Elder Yates: Charity never faileth

Well howdy do! Okay, there are so many things I want to tell y'all about. So I'm going to give it to you in chunks...

On Monday, we were blessed to have dinner with Jim and Sean! They are my 2 favorite people that I've taught in the mission. We went to Sean's house and had some super good Bison Burgers. During the conversation, Jim nonchalantly mentioned that he was going to get baptized this last weekend. The way he presented it, actually said it, and then moved on from it, I didn't really think anything of it. BUT HE GOT BAPTIZED!!! He sent me this photo randomly yesterday night and then called me telling me that he is grateful for my willingness to help him and check up on him. This experience really topped my week and gave me so much joy!

On Tuesday, we went to the temple! It felt so good to be back in the Lord's house again. We haven't been since October of last year, and I could feel the difference. Being able to feel such a pure connection with the Spirit is a wonderful thing. Oh how grateful I am for modern revelation!

Thursday sucked. We went through the motions from the morning hours into the afternoon. President Guthrie then called us and asked if we wanted to go talk to this African American guy named Keith. From the sounds of it, I'd say he's not really interested in talking with the missionaries, more of being friends with President Guthrie. When we got there, he was very welcoming. As we were talking, these teenagers came in and had an appointment to get their hair cut from him. So we continued the conversation while this kid was in the chair. For the entire conversation, all Keith would talk about is how racist the church is. The worst part was when he was talking about the "white Jesus, with blonde hair and blue eyes". He was telling this black kid in the chair that the slave drivers would force religion upon the slaves to make them obey. And then he said, "so they depicted Jesus as this white dude, and now when you think of Jesus, you think of slavery. And you see..... Boom!" And then the homie flippin' turned the chair and faced this kid right towards me. My face is now what that kid sees when he thinks of racism. It got me so frustrated, but I now understand what it feels like to have racism pointed at you.

Friday was amazing because I got to go on exchanges with one of our Zone Leaders, Elder Clayton. I went with him, but we cover the same Ward, so it wasn't much difference. We had a lot of really good laughs throughout the day, and it was really fun to joke around with him. We took some good videos of us goofing around. We also went to a member's home, and they had 2 Macaws. They said that they don't usually like new people, but they both climbed on my shoulder. Haha

Saturday we had a lesson with this couple from Nigeria. They both have told us that they would be baptized if we didn't believe in Tithing or a Heavenly Mother. These are both topics we tried to research, but the only evidence we could give him was from modern revelation. He wouldn't accept it, and told us it had to be from the New Testament. "If Jesus Christ didn't teach it in the New Testament, it's a sin." That is his belief. We are still working on him.

Sunday was amazing because of that surprise photo and call from Jim. He said that during his baptism, he spoke highly of my attitude towards his baptism. I'm so grateful that I got to get to know Jim for those 3 short months in MacG.

In short Brothers and Sisters, the Christlike attribute of Charity that I had been studying really came into full force this week. There were so many instances where I used it, relied on it, and prayed more fervently for it. I know and have a testimony of Charity. It truly is "the pure love of Christ".

I am so grateful to have this Gospel in my life. I am so grateful to know the truth. And I do know that this is the truth. No one can and never will be able to convince me otherwise. I've felt the Spirit too strongly in my life to go away from this.

I love all of you!

-Elder J.T.Yates