Dear Family,
This week has been a really long week. It feels like it has been a month since I talked to you all on the phone. A lot has happened since last Monday. Wednesday was transfers. I did not get transferred, I stayed in Hartsville. We lost Elder Francis from our district and we got Elder Smart. Elder Smart is a pretty cool guy.
Sorry I didn't have any time to read through it and proof read it - it took me a while to write.
You asked if Brother Cotton got baptized, well there is a story to that:
We have been seeing Brother Cotton for about a month now. The last three weeks we have been seeing him everyday. The first week we worked with him we found that every day we did not see him, he got some kind of Anti Mormon influence, so we started to see him every day with various members to keep the devil's influence at a minimum. We taught him all the preach my gospel lessons and then some. We were reading with him out of the Book of Mormon and the Bible every day to keep him pumped up. He told us of how he felt so great while we were talking to him and how he felt pretty bad when he recieved any Anti, and we explained early on that the Holy ghost gives us feelings of love, joy, and peace while testifying of the truth. This week he was so excited to be baptized! He was reading the Book of Mormon and the gospel principles book every day. He really loved Gospel Principles. Every day he would tell us about what he learned and he was excited to learn more. Every day we would set up a time for a return appointment, the next day on his big calender he has in his front room. Early on we started to notice over time that he became a VERY popular person while we were there. Long lost friends from his childhood would try to call him during our visits, old friends from his dad's old church stopped by while we were there, his brother was there on several occasions doing something in the background- too busy to talk, the list goes on. Most notable was one day, was when his Hospis nurse left, fifteen minutes later a women showed up, huffing and puffing, she introduced her self as one of the supervisors in Hospis and she asked Brother Cotton if everything was ok, she had been told that she needed to get over there and check on Brother Cotton immediately. Nothing was wrong with Brother Cotton and she left shortly with out saying much else. We suspect that the nurse who was there a few minutes before called in and reported us. Wednesday of this week we came for our appointment with Brother Cotton and found a Hospis "Chaplin" greet us at the door. He informed us that he was formally acting and speaking on behalf of Brother Cotton. He told us that he, the Chaplin, was aware of the scheduled baptism the coming Saturday and that Brother Cotton had some "doctrinal concerns." He told us that Brother Cotton wanted to slow down and learn more about the Mormons before he made a decision. He asked us to stop seeing Brother Cotton until he called upon us and that any further visits would not be necessary. We were all very disturbed at this announcement. The awesome member we were with, Sister Wilson, became quite frustrated and asked the Chaplin quite frankly if He would be speaking on Brother Cotton's behalf when he stood before the judgement bar of God. The Chaplin, some what taken aback, replied with some hesitation that only Jesus Christ is our advocate with the Father. We asked if we could speak to Brother Cotton to which he replied that he would speak to Brother Cotton before we came in. He did so and we were let inside with the Chaplin and a hospis Representative present. (I wish I had taken notice of the names of the individuals present - we question the legality of the situation)
Brother Cotton welcomed us in warmly and invited us to sit down. Confused at this very sudden change in the heart of our soon to be baptized investigator we asked him if he had any questions for us, to which he replied that he had none. We asked him if there was anything that WE had told him that caused any confusion, to which he replied "no". We asked him if he understood the doctrine as we presented it to him, he said that he did. During this time the Chaplin and representative were silent. We paused, confused, and then Brother Cotton started asking us questions. He asked us if we knew what a cult was. We promptly looked it up in the dictionary and explained it to him, explaining that a cult is of the devil. We then asked him if he saw anything in our teachings, books, or church services that were of the devil or of a cult. He said that he did not think so and that we always spoke about Jesus Christ, and how we know that he is our Saviour. He then told us that he was told that in order to be Mormon, you have to have seven wives. We read out of The Book of Mormon in Jacob 2:27-28 and explained, as we had a few times before, that we do not believe in having more than one wife. We asked him if he knew any one that he saw at church that had more than one wife, to which he answered that he had not. At this point