell someone that believes

in it about it, how are you going to tell someone who has no idea

about it? So there's my challenge for y'all. Email me your stories

about it! I love to hear missionary stories! :D

And to keep up with my own challenge, here's my favorite part from it:

We warn that individuals who violate covenants of chastity, who abuse

spouse or offspring, or who fail to fulfill family responsibilities

will one day stand accountable before God. Further, we warn that the

disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities,

and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.

We call upon responsible citizens and officers of government

everywhere to promote those measures designed to maintain and

strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society.

(The Family: A Proclamation to the World)

Weather's been great here! Hot the first bit, but it's getting kinda

stormy so it's cooled off. It's just SUPER humid now! It's kind of

insane. As for investigators, things are looking up. Miguel and

Maribel, one of our couples we're working with a lot, have been doing

a ton better. We talked about how to overcome addiction, and forge

first time, Maribel was actually willing to help him, rather than just

tearing him down the whole time. It made a huge difference in the

outcome of the lesson. One of our investigators has already read to

Alma 43 since last week when he started the Book of Mormon (we

think—he was in the middle and said it was chapter 43 in he though the

book of Nephi. But there aren't any other chapter 43s in the Book of

Mormon), and we are working with another less active member to get him

headed on a mission. Got his papers all but turned in! He's from

Nicaragua, and a super nice kid. Likes the missionaries a lot and

wants to learn. We are teaching temple prep classes for the ward,

setting up family mission plans with the members and teaching them how

to use Preach My Gospel (best book EVER! Only a small part of it talks

about the doctrine we teach. The rest, I'm gonna let you figure it

out, because you're all going to start reading it right!?) haha we met

with a bunch of other families, met a bunch of new families, and all

in all had a very spiritually empowering and mentally uplifting week.

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!!

Had a cool experience two days ago! Walked past some guys at a street

corner. They were all pretty getto, one was kind of Mexican. Gave them the regular, hey do you know anybody we could maybe help out by chance

then just started talking to them. I think we ran into the most

intelligent group in all of Camden. They started to debate with us the

origins oflaw and the constitution and how it relates to the empires of

history. We talked about religious freedom, unalienable rights,

I pulled out my constitution and we started debating the veracity and reasons behind the Declaration of Independence...He had a super hard heart about believing in religion though, said there was no literal documentation of anything and that documentation was what was proof. The guys were pretty intelligent! They were using legal termslike expedite and extrapolate and talking about all these crazy empires and origins of man and language and histories. Some random guys walked up to us while the main guy, "truth" was his name, was

discussing the origins of the American Indians and the effects of

nomadic tribes in the northern and Southern Hemispheres, and this

other kid was like, yeah I just downloaded this to read today. It was

a book called "they were here before Columbus", a comprehensive history

of the origins of the South Americans. Then the other Mexican guy's

argument was that everything material was energy, therefore God was

energy too and just made of intelligence. During this time, some

random Jamaican guy had rolled up on a bicycle, dreads, the likes.

Then "truth" mentioned the fact that He couldn't believe in a generic

God because he didn't have a name. I sad he does, we know him by

Eloheim, Jehovah, and Father. Then the random Jamaican guy pipes up

and says, "actually that's no way to show who God is at all, because

the word Eloheim came from yadayada and actually means planets. So

that simply signifies the majesty of the universe, therefore God is

part of all according to what you just said." From a random Jamaican

guy. Named Spider. They were talking about how nothing is true because

all language means something else then what we mean therefore

everything is false and how we are all Moores and descendants and weird stuff, But their whole thing was false...they were trying to prove that nothing was

provable. Doesn't quite work out well. It was funny. More so because I

stumped them a few times and for some reason they couldn't seem to

stump me! Because the gospel and the spirit had the answer to all of

their questions. They just weren't willing to listen.

Gotta love New Jersey! :D

Haha I love you guys! All of you!

-Elder Brockston King