Drunken Polygamists

Dear Family,

So I have tons to tell you. I’ll start with the bad news first. About a half hour ago we found out that one of our most promising investigators died. Her name is Kay and she lives across from us. She really seemed to believe what we were teaching her, however, she couldn’t come to church because of health problems. She has had cancer for 7 years, she has diabetes, pancritis, and a severe infection. Yesterday the ambulance was there because her blood sugar was like 16. We aren’t sure yet exactly what the cause of death was. Crazy thing though, I’m not really sad. I think that Kay accepted the Gospel, but her physical body was keeping her from coming to church and getting baptized. I know that she’s up the Spirit World and missionaries are up there are finishing up the lessons. We are going to find out her information so then we can make sure her temple work gets done. Now for the good news. We are also teaching someone else in our apartment complex, his name is Jamie. Jamie has 6 kids and another on the way, by 3 different women. He was married to the second one and she was a big drug addict. So he got into drugs really heavily. Oh man, he told us all the stuff he did and I didn’t even know that half of those drugs existed or that you could do that with drugs. He has made a lot changes and doesn’t do it anymore and he is trying to quit smoking! He has been taught by missionaries before and already has a testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. Our first lesson we committed him to be baptized and he said yes! He wanted to do it in the next few weeks, but we have to teach him everything still, he has to quit smoking and get married. So we set a goal for the end of the month. It was an awesome lesson. We took this girl with us named Aimee. She was baptized less than a month ago and she has already decided to go on a mission. She has an amazing testimony and knowledge for someone who was so recently baptized. Her fire and excitement to do missionary work was really fun. We took her tracting with us too. So there is this less active in our ward, her name is Ruth and she has terrible hearing! We have to yell for her to hear us. Also she thinks that she is active. Last week we were teaching her and we asked her to turn to 3 Nephi 11, she asked back “Page 35?” and we yelled, “NO, 3 Nephi 11.” She nodded her head and said, “okay, page 35.” So we didn’t know what to do and just turned to page 35 with her. I quickly scanned the page and found that it was talking about the Liahona and how they had to have faith for it to work. So I decided to talk about faith and use it to get back to our planned lesson on the Atonement. As I started talking though Sister Arnott was laughing under her breathe and that started me laughing. Poor Ruth had no idea what was going on, she couldn’t hear us laughing but she probably wondered what was wrong with our faces because we were trying to hold it in. And then I realized that I would have to explain what the Liahona was and as soon as I started saying it was a ball with spindles, Sister Arnott started cracking up again. It was so awful, we felt so bad. Ruth is kind of crazy though, I don’t think she noticed anything. Saturday was a CRAZY day for us. All the things that happen to missionaries happened to us in one day! We talked to a preacher, who wanted to bash with us. He was the nicest basher I’ve ever meet, however, he wouldn’t let us leave because when we would make to go he would say oh one more point. According to him it wasn’t correct unless it was in the Bible, but he himself showed that there could be several interpretations or misunderstandings of the Bible. He contradicted himself several times. And as our wonderful new investigator, Jamie, put it, “Just because it’s not in the Holy Bible doesn’t mean it can’t be true.” Next we talked to a guy who was completely stoned, the whole apartment smelled strongly of weed. He almost said we could come back, but then I think he realized what he was saying and said no. Then we talked to a crazy, drunk polygamist. Okay so I’m not sure if he’s a polygamist, he said he was, but he was also super drunk. He downed a whole bottle in front of us. When he walked out the door and saw he us, he started yelling about how much he likes Mormons and how we should sue the Texas government for what they did to us. He thinks that FLDS is the same as LDS just a subgroup. He asked us if we were traditionalist Mormons (I think he meant do we practice polygamy). He says that he is Sioux Indian and that’s what his religion is. He is a complete sexist, he told us all girls should wear skirts like us and that men CAN wash dishes, but women just do it better. And that women can defend themselves, but men just do it better. He said it in a very undemeaning, very respectful way though. We are going back next week to teach his “might as well call her my wife” (his words). And THEN! we went to shake his hand, and he said he doesn’t shake women’s hands. And HE KISSED my hand!!!! GROSS! He had a sick mustache and he had just smoked. Then he reached for Sister Arnott’s hand and she very, very reluctantly gave it to him. I’m never shaking his hand again. Then we talked to an intellectual who doesn’t believe in Christ. We had a nice talk with him and left him a Book of Mormon, we are going back in a few weeks to pick it up and see what he thought. Then we knocked on a few more doors and one door we saw someone peek through the blinds at us and then instead of answering the door, we could hear them LOCKING the door! Seriously Sister Arnott and I are the most harmless looking people ever. Next we went and saw a former investigator, who at first was not interested, but we started talking with him and he invited us in. He then proceeded to tell us his life story and how he felt something was missing in his life. We cleared up some misconceptions that he thought the Book of Mormon was supposed to be the Bible. By the time we left he was excited to read the Book of Mormon, come to church, and take the lessons again. We left his house completely COVERED with dog hair and reeking like cigarette smoke. We visited two more investigators, dropped one and taught one. Left there smelling even more of smoke. We ended that crazy day, by trying to see another former investigator who we found out had moved, but the people who live there now said we could come back. And also everyone of the appointments we had for that day fell through. I guess the Lord had other places for us to be. We had a wonderful day. I think this is the Lord’s way of giving us tender mercies. Stirring things up a bit to give us a good laugh.I love you all. Have a fabulous week!

Love, Sister Nicole Polatis