We have had a really good week this week. A lot of wonderful experiences and memories. We were contacting on Stanford campus this week and as we are talking to this really nice lady who is sitting on a bench outside a dorm. This other woman walks up and asks us what we are doing. We said that we are talking with our friend. The lady then asks us if we live on campus and we say no we actually live just a block that way right off of campus. She then says that she thinks Stanford has a no soliciting policy on campus and we shouldn't be there. We said that we weren't selling anything and we were having a really nice conversation with our friend. She then says that us being there was making her uncomfortable and we needed to leave. We apologize to her and we start to walk with the woman away from the dorm. The woman then asks us, "Why she was so mean to us when all we were doing was being very friendly to her?" We said that everyone is different and we try to be nice to everyone regardless of the circumstance. She was very impressed by how we handled the whole situation and she said that she would definitely recommend her daughter to come to our church.
We said goodbye and go our separate ways, as we are walking again, we go past a group of people who are cleaning up from a BBQ and we offer to help them clean up. Then we see the same woman from before and she seemed to be in charge of the BBQ. She said, "no, we are fine thank you." So we were about to continue on our way when one of the other women, who also looked like she was in charge, asked us if we would like something to drink while we were on our way. We said sure and both got a root beer. As we were walking away, we were talking about how the whole situation had played out. We realized how important it was that we were polite and respectful of someone no matter how rude they were to us. We realized how important it was for us to be friendly and offer service to someone who may have been in need of help. I think about that woman and how she was so rude and I automatically assume that she had some kind of animosity towards the LDS church. Then I think of how the way that we were polite and friendly could have changed her entire view on the church. We were definitely guided by the spirit. I am very glad that we chose to be Christ-like in that situation rather than exploding in a huge argument of rude words and negotiable annotations. It is an example to me for how everyone can leave a hostile situation feeling uplifted.
We had a splendid lesson with one of our investigators this week. We were teaching him the plan of salvation and he has no real religious background so we knew it was going to be hard for him to understand some of the things we were going to talk about so we invited a member of our bishopric to join us for the lesson. He is a professor at Stanford and he is a single cell biologist and has done some incredible research and had some amazing breakthroughs. We knew, that with his background, he would be able to help answer any of the super intellectual questions that where asked. So we went through and taught the plan of salvation and he listened and understood everything that we taught and once we were finished he had a whole lot of those intellectual questions that I mentioned. When the lesson was finished, and we all went home, we felt like we had failed at teaching because he had so many questions and it was as if nothing we said made sense to him. But we got a text from him when we got home that said he really enjoyed the lesson and that we were definitely inspired to bring that specific member to the lesson. He said that the member was able to answer some of the questions that he has had for a very long time. It just goes to show that the spirit will work in any way it can to speak to people. We were guided by the spirit to bring a certain member and that member was able to be an answer and a testifier of the truth. I love to see all the different ways that the spirit can help us understand what God would have us know.
I have grown a lot this week. In church yesterday one of the members of our bishopric got released because he and his family are moving out to Utah. They had him and his wife both get up and share their testimonies at the end of the meeting. The wife got up and shared how much she loved the ward and her husband and how she knew that her husband loved all of us because of how devoted he was to his calling. She talked about how they had grown closer together as a family because of their service in the church. The husband then got up and shared his love for the ward. His love for his wife and two kids. His love for the gospel and the scriptures. His love for our Savior, Jesus Christ. He shared his love for God and Gods love for us. Then after they were all done and the spirit was incredible and I was full of joy and peace, the other councilor in the bishopric got up and said that he felt prompted to share one impression. He then said to a congregation of young single adults, "I hope this family has given you all a hope of what you want to have in the future. I pray that you will all strive to have the love and joy that this family shares." As he said those words it clicked inside of me. I understood at that moment. I saw right in front of me an example of what the whole purpose of life is where true joy comes from and why our Heavenly Father wants us to all return to live with him. We can be so happy when our families are built on the gospel. My view of missionary work has changed from helping individuals to helping families! The gospel is such an amazing thing. It truly does change people.
I am so happy to hear that everyone is doing well! Stay smart by going to school! Everyone but me is in school :) I'm so lucky!
I love you all! Have a fantastic week!
Elder Maxwell
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