Comments on: Tales from the mission

By: Kim Siever

Kim Siever — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 14:42:06 +0000

My companion and I were waling down Mesquite Boulevard (the main drag in Mesquite, Nevada), when a man going the opposite direction walked by us. My companion noticed he was carrying a blue copy of the Book of Mormon. By the time the shock of it wore off, he was long gone.

Later that day, we were eating dinner at a local cafe and the same man sat down at the counter. He started reading his Book of Mormon. Needless to say we went over there to talk to him.

It turned out he was dating a returned missionary. we taught him the discussions and he was baptised shortly after.

By: Larry

Larry — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 02:45:52 +0000

How can we top these two great experiences.

By: George

George — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 00:33:05 +0000

I was driving the car (in England) when three bikers (with girls on the back of the motorcycles) started harrasing us. My companion opened the glove box and took the cardboard (the candy sits on) from a candy bar and rolled it into a barrel.

We had stopped at a red light and my companion said to take off fast when the light changes which I did. I beat 2 of the 3 bikers out of the intersection when the light changed. My companion who was about 6’5″ came out of his seat and leaned into the back window at which point he aimed the candy wrapper at the remaining 2 bikers.

When the bikers saw the black rolled barrell sticking out of his hand at them, they both dropped their motorcycles to the ground. I expect the bikes got pretty scratched up when they did this.

We then arrived at the round about and the first biker had made the circle, he saw his friends on the ground and my companion was out the window pointing his candy bar wrapper at the biker.

We had two tough guys on the ground and the other one going as fast as his motorcycle would take him to get away from 2 Americans and a candy bar wrapper.

I guess they thought we were gun toting Americans in England or the IRA.

By: Capt. Obsidian

Capt. Obsidian — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 19:03:37 +0000

Two of my favorite mission stories happened within a few days of each other. Elder B (no relation to JM’s companion, I assume) and I were in Almada, Portugal (across the river from Lisbon). We some time to kill between appointments so we decided to do some street contacting. To spice things up I suggested that we try a little game my older sister told me she used to do on her mission. One companion comes up with a word and the other has to work it into the contact somehow. I gave Elder B the word “sugar”. After thinking about it for a few seconds he turned around and abruptly stopped a man who was about 2 feet away from him. His name was Nelson and he was from Brazil. I have never seen a more “golden” contact. We taught him most of the 1st discussion right there on the street and made an appointment to teach him in his home that night. He was baptized about 3 weeks later. We never used the word game again for fear of ruining our perfect record.

Because of Nelson’s work schedule we had to teach him at night and we would typically return to our apartment around 10:00 PM (which was the official mission time to be home). On night on our way home from teaching him, some kid around 18-20 years old came up to me, grabbed my arm, and asked for money. I pulled away from him and said, “Go away, I’m not giving you any money.” So he goes over to Elder B and demands money from him, saying he needed it to buy drugs. Elder B refused to give him money and some heated words followed on both sides, with tempers escalating.

Elder B finally said something that enraged the kid and he pulled a knife on us. He held the knife out at Elder B and said, “Oh yeah, well how would you like this stuck in you?” Elder B, who was about 6′ and 190 lbs., cocked his fist back and got right up in the kid’s face and said, “Well how would you like my fist stuck in your face? I guarantee you it would hurt worse.” The kid, who was about 5’10” and 160, started shaking and backing down, but still holding the knife out. At this point I could see that Elder B was actually going to beat the snot out of the kid, so I had to pull him away as the kid was backing off. This has become my favorite story to tell, the time someone pulled a knife on us and my companion nearly beat him up.