Walking through we were stopped by 2 woman missionaries (as usual). One was from Seattle and the other was 1/2 Guatemalan and 1/2 German, a self-admitted unusual mix! We got to talk to them for about 45 minutes about how emotional conversions are just the stepping stone into a faith because, let's face it, most Christians become such because of an emotional experience, but that's not where it should end. Studying, reading, knowing God through His word should ensue. Most of the time all they could answer us was, "I don't have all of the answers, I just encourage you to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it." It was really sad because they were both so nice but so unable to analyze anything or think apart from emotions. There was a point where one of them even told us, "We don't like to pull out the scriptures and look at them because we don't want to seem like we're bashing." I was almost incensed at this! If you can't use your scriptures to support your faith then you have no basis! As we were winding down our conversation, a sister we had previously talked to came up and was saying hi to us.
(Backstory: the day we talked to her (Sister Astorga from Guatemala), she told us that she became a Mormon after her brother passed away because she wanted hope that she would see him again. Immediately, this puts us on very fragile ground because we need to be overwhelmingly loving before we can even try to talk to her! Also that day as we were sitting in the tabernacle, two ladies (Sister Chen from China and Sister Andrade from Brazil) approached us and were talking about how sad it is that hateful people come in just to tell Mormons that they are wrong for believing what they believe. Again, fragile ground where LOVE needed to be shown more than anything.)
Ok, backstory finished, back to the main story:
Sister Astorga came up and after 2 seconds of small talk said, "We're going to have to ask you not to stop the sisters anymore. There are people here who are genuinely interested in what we have to say and we don't need you guys taking up all of their time." Man! I wanted to be so mad! But calmly and as nicely as I could I just replied, "Oh, they stopped us, we don't ever stop anybody." Even the other ladies were on our side :)
That's the closest we came to getting kicked out of the Temple Square area.
Sunday rolled around and off to church we went. We were super blessed with a tank of gas by Ryan & Kim, a very awesome couple who heads up the children's ministry. (Thanks guys!) Then from there we headed out, taking the 80 East to Wyoming! First stop: this huge business called Little America in the middle of NOWHERE! It looks like a little tiny city but is actually just a huge business. Our van started acting up again, losing power and stuff so we pulled into their mechanic's shop. Fifteen minutes and $50 later we were back on the road with a new fuel filter. Sweet. Another 15 minutes later Monstro (aka the van), started doing the same thing again. UGH! We had already passed the next biggest city, Rock Springs, by 30 miles. (see map below)
Ok, so Little America is probably about 20 miles west of Green River (which is super tiny). Rock Springs is where the mechanic advised us to stop at the dealership, which wouldn't be open till the next day. So by the time we decided to turn back we were about where the "30" is on the map.
So that's that. We talked to the people at a fast food restaurant about what there is to do in town (nothing) and then just hung out for about 2 hours until they closed. Then we slept in the parking lot and the next day (Monday) took the van into the dealership.
Turns out our EGR Valve is (supposedly) stuck shut and isn't letting blah blah blah get into the gibberish I don't understand. Here comes the show stopper: it would cost $1,200 if we wanted it fixed and because the van has so many miles on it, it's not guaranteed. Fantastic. What the heck are we supposed to do now? So, we prayed and asked God what He would have us do. Our awesome mechanic back home (Steve Kirkwood) recommended that we hightail it out of the dealership and gave Marc some more advice that I didn't understand. So from there we made it to Cheyenne with not one single problem! Praise the Lord! And it actually hasn't acted up since! Nevertheless, the responsible thing is to get it checked out, just in case. Isaac Flores, a friend from church, hit us up on Facebook saying that his company has a campus in Laramie (see map-west of Cheyenne) that we should be able to take the van to to get checked and fixed. AWESOME! Thank you Isaac! And Jesus!
This pretty much brings us to the present. Yesterday Marc went to the men's study at Calvary Chapel Cheyenne and met a few people. We spent the night on a guy's couch where it was nice and warm :) Up at 7 am, we had breakfast and headed to the church where we met Pastor Bob and shared what we were doing and got his advice on where in the city to go, etc. First we went downtown to the Capital building, which was sweet! Outside as we walked around we talked to a girl who didn't believe in God but did believe in living a good life and if there is a heaven she will be judged according to her works. Kiiiind of true, but she's missing the most important part...Jesus!!! Next we talked to a guy who said he was Christian but attends a unitarian church. After that, 2 men, one who claimed to be a devil worshiper and the other who immediately cut us off and didn't want to "talk about religion". (There were others, but these were the noteworthy ones.)
After all of this we headed to the mall where there were tons of cars but few people. Where does everyone hang out in this city?! lol
Just to give an idea of this state:
Moreno Valley's population in 2009 was 191,766.
Cheyenne's population in 2007: 56,160
The whole state of Wyoming in 2011: 568,158.
Yeah, like nobody lives here. Side note, you also don't have to smog your car here or pay state income tax. AND! As long as you're not a felon you don't need a license to conceal. When we went to the mall today there was a sign that said "No Weapons Allowed" because apparently everyone here is strapped! You just can't take guns into courthouses, churches, or bars.
Ok, pray for us for the rest of the time here in Cheyenne, that we would have direction and know who to talk to and what to say!
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