Week 5

Elder and Sister Blattman’s Missionary Weekly Journal
January 30-February 6, 2011

After feeding the Elders yesterday evening they split up and we took one of the Elders to meet Milton and his family. Milton could easily have been named ‘Rocky’ as his small living room in a crowded Philly suburb was filled with trophies and belts from boxing. Both the dad and the oldest boy were Miltons and both had impressive boxing records. The younger Milton, just 10 years old, had recently returned from Puerto Rico where he had won his third world boxing championship.
At first the dad sat slumped on the couch still in his work clothes, perhaps just tired, but letting his wife answer all the Elder’s questions. He occasionally gave short one word responses. The missionary was explaining many of the things from Preach My Gospel about enduring to the end, that is, the temple, patriarical blessings, the priesthood, etc. Sister Blattman asked them how they came to join the Church. The mom first started to tell the story and then he took over the thread of the story in a strong Philly accent. It was like listening to a humble Sylvester Stallone. He had read the Bible as a youth and had an intuitive understanding of the plan of salvation. His Pentecostal minister couldn’t answer his questions. One day after a big snow storm, the Elders were shoveling snow in his neighborhood and they met on the sidewalk. When they taught him the plan of salvation he knew the Church was true. He read the Book of Mormon and they became active for a time but had drifted into inactivity until recently. During the lesson the missionary mentioned father’s blessings and one of the little boys asked for a blessing to help him win his wrestling match. The Elder stuttered a moment, perhaps concerned that Milton didn’t have the Melchezidec Priesthood, and I jumped in and said, “Sure, you can have a blessing.” The father responded to the invitation to stand in and we ended up giving a blessing to two of the boys. Milton opened up after that and told us about growing up, moving away, and then returning to the neighborhood. He had been a sober young man who, unlike his friends, read the Bible often, and he attended the Pentecostal church. As a young man, a coach took an interest in him and sponsored him in wrestling and boxing and even paid his way to tournaments. That saved him from some of the trouble that could have entangled him. We enjoyed making friends with this family.