I was vising a less active family, who has not come to church in a really long time, a couple of years. And i went to teach them, and only two of the kids attended us. And so we are there talking to them, when one of the kids says something in sing language to his sister, trying to keep a secret from us. But little did they know that Elder Crockett is a tri lingual missionary. And i totally caught their entire secret, so i called them out, and then told them that (in sign language) that i speak a little bit of sign language, and they thought it was super cool and so the three of us start talking in sign language (my companion was totally lost the whole time haha),
and as we are talking their dad comes in and sees that we are all talking in sign language, and so he sends his two kids out, and then he starts talking to me in sign language as well (but he also spoke in spanish at the same time) And so we are all talking in sign language, and he is teaching me and my companion more sign language, and after talking to him for a while he really started to open up with us. And started to tell us about a ton of awesome memories that he had speaking sign language, and after a whole we asked why did he start learning sign language.
And he told us that he used to have a son, who when he was a little kid got sick, and lost his ability to hear. And so he decided to learn how to speak in sign language so that he and is son would be able to communicate. And so they both learned how to speak in SL together. And he started telling us, how he would always be with his son. They did everything together. And he showed us a bunch of pictures of him too. But they were always together. But 7 years ago (when his son was in his 20s) his son died. And it was incredibly painful for him. Especially because they literally did everything together every day for 20 years. and when he died it was so painful for him to see sign language, that he forced all of his family to stop speaking in sign language, and he stopped speaking in that language as well.
And for years and years he was doing everything possible to forget about his son, because it was so painful to think about him because of how much he loved him that he did everything in him power to stop thinking about him. But then I come along throwing out sign language like i know what im doing, and it really touched his heart. And he remembered all of those wonderful experiences that he had with his son, and the rest of his family. And he got really emotional talking with us and said ``Elders you have just touched my heart in a way that you can not possible imagine. You have just helped much more that i will ever be able to explain. Thank you so much´´
I remember i went home that night and i was so amazed
with how God used my idiotic desires to learn Sign Language to help
somebody so much. I started learning the language just to waste time
because i was learning spanish so quickly that i didnt care about studying spanish at all and so i just dedicated myself to learn other
languages (just three others Portuguese, mandarin Chinese, and Sign
Language) (And even though in my mission i have had opportunities to use
all three of the languages this was really the first time that i used
it to help someone understand that God is really there, and that He
Loves them.) And i just thought it was so amazing that God used my stupid
time wasting desires to reach out to one of his lost sheep. I could
keep going on about my thought of this but i already have a couple pages
in my Journal dedicated to that and so if anyone cares just ask me to
show it to you some day, and i totally will.
I still have a ton of internet time so i am going to
write you another story from this week. I was contacting a reference
that i got this last week. (And oh my gosh that reference was awesome. I
am helping her stop smoking right now, and i have never seen someone
stop smoking as miraculously quick as she is doing) But after contacting
the reference i was walking down the street when i little girl contacts
me in the street and said ``Hey do you want to come to my house?´´ And i
say ``Maybe another day we are kind of busy right now´´ And she says
``Oh dont worry about.´´
She then grabs my hand and tries dragging me
to her house. So follow the little girl, and she brings us to her door
step and says ``My mom is inside waiting for you. I`ll knock the door
for you´´ She then starts slamming on her door yelling ``MOM THERES
SOMEONE HERE WHO WANT TO TALK WITH YOU!!!!!´´ And i just think to myself
``Oh my gosh, i can just feel an awkward moment coming.´´ (which is
normal, missionaries have alot of awkward moments haha) But the woman
answers the door and is super nice! And she invited us to come in, and
we ask if there was a man there, but she told us no, so we told her that
we couldn't come in but we could just talk in the door way, and so she
told us to wait, and left, and then came back with a couple of chairs
and gave them to us to sit in.
And so we just started to talk to her
there in the door, and immediately she starts talking about baptism. And
how her two kids (little girl is 8 years old, and a son that is 10)
have never been baptized, and wanted that we baptized them. And then
before i had time to speak started saying about how she is also willing
to get baptized Mormon if she feels that the church is true. And so i
teach them a little bit, and set the three of them up with a baptism
date (thats after transfers so i may not be here to baptize them), and
then set up another appointment to come by with a member.
In just this last week ive already taught them 3 time. The little
girl is super cute she wanted to draw the other day so i drew her a
truck, and she drew herself drifting in with two missionaries the back,
one of them a black guy, and the other one a white guy with glasses
This was actually a really awesome week for us, we found a ton of
new people to teach and they are all awesome.. Welp I love you all. Keep
me posted on your adventures
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