You've seen the play, now read the book!

Well this week has been a little different than most! Some exciting things have been goin down here in RVA. :)

Last Sunday President Wilson had most of the missionaries in the Richmond area meet together to talk about the Book of Mormon play that was coming to Richmond. I had been hearing rumors that is was coming for a few months, but I wasn't sure when so I was so excited that it was coming while I was here!

So, we got to the church and President told us that there was going to be 8 shows over the course of the week and that we were going to be standing outside the theater at every showing handing out copies of the Book of Mormon and talking to people! We were so pumped!! He told us he expected to hand out a few hundred copies of the Book of Mormon and that is was mostly a public affairs deal, more than a proselyting thing. 

As I'm sure you know, this play is definitely not made by the church and is super crude and basically a satire that makes fun of missionaries. Haha so our plan was just to show people what Mormon missionaries are actually like. :) 

Tuesday was the first show and at first we were standing right outside the doors, handing out cards and books..... but then we got kicked off the property hahaha. The cops said we couldn't hand anything out in front of the theater. So! We just went across the street, to the corner next to the theater, and basically every way that people had to walk to get there. So it was no biggie. :) 

Before the play started no one really wanted to talk to us. I think we handed out some cards and a few books, but nothing crazy. A lot of people laughed in our faces, said rude things, yada yada. BUT, after the play was a different story. 

Throughout the week, no one wanted to talk to us before, but after the play ended we were giving out boxes and boxes and boxes of books. IT WAS CRAZY! People would come back and ask for a book and want to take pictures with the elders haha, I've never seen anything like it. 

This is what President Wilson said in his weekly email this week:

"Finally, a marvelous work and a wonder were done in connection with the play The Book of Mormon. We distributed approximately 2,000 copies of the Book of Mormon to theater goers. The missionaries that helped with this service represented us all very well. People thought our missionaries were cast members. They wanted to take pictures with them. Our missionaries were great in being friendly about the gospel and inviting people to learn more."

2,000 copies of the Book of Mormon! It was crazy. We handed out pretty much every Book of Mormon in the mission, and we even had to go get some boxes from the D.C. South mission, and we still ran out. 

Elder Collie, an elder in our ward even got interviewed on the news for it. I think you could find it online somewhere haha. It was just crazy.
 It was cool to be a part of it and give people a chance to see what the Book of Mormon actually is, and testify to them in just a few short seconds that we knew it was true and would change their life. :) One of the prophets said that the Book of Mormon will flood the earth, and it is! 

Other than that, we've just been busy trying to find new people to teach! It's hard to kind of just start over fresh with investigators, but I know there are

more people here who are ready! We just need to find them. :) 

Not much else is new! Last Sunday we watched the CES devotional and it was in the Odgen tabernacle and that was crazy to see! I saw some people in the audience that I knew. 

I hope all is going great at home! Thanks for all the love and support! 

Love you!

XOXO Sister Fowers