The rubber has finally met the road. I am now a missionary in the public eye in the Charleston West Virginia mission. As of right now I am serving the people of Roanoke Virginia my companion is Elder Peine. The are which the mission covers goes into a portion of Virginia. It was an interesting story getting here though.My flight was canceled as the recent storm was blowing over Charleston. So, it was arranged that my companion and I stayed at a local hotel. The next day we were finally ready to fly into Charleston. The flight was on time and we got on. We landed in Charleston and to be honest, I have never seen such a tiny airport. Not a lot of people there. We had to help unload the luggage from the plane, it was kind of funny.
Our mission President is President Pitt. He and his wife picked us up. They are nice people, that are full of love. We stayed at their house and that afternoon did missionary work with another Elder in Downtown Charleston. We walked the streets and handed out pictures of Christ with the church's information on the back. We talked to many people. Received many referrals from people we just met on the street. We then had a few minutes left so we knocked on some doors. The first door we knocked on we introduced ourselves and we were let in. We talked to the owner of the house who was working at the hospital. He was in his mid-30's. He had just informed us that he had just turned atheist. We talked some more and found out that he was a devout Baptist but being around so many atheist scientists and going to med school he had kind of given up. He said that for years he tried to understand what was truth and read many books, asked many questions but he had just given up. After listening to him I told him that the best way to live life is in the pursuit of truth. There is no greater cause. Truth is goodness and the most wonderful thing is that truth is law and absolute. There is only one truth. I then asked him if he would read one more book. He agreed he would, we gave him a Book of Mormon and then because of time we had to leave.
I don't know if I will ever meet that man again because I was only in downtown Charleston for a few hours. I'm assigned to work in Virginia. But i bore my testimony, i know that the greatness of truth and the most complete truth I have ever read from is found in the Book of Mormon.
I would like to end my email with an uplifting story that was told to me and my companion while I was in the airport waiting for my flight. We were sitting at the gate when an older woman in her mid 80's( she told us), started talking to us. We found out that she was a member of the church and had joined when she was a young mother in Texas. She told us her story. " When the missionaries came to my house they wore trench coats and fedoras ( that's how long ago it was). They brought us a Book of Mormon. My husband and I didn't think anything of it so we left it on our table and ignored it. I then talked to my aunt about the Mormon missionaries stopping by. She said to me " You read that Book!" I asked why because she herself wasn't Mormon. She said that she knew a member of the church, he was the only member she knew for hundreds of miles. "If you could be half the person that man is by reading that book than do it".
That story sung true to me. That man was such a great example that to this day I personally am hearing stories about him. I hope I can be that kind of an example.
I must close but I want all to know that the Book of Mormon is true and you can become a great person by reading it.
Sincerely,
Elder Eric Kochenderfer
Our mission President is President Pitt. He and his wife picked us up. They are nice people, that are full of love. We stayed at their house and that afternoon did missionary work with another Elder in Downtown Charleston. We walked the streets and handed out pictures of Christ with the church's information on the back. We talked to many people. Received many referrals from people we just met on the street. We then had a few minutes left so we knocked on some doors. The first door we knocked on we introduced ourselves and we were let in. We talked to the owner of the house who was working at the hospital. He was in his mid-30's. He had just informed us that he had just turned atheist. We talked some more and found out that he was a devout Baptist but being around so many atheist scientists and going to med school he had kind of given up. He said that for years he tried to understand what was truth and read many books, asked many questions but he had just given up. After listening to him I told him that the best way to live life is in the pursuit of truth. There is no greater cause. Truth is goodness and the most wonderful thing is that truth is law and absolute. There is only one truth. I then asked him if he would read one more book. He agreed he would, we gave him a Book of Mormon and then because of time we had to leave.
I don't know if I will ever meet that man again because I was only in downtown Charleston for a few hours. I'm assigned to work in Virginia. But i bore my testimony, i know that the greatness of truth and the most complete truth I have ever read from is found in the Book of Mormon.
I would like to end my email with an uplifting story that was told to me and my companion while I was in the airport waiting for my flight. We were sitting at the gate when an older woman in her mid 80's( she told us), started talking to us. We found out that she was a member of the church and had joined when she was a young mother in Texas. She told us her story. " When the missionaries came to my house they wore trench coats and fedoras ( that's how long ago it was). They brought us a Book of Mormon. My husband and I didn't think anything of it so we left it on our table and ignored it. I then talked to my aunt about the Mormon missionaries stopping by. She said to me " You read that Book!" I asked why because she herself wasn't Mormon. She said that she knew a member of the church, he was the only member she knew for hundreds of miles. "If you could be half the person that man is by reading that book than do it".
That story sung true to me. That man was such a great example that to this day I personally am hearing stories about him. I hope I can be that kind of an example.
I must close but I want all to know that the Book of Mormon is true and you can become a great person by reading it.
Sincerely,
Elder Eric Kochenderfer