Friday Evening With Our Baptist Friends

On Friday evening we were invited to dinner and a local high school football game with our Baptist friends. On the way to dinner they took us through the country where there are a number of Amish families. We visited a little Amish farm where they sell baked goods. You can tell the Amish farms because there are no electrical wires going into the homes. We met the Amish lady, our Baptist friends had met her before, she came to the bakeshop with a new baby. I was curious where that baby was delivered and sure enough she was delivered at home. The mom mentioned that her mother delivered all of her 9 children at home. In this day and age that would save a lot of money.

This Baptist friend of ours knows a lot of people in the town where we live. The Baptist church is, by far, the largest, so during the halftime of the football game we took a little walk and he introduced me as an Elder with the Mormon Church. While I don’t think he is close to converting he has become a good friend. It was a fun evening.

A Little Service For Our Baptist Friend

When we had our last outing with our Baptist friend, I mentioned to him that we teach people about the gospel but also provided service. He said, "Well you could come and help me paint my fence." So last Monday on our preparation day, I went over and helped paint his fence. It was a nice sunny day and I really enjoyed getting out and doing some light physical labor for a change. 

Picnic With Our Baptist Friends

We have been blessed while out on the mission to be able find ways to meet people that we could share the gospel with or provide service for or assist with family history. We also have several service projects that we do each week. We typically do a weekly plan on Sunday or Monday so we kind of have each day planned out. However, there have been several times when we are a little bit at a loss trying to determine what the Lord would have us do.

We have a couple of Baptist friends that we have done a number of things with, we sit with them at the High School ball games and club house socials. They have had us over along with the young elders for a lunch. They are currently very active in their church and so we have not made a lot of progress teaching them the gospel. I have been able to help the wife with her family history. We got her set up on family search and one of her lines goes back to Joseph of Arimathea. They are good people and we know the restored gospel would bless their lives.

We had not done anything with them for some time and when we would run into them in town the husband would always say, “Call me”. About a month ago I called them and we got a message back that their granddaughter was visiting and they were tied up. Then we ran into them again several weeks ago at the little grocery store in town and had a short visit with them. Sister Anderson is always good to say we need to get together. And the husband again said, “Call me”. I called him several days later and he called back and said, "I will call you on Monday and we will plan something." 

When we did our planning on Sunday, we scheduled in some time to meet with these friends. Well Monday came and no call back from him. Tuesday morning I was thinking about our week and went to the Lord in prayer basically saying we have planned out our week but it is not working out, so we need some help. I got up from the prayer and walked in the kitchen and the phone rang. It was our Baptist friend.

He suggested we have a little picnic lunch together at an old historical park named St. Philippine Duchesne Memorial Park. This is a site that tells a little of the park.

http://www.potawatomi-tda.org/kansas/stphilip.htm

We had a nice visit with them. He has an old bible with his family names which would be a good start for him to do his family history. Back when I assisted his wife when family history, I offered to help him as well, but he declined. However, this time he accepted some help. We are finding that a lot of people out here that are pretty committed to their churches are interested in family history. 

Helping Our Baptist Friend With Family History

We had offered to help our Baptist friends with their family history. The husband didn’t take us up on the offer, but the wife did. So I gave her the information to register on Family Search. She did that and built some of her tree. I then spent a little time on it and was able to find other trees on Ancestry.com that enabled me to extend her lines significantly. Several of the public family trees I used were well documented with source data, so I felt pretty comfortable with it. Several of her lines went back to European royalty. One of her lines went back to around 1300 BC.

I was able to provide her with quite a bit of information in a relatively short time. I shared this with her:

A number of your lines get into European royalty. Once you tap into that, the records go way back. I noticed that at least one of the lines goes back to King Priam of Troy born about 1300 BC. One of the lines also goes back to Joseph of Arimathea which theoretically allows you to go back to Adam since he is mentioned in the bible. I can't say how accurate the information is because I just utilized research that others have done. I did note several famous names from European royalty as follows:

• Henry I "Beauclerc" King of England Born 1068
• William I "The Conqueror" Born 1028
• Richard II Duke of Normandy Born 963
• Pepin/Carloman I King of Italy Born 773
• Emperor Charlemagne Born 742
• Flavius Philagrius Prefect of Gaul Born 300
• Emperor Flavius Valentinian I Born 321
• Henry I of Normandy Born 1070
• Louis IV "Transmarinis"King of France Born 920
• Alfred "The Great" King of England Born 849
• King Priam of Troy Born about 1300 BC
• Joseph of Arimathea (Many interesting legends about him)

I was also able to share with her information on several of her ancestors that served in the civil war which she was interested in, as well as information on a little town in Missouri where her ancestors lived for several generations.

My thought is that if they are not quite ready for the gospel on this side of the veil we do what we can to enlist help from ancestors on the other side of the veil! :)

A Nice Comment From Our Baptist Friend

Last week we attended another High School Basketball game and the daughter of one of the families we are teaching was again performing at half time. Just like the previous week, we sat with our good Baptist friends and the husband asked, “who they should write to in the church headquarters to request that we stay out here longer”. Later in the evening they pointed out to us that their pastor was sitting two rows in front of us, I don’t suppose the pastor heard the comment about us staying out here longer.

These Baptist friends are pretty involved in their church and not currently looking for a change but the wife has started doing some of her family history. 

Lunch with our Baptist friends.

I had arranged for the missionaries to meet with our Baptist friends and it turned out they invited us all over for lunch. We had a good visit and then they showed us their animals and his antique truck (it seems many people here have antique cars and trucks). That all took time and so we never had much of a gospel discussion. I told the elders I got them invited and the rest would be up to them. Well they didn’t quite do what I had hoped. However we have worked out another opportunity for them.

The Elders had another appointment and had to leave earlier than Sister Anderson and I. We did talk about family history with the couple and the wife expressed interest in learning more about her ancestors. We are going to help her get started. We also plan to do some social things with this couple.

Finally meeting with our Baptist Friends

There is a couple we met last summer at the club house and who we now consider friends. We continue to run into them in the store, the fitness center and the clubhouse events. They are Baptist and he is the person that sang “Amazing Grace” with the Young Elders at the New Years Eve Karaoke social at the Clubhouse. That evening he indicated he would be willing to have the Elders over. I had called him after the holidays and he had a severe case of the flu, he was even hospitalized for a day. So last week I called him again and explained I didn’t know how much longer we would have our current  two elders, since one has been here for three transfers and the other is waiting on a visa to serve in South Africa. He agreed to have the missionaries over this coming Friday.