Wednesday, June 3, 2015

June 1, 2015

Dear Family,

Well a lot of crazy things have happened my second to last week in the
mission. I guess I'll just get right into it. So on Saturday we were
at this guys house named Jerry. Jerry is a younger guy in his 20's of
whom we have been working with for a bit now. He's a less active
gentleman who hasn't been to church in years. He doesn't really live
the gospel but knows its true and always sticks up for it. Well we
were at their place this week teaching his girlfriend the first
discussion out on their porch when out of nowhere this other gentleman
from across the street starts yelling at us at the top of his lungs
saying the most vain things, cussing us out, and saying the most
derogatory things towards us as missionaries and towards our church.
He made it pretty clear that he wanted us out of his neighborhood and
didn't want us to come back. I won't hide around the bush, quite
frankly he was persecuting us, and threatening to come beat us up and
possibly kill us. We didn't know if he had a gun or if he was sane in
the head so we decided to leave our discussion and get out of there.
Unfortunately to get to our car we had to go closer to where he was at
so Jerry said he would walk us out to our car. As we were doing this
the gentleman went to far and I guess ticked Jerry off a little bit so
he started to retaliate and defend us and himself and started saying
some remarks in return.(Jerry definitely should have tried to control
himself it would have saved a lot of drama) They were by no means very
quiet so by this time all the neighbors had heard and had come out and
were watching  being eye witnesses as to what had happened. So at this
time we pursued forward to call the cops because he continued to
threaten us. The cops arrived and the gentlemen who was persecuting us
continued to retaliate and cussed at the cops. We listened to the cops
orders and told them that we had recorded much of what happened if
they wanted any video evidence. So fortunately no physical harm was
done to us at this point. So later in the day(when we weren't there)
Jerry went out to get something in his car and the gentleman
blindsided him and started to attack him and beat him up. So in self
defense, Jerry apparently gave him a pretty good beating. They had
some eye witnesses and at that time the gentleman who was persecuting
us was arrested. We were definitely watched over in this experience.
Out of all the people throughout my mission who have rejected us or
didn't have anything nice to say to us this one is definitely one to
remember. I think as well it was a learning experience for Jerry. He
was able to stand up for us, and for the church and was put in this
situation and its cool to see someone we're working with stand up for
what we teach in such a way.

Its definitely weird to think that I only have about a week left and
am about to start a new chapter  in my life. Recently I've been doing
a lot of pondering about my experience the last two years and the
things I've learned. I think a lot of the times we learn line upon
line precept upon precept so I think the growth I've received
throughout my mission as been like wise and looking back I feel like I
have changed, I have grown, and most importantly my testimony has grown
as well. There were times when I felt like giving up but I didn't and
continued to push forward. The lows throughout your mission no matter
what they may be and what challenges you face, there may be more lows
than highs but the highs throughout your mission definitely outweigh
the lows. And make it all worth it. You often hear that people learn
why they were called to a certain mission. I was recently asked if I
knew why I specifically was called to the California Roseville
mission. And I think I can confidently answer that question yes.
There's been people here whom I've met and people who have changed my
life. I feel of a surety that there were people here specifically for
me who I was suppose to teach and those experiences and people are
something that I'll never forget.

I will continue to work hard for this last week and make the most of
my opportunity to put on the name badge every morning. The rest of the
work here is going great! We had a great week and are continuing to
find and teach a lot of people recently. I look forward to seeing you
guys soon!

Elder Rosenbaum