Birthday! (Week 72)

Well, another week flew by. Just like that. Lots of fun and good experiences.

Tuesday was my Birthday and we were able to celebrate by helping out at the forest service. We had to dig up a couple of 9 ish foot wooden fence posts from really muddy ground. That was no simple task haha but it was fun. Glad I got to play around in the mud on my Birthday . Then later that night we ordered 3 XXL Pizzas from Papa John's and got some ice cream and some delicious chocolate Oreo Cadbury bars. I ate a lot. Like A LOT. I wasn't hungry until the next day at dinner haha. Why do I do these things to myself? Anyway, good Birthday all in all.

We had a lot of good conversations with people this week. I was on an exchange with one of the Elders in the Zone and we went to a park to do some finding. We had some great conversations and especially with this one dude. We started talking to him and he went straight to how he didn't like what we did. He said that we infringed on other people's beliefs because we were trying to tell everyone that they are wrong and we are right. 

We had a good conversation and tried to help him understand that we invite others to come unto Christ, we don't force them to. He was just caught up in why we just won't let people believe what they want and he kept expressing his annoyed feelings. We told him that we love and respect everyone's opinion but that we are doing as Christ did, sharing the Gospel. We pulled the Book of Mormon on this dude and read 2 Nephi 29:8-9. That got him thinking a lot. Our conversation progressed and got better. He ultimately didn't want to learn more but he did come away saying that he understood us better and his respect for Missionaries and for the Church of Jesus Christ was up. That was neat. It was cool to see someone's heart softened even just a bit. God will be watching over that man and hopefully in the near future he keeps having interactions with missionaries.

We found out today that I am leaving Kidderminster.......... It's kinda sad because Elder Olsen is such a good Elder and we really get along. It has also been fun to serve in the oldest branch in the UK. I will be heading down to Bristol, so we shall see how that goes haha!

-Elder Shockley