Elder Jantsen Thorpe August 2017-2019: Defending the Faith...

Hey gang! This week on #whatsmysnack we have the one and only Famous Dave's BBQ! Definitely some of the best brisket and spare ribs I've had! They have like 6 different BBQ sauces and I tried them all and can't decide which I like best, they are all money!

Pretty interesting week we had, full of bashing against the trinity! Just kidding, we don't bash, we just "defend the faith";) on Wednesday we met with one of the YSAs. We met him at Rock Valley Collge and sat in this learning center. He was nice at first and we got to know each other a little bit, then he said, "the problem I have with Mormonism is you believe you can become God and you believe God has a body ". He then started throwing out all sorts of biblical scriptures telling us how we were wrong. Elder Bagley had some great responses to him but this guy wasn't having it. So elder Bagley started to get upset. He was fuming and he slammed his hand on the table and told him that he didn't have a desire to know if this church was true and that us meeting with him is pointless. Then he stood up, grabbed his stuff and left. I kinda just sat there in shock haha then I realized that he left and I needed to leave with him, so I hurried and grabbed my stuff, shook the man's hand and said, "Well, it was great to meet you, have a great day!" Then I dipped. It all happened so fast haha.

Then on Thursday elder Hollist and I were on an exchange together and we taught this lady named R. She started going in on how the trinity is true, so we read Mathew 3 with her about the baptism of Jesus. We explained how they are 3 separate distinct beings. Her answer to everything we said was, "well yeah, he's the son in the flesh", it made no sense. Then I bore testimony of the book of mormon and invited her to read and pray to know if it's true and out of nowhere she says, pointing at elder Hollist, "well, he told me the book of mormon wasn't the word of God!" Elder Hollist was like, "Woah, What? I never said that!" Haha somehow 90% of the people in Illinois are clinically insane!

As I was reading Alma 4 and 5 this week I realized that there are going to be those people who are very stubborn and won't accept what I say and all I can do is be like Alma and "bear down in pure testimony!" Nothing trumps a testimony! We may not have answers to everyone's questions about the church, but the most powerful thing we can do is bear testimony!!

Elder Thorpe