Letter #35 - Week of 8 Oct 2008 - Fire and Brimstone Preacher

Hello,

This last week went very fast. Time is flying. I still feel new. Maybe that comes from still being in the same place I started. I'm not sure. Sunday afternoon, one verse from my scripture study stood out to me. 1 Corinthians 1:27 says "But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty."

As for Juni, well, he didn't come to church on sunday. We visited him on Sunday night and brought our branch president and his wife. When we were walking up to his apartment, I saw that Juni's cousin Christopher was waiting, apparently for us. I didn't think anything of it at the time, but looking back it's very obvious. When we entered and sat down, Juni told us that the whole family had gone to the United Pentecostal church that morning, and the pastor from the church wanted to come have a talk with us. If there is one thing I hate as a missionary, it is meeting pastors. That is the worst thing in the world, in my mind. There is nothing I enjoy about meeting with them. So that made me uncomfortable. I remember slouching in my chair, my heart beating faster, knowing it was going to be a long night.

Mr. Pastor was nice when he walked in. They always are. He was breathing heavy, and made a joke to Juni about climbing so many stairs. He introduced himself to us and said a few kind words in perfect english. Then, after he asked Juni to move from his seat so he could sit, he squared his muscular shoulders to us, clapped his hands and said "Okay! Let's do it in 20 minutes." I groaned to myself "what do you want to do in 20 minutes?" He continued. "You don't need an hour for the Bible. 20 minutes should be enough." He started to discourse to us, but I, simultaneously with Elder Stone, stopped him and asked that we had a prayer first. Of course, he was happy with that idea. Sister Ruth (the branch president's wife) asked Juni who he would like to say the prayer. I wish she hadn't said anything. We needed that prayer very badly. We needed the Spirit with us, and I knew well that Juni would grant the pastor the privelege of praying. And thus he did. The Pastor chanted with a loud, powerful voice "O Lord Jesus, We thank thee Lord, O Lord because we have thy word O gracious Lord and we are freed O Lord ..." You get the idea of what that did for bringing the Spirit. After every sentence the pastor would say, Christopher would chime in "yes Lord." After that, we offered to have a prayer of our own, which we did.

Mr. Pastor claimed he wanted to listen to our message. He maybe gave us 2 minutes before blasting us. I wish I had a film of that exchange. This pastor was extremely intelligent and highly skilled in his craft. He spoke with force and speed that I have never before heard. He got out in 1 hour things that I couldn't say in 4. He spilled out his whole religious philosophy, as well as everything he could identify with our church to be wrong according to his teachings. He spoke of fire and brimstone and the fact that either he or we were going there, and quite frankly, he wasn't. His techniques were designed to agitate us to contention.

Meanwhile, we stayed calm. We listened. When Mr. Pastor would ask a question and give us a few seconds, we would answer. Bit by bit, we got our message across. As soon as I got the time, I looked him in the eye and said "I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true, and the authority from Jesus Christ has been restored through the prophet Joseph Smith." I think I saw him hesitate for half a second before he went on with his tirade. I have tried to imagine what it was like for Juni and his family to watch the pastor provoke the missionaries for two hours in a language they didn't understand.

By the time the circus was all through, I had a very bad headache. His words left me unsettled the whole next day. But what really bothered me from the whole escapade was that Juni was being led astray by this man that showed absolutely no respect for him. My heart ached.

Tuesday afternoon, we went back to Juni. We wanted to go there and pretend like nothing happened, but at the same time fully expecting that after we had left, Mr. Pastor got in a few more words against us that would lead to Juni not learning any more. We walked in like normal, sat down like normal, and after a normal prayer we asked our normal question about Juni's coffee drinking. We had an awesome appointment with them. They expressed their desire to get baptized, and apologized that Christopher's pastor had come and tried to fight with us. In fact, I think Julia was more excited than ever for her baptism. She expressed how the day before, she hadn't felt really good, but then while reading the Book of Mormon she felt a lot of peace. By some of the questions, it seemed very clear the Pastor had a long talk with Juni and Julia, and it seems Juni was negatively affected, while Julia only got stronger. But the truth of God is bound to sink into them sooner or later, and it better be sooner, cause I don't know how much longer I've got in Sandakan.

Douglas has me a little worried. He actually fell through for an appointment yesterday. He hasn't ever fallen through on anything. We'll get that figured out before long, hopefully.

Jaimi's older sister Bibi didn't go back to their village after all. It seems like she'll be here long enough to be baptized, if not much longer. The only thing holding her back right now is that she is still falling into the habit of smoking. She stopped for a few days, and was feeling good, then out of sheer habit she smoked again. She said the cigerette gave her a headache.

Congratulations to Andrew and Christina on the baby. He is awfully cute.

Well, that's that.
Love,
Elder Muffler