This week was just... horrible! Yes, horrible would be the word. Absolutely, completely horrible! ^-^ Haha I'm cheery now, but it was just not a fun week. A week of post-conference afflictions. Let me lay out the days for you:
Monday: Good P-Day
Tuesday: Long exchange during which we taught no one
Wednesday: We went to the temple with Gerry so he could be baptized for his deceased father! It was actually really amazing. Teresa came later with her kids and took the temple tour again! This was the highlight of the week.
That night, I started feeling a little queasy. By midnight, I had a repeat of the spamusubi incident: a sleepless night of puking! Yay... It was rough.
Thursday: Running on no sleep, we stayed in all day so that I could rehydrate and recover strength.
Friday: Still kind of weak, but we left that night to a set appointment. Well it turns out that the investigator had very kindly invited half of his congregation to come listen to us: WITH the pastor. At first it seemed pretty good, they let us teach them all. Then the pastor pulled out a pre-prepared discourse with as many false allegations and twisted words and verses he could find to attack everything we believe and the history of our church, especially Joseph Smith. He (likely intentionally) did it in a long rant so that we couldn't really explain how each one was wrong. Well we responded the best we could and bore our testimonies, but this man wouldn't let us have the last word! Every time we left our testimonies or tried to leave them with an invitation to ask God for an answer, he threw out a new allegation or something! It was very frustrating. Anyways, I felt at peace about it, but it wasn't an easy thing.
Saturday: We did find one or two people this afternoon, but nothing that night, which is unusual.
Sunday: Church was hard, I only half fasted, but that was a mistake. I still lacked some nutrients, and I was pretty weak until dinner that night even though I ate lunch. My companion had a couple mishaps I won't detail that held us up at dinner until 7, and we didn't really teach that night either...
It was just... It was just hard.
BUT! Do you know why it was hard?
Do you remember what Elder Holland said: "The author of Hebrews warned us of this when he wrote, “Call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions.” That post-illumination affliction can come in many ways, and it can come to all of us. Surely every missionary who has ever served soon realized that life in the field wasn’t going to be quite like the rarefied atmosphere of the missionary training center. So too for all of us upon leaving a sweet session in the temple or concluding a particularly spiritual sacrament meeting." (Elder Holland, April 2016) Conference was one of the most spiritual experiences of my life. It would follow that Satan would put on his best "general conference" of his ranks of devilish soldiers to attack the missionaries and followers of God.
But it matters not. "They who are with us are greater than they who are with them." Or as our dear prophet quoted the hymn in conference: "But an unseen power will aid me and you in the glorious cause of truth. Fear not, courage though the enemy deride, we will stand tall for the Lord is on our side! We will fear not what the wicked will say, but the Lord our God we will obey!" There is peace in Hymns. I've been listening to them in the mornings, it has helped me persevere.
Well ni modo. Things should turn up soon! Transfers came, and I am getting an Elder I've known for awhile, Elder Myers. He has been in this zone but is hopping areas. He has a heart of gold, it should be a good time ^-^
Love you all. Go be warriors of God's great army. :)
Elder Poulson
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