Dear family and everyone else,
A wonderful event occurred at church yesterday. Corey Sheeringa came to church again, and this time, he and his kids (Korra, Payton, and Noah) stayed the whole time. After some careful planning, we were able to encourage him to come again and not feel so embarrassed. Sister Ivers even gave a helping hand and took Noah to sit by them a few rows down from us. She kept him entertained, and Corey was able to listen along with his twins. It was a great day for him. Noah was sick the night before with a fever. He seemed to be doing okay at church. They brought down his fever, but that tired him out. We even had a violin duet during the meeting. Noah loves music. As soon as they started playing, he dropped everything he was doing and locked his eyes right on the violinists. He was completely captivated from what sister Ivers said. It was also brought to our attention that he also has a mild form of autism, so that just threw something into the mix to make things a little more difficult, but we will get Corey one of these days.
Later last night, we went with Brother Nate to Tracy again for Mission Preparation, and this time we were able to witness a panel with 4 people of other faiths and ask a few questions on what they believe and how faith has helped them in their lives. The first person was a girl in her 20's. She grew up Catholic but could not reach out and feel her faith strengthened, so she was invited by a friend to join a non-denominational church, and she felt she made the better decision. She feels she can come closer to God and renew her faith in him. The music is also what excites her the most too.
Then, there was an Orthodox Jew. He was also young, tall, and skinny. He said the Jewish faith is very ritualistic and has been passed down from generation to generation.
Lastly, was the older Islamic couple. They are from the minority part of the Muslim faith. She related what we as students have learned about general religions of the world in school. They have 5 pillars of Islam. I won't go into much detail about that one. She also said that we must look at the context of all things. The 3 points in the Koran that talk about killing, or killing the infidel, is by self defense only. From any religion, one can take one scripture and completely take it out of context, but when we read the verse before and after a chosen verse, we get a better idea about what the verse is trying to tell us. They also believe in being in unity with modern day society. Their Sabbath Day used to be Thursday evening to Friday sundown, but they have recently moved it to Saturday, the way the Jews do it. The only day the women completely cover themselves in their branch of faith, is on Sunday's. The other part about 70 virgin's: Well...from what she told us, there is nothing in the Koran that says or even hints out that a man is given 70 in the first place. She said, "There just aren't enough to go around anyway." It was funny the way she said it. She laughed, and we all laughed. She and Brother Nate made sure that the atmosphere was happy and light so all could benefit from this wonderful meeting. Overall, it was a great learning experience to see the other person's view so that we are never biased. If you need to know something, talk to a person who is in the faith rather than an outside source. It's like for us. What's a Mormon? I don't know, go ask one yourself.
One other thing to note for this week. We haven't found anybody to teach this week. Nobody seems to be home who we have been working with, so on Saturday, as we were walking down Main Street, Brother Cortex spotted us and pulled over. He picked us up and we then helped him move somebody's stuff into a storage unit for 2 hours. It was a huge moving trailer with lots of stuff. They are soon moving somewhere into Manteca. They don't know where yet.That's about it. Have a great week.
Sincerely,
Elder White
Risk party on P-day
A wonderful event occurred at church yesterday. Corey Sheeringa came to church again, and this time, he and his kids (Korra, Payton, and Noah) stayed the whole time. After some careful planning, we were able to encourage him to come again and not feel so embarrassed. Sister Ivers even gave a helping hand and took Noah to sit by them a few rows down from us. She kept him entertained, and Corey was able to listen along with his twins. It was a great day for him. Noah was sick the night before with a fever. He seemed to be doing okay at church. They brought down his fever, but that tired him out. We even had a violin duet during the meeting. Noah loves music. As soon as they started playing, he dropped everything he was doing and locked his eyes right on the violinists. He was completely captivated from what sister Ivers said. It was also brought to our attention that he also has a mild form of autism, so that just threw something into the mix to make things a little more difficult, but we will get Corey one of these days.
Later last night, we went with Brother Nate to Tracy again for Mission Preparation, and this time we were able to witness a panel with 4 people of other faiths and ask a few questions on what they believe and how faith has helped them in their lives. The first person was a girl in her 20's. She grew up Catholic but could not reach out and feel her faith strengthened, so she was invited by a friend to join a non-denominational church, and she felt she made the better decision. She feels she can come closer to God and renew her faith in him. The music is also what excites her the most too.
Then, there was an Orthodox Jew. He was also young, tall, and skinny. He said the Jewish faith is very ritualistic and has been passed down from generation to generation.
Lastly, was the older Islamic couple. They are from the minority part of the Muslim faith. She related what we as students have learned about general religions of the world in school. They have 5 pillars of Islam. I won't go into much detail about that one. She also said that we must look at the context of all things. The 3 points in the Koran that talk about killing, or killing the infidel, is by self defense only. From any religion, one can take one scripture and completely take it out of context, but when we read the verse before and after a chosen verse, we get a better idea about what the verse is trying to tell us. They also believe in being in unity with modern day society. Their Sabbath Day used to be Thursday evening to Friday sundown, but they have recently moved it to Saturday, the way the Jews do it. The only day the women completely cover themselves in their branch of faith, is on Sunday's. The other part about 70 virgin's: Well...from what she told us, there is nothing in the Koran that says or even hints out that a man is given 70 in the first place. She said, "There just aren't enough to go around anyway." It was funny the way she said it. She laughed, and we all laughed. She and Brother Nate made sure that the atmosphere was happy and light so all could benefit from this wonderful meeting. Overall, it was a great learning experience to see the other person's view so that we are never biased. If you need to know something, talk to a person who is in the faith rather than an outside source. It's like for us. What's a Mormon? I don't know, go ask one yourself.
One other thing to note for this week. We haven't found anybody to teach this week. Nobody seems to be home who we have been working with, so on Saturday, as we were walking down Main Street, Brother Cortex spotted us and pulled over. He picked us up and we then helped him move somebody's stuff into a storage unit for 2 hours. It was a huge moving trailer with lots of stuff. They are soon moving somewhere into Manteca. They don't know where yet.That's about it. Have a great week.
Sincerely,
Elder White
Risk party on P-day