"Even if it has one word of God, it is like a Bible."

This week was... pretty tiring.

Something funny about missionary work is you'll walk. A lot. But the funny thing of that is you'll find yourself in situations where expressing that would not be smart, or it's not important.

This week, Elder Paez and I went to the Language Exchange Club to practice French and get to know them more. However, it was just after institute, so we had to run over as quick as we could to get as much time talking with everyone as possible.

However, guess WHO forgot their metro card?

Me.

So we started our walk there. It wasn't really far in missionary terms, but we could have gotten there a lot sooner. We could have probably gotten there with a lot less sweat too. We arrived to the Cafe and they welcomed us to join them again. Despite we had just literally just booked it over, we kinda pretended we just walked our usual distance so to not change our usual interactions. Man, I was tired though.

Today, there was the usual attendees, but two people joined us over time. The first man sat at the table with us and immediately recognized our tags. I think he thought we were there with malcontent, but once he realized we were there just to participate in conversations, he began speaking to us. Despite this was the French language group, he began speaking to us in very 'posh' English (most people can pick out I'm American just by looking at me.) I think he was trying to show off, because he began doing the same when speaking in Spanish with Elder Paez.

"You two haven't said much-- you won't even drink because that is forbidden by your religion," he said teasingly. He waited for me to respond.

"Yeah, it is," I shrugged. I don't know what he was going with that, but that was the end of that. Elder Paez and I were bit nervous that remarks like that would progress, and he did continue to tease us near to the time we left. But that is the thing. We both decided to not take offence by that, and continued interacting with everyone and him as well. And guess what! Things lightened up. It really showed to us that if your're honest and have patience, things can become positive even if first impressions show they might not be.

As we left, he said to us, "Next time, we would like to hear you both talk more, you both kept pretty quiet." So even though he teased us about our religion at first, he enjoyed talking to us by the end.

I feel like every email I have some stories from our whiteboards. That's probably because it's one of the best ways for us to talk to people. This week, we did two of them, and each time was an interesting experience.

Since most of us missionaries will go to our whiteboard activities, we have started splitting off into two groups, each having a whiteboard, and going to different places in Sigdagma. Usually, it is Elder Paez, Jenkins, and I at one whiteboard. We found good place, and set up the whiteboard.

We've really been trying to make our actions a lot more focused on Jesus Christ, so most of our questions on the whiteboard have to do with Jesus Christ. Sometimes this turns people away, but it also draws in more people that are interested in having a conversation with us.

As we stood at the whiteboard, a man leaving a coffeeshop stood across the street, looking at the whiteboard. One of asked if he wanted to write something. He didn't answer, but started walking over.

"I am Muslim, but I love Jesus Christ. Did you know he is a big part of the Koran?" We explained we hadn't read it yet after he implied.

"You all... you are my brothers. And I love you. People have corrupted that word now, but I love you. You are amazing that you are so young and believe." He continued to explain many ideas and many of his beliefs, that matched our own. He expressed how much he loved the bible. He confessed to us, "Will you pray for me? I am so sinful and done so many wrong things... I am so sinful, but I know you are young and still pure, and if you pray for me, it will work." We of course promised him we would and tried to tell him about the atonement.

Then, we handed the Book of Mormon to him. He asked if it was a bible, and we explained it's like one, but it is additional scripture for us today.

He took it, kissed it, and held it against his chest. "Even if it has one word of God, it is like a Bible." He kissed it again and with tears in his eyes, walked away.

He wasn't interested in learning the gospel, but he loved us and respected our beliefs in his own way. I can't express my gratitude enough for experiences like that.

I'm sorry to conclude this email short, but today has been a bit difficult to write an email. Anything I didn't include in this email, I'll throw into my next one. I keep a bullet pointed list.

I did however get to go to the Acropolis today! It was amazing and remarkable. I was nerding out the entire time, I hope I didn't bother Elder Paez, Jenkins or the APs too much with my random facts lol.

Love you all at home! Those of you about to start missions or have started by the time you get this, I'm excited for you and I love you! The work welcomes you with open arms!

Elder Dylan Hansen