the Chaplin and representative from Hospis told us that they wished that we would respect Brother Cotton's decision to not see us any more, to which we replied that we had heard nothing of the sort from Brother Cotton himself. The Chaplin and Representative excused themselves, promising Brother Cotton that they would give him documents, or further evidence explaining what the Mormons believe. We testified of the resurrected Lord, Jesus the Christ, asked if he had any questions, and told him that if he wanted to learn more about us, he should come to us, not go to some one who had most likely never set foot inside one of our Churches. We explained to him that we did not teach him, or other people, about the Baptists, or Methodists, etc, we taught only what we believe, and that those he was seeking council from should do the same. He seemed satisfied but still indicated that he wanted to see what the other people had to say. We tried a few time to Anti the Anti in this manner, but still be persisted in investigating us through other sources. (We soon sent out a prayer request to the mission at this point)
The next day, Thursday we came by with Brother Haney, our Ward Mission leader. During our visit he felt prompted to view a recording that he had left with Brother Cotton, a recording of Thomas S. Monson in general conference. After some trouble with getting the DVD to play properly (the remote had no batteries) we viewed Thomas S. Monson's testimony of Jesus Christ, after which our Ward Mission leader testified powerfully of Jesus Christ and how we KNOW that he is our Saviour and that we are not a cult, nor do we practice polygamy. The spirit was strong, it testified to all of us there. When asked about his baptism, Brother Cotton asked if he could just have one more night to ponder and pray about it. (this is Thursday night) Friday, I came by with one of our fantastic Zone leaders, Elder Cowan after our Zone development meeting. (the intention being to firm him up for baptism) We dropped in unannounced, knowing that if we put anything on Brother Cotton's large calender, there would be disturbances. Right when Brother Cotton invited us in he asked us if he could still be baptized on the following day. We both smiled at each other and told him that he could and that we were so excited for his decision to be baptized. We asked him how he felt about being baptized and he told us that he was excited. He reported that after Brother Haney and we left him the previous night that he stayed up watching a full session of general conference on DVD. He told us about how he loved the music and the speakers. He told us about the wonderful feelings he felt as he listened to those powerful speakers speak on different topics. We were so excited for him! We testified to him that those feelings were the promptings of the holy ghost, telling him that what he was hearing was true. He agreed readily and asked eagerly about what we had prepared to teach him that day. We read with him about the gospel of Jesus Christ in 3 Nephi chapter 27 and discussed it. In one section, while Brother Cotton was reading, he felt so moved by the Holy ghost that he could not continue reading, his eyes were tearing up. We testified of the Holy ghost. During the conversation I felt prompted to tell him that he would be receiving some more Anti, and we told him how to deal with it. We left after determining what time we would pick up him the following day for his baptism.
About forty-five minutes - an hour later, we received a phone call from Brother Cotton. He told me on the phone that he had received "the information [he] was looking for" from a group of people and that he did not want to hear from us, see us, attend church any more, or be baptized. I tried to ask him what information had he been looking for to which he replied that he didn't want to discuss it and that he was hanging up the phone. I tried to ask him about how he felt the spirit testify to him, just a few minutes prior, to which he replied that he was going to hang up the phone. I told him that Elder Whatcott and I loved him and that he could always give us a call, after which he promptly hung up the phone.
Just a few minutes, just a few minutes after we had left they must had shown up. We probably passed each other on the highway. We were absolutely devastated.
I know that this work is real. We are fighting a battle, a battle to bring to past the eternal life of mankind. This is a battle against an opponent, who is both a very real and present danger, who is working very actively with an army to damn every soul that he can. I know that Jesus is the Christ, and that he will triumph over over evil. The question is not who will win, that is already known, what is up to us to determine is who's side will we be on.
Have a great week, I know I will! We will find the one, baptize the one, and save the one, regardless of how many people we have to go through to find the one.
Love,
Elder Calvin Smith
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