This story is as true as the Lord liveth.
We had planned this morning to spend our entire afternoon in the SE corner of our area. We set a whole day a part to do so because its about a 50 minute bike ride to get there. The idea was to spend majority of our time tracting and to visit the few members of our ward who live down there. Neither one of us had been in that area before so it was good to finally get down there. It's very rural and nothing like the rest of Fairwood. Houses are sitting on 5 acre lots, long 1/2 mile driveways, barns and corrals all over. It was so nice getting out of the over populated suburbs. The smell of hay mixed with cow manure reminded me a lot of home and I loved it.
After the long journey to get there, we were about 1/4 mile outside of our area just about to re-enter our ward boundary. (We had to go out and around our boundary to get to the SE corner). We were cruising down the steep hill traveling roughly 30 mph. I had my head down enjoying the cool breeze and not pedaling. As I started the incline of the hill on the other side I picked up my head and started to pedal again.
I looked up right in time, out of the corner of my eye I noticed a black blur coming in my direction. My first assumption was a dog. As I turned and gave it my full attention, I realized quickly that it was not a dog. It was in fact a full grown black bear. And it was trotting out into the road coming directly for me. I fell into shock but luckily I did not freeze. (This is why God gave me big thighs). I used them to pedal and pedal fast. I pedaled and screamed and screamed and pedaled. Still not knowing what just happened, I made it to the top of the hill and I looked back just in time to see Elder Sugi get to encounter it as well. He was pedaling with his head down until I yelled at him. When his eyes rose up the bear was within arm reach of him. He let out a good yelp as he pedaled with fear to get away from our new friend. When he reached the top of the hill we pulled into a man's driveway and watched the bear hop the railguard and vanish back into the woods. Standing in shock and disbelief, Elder Sugi and I stood there shaking as re re-counted our story to the stranger in his driveway. (He came running out probably because he heard our "loud talking"). We took 10 minutes or so to re-gather ourselves and calm down and we continued our tracting. All while we were still in utter disbelief of the event that just took place.
We went another 1/2 mile down the road, locked our bikes up and started to walk down a dirt road bordered by forest on both sides. We knew of a few members who lived about a mile in and we were going to tract our way there. We received a few abrupt no's at first and then we met Bill (about an hour after the bear encounter). Bill was very nice. He stepped out of his house and just talked to us on his front porch. We got to talking and we told him of our bear story that had just previously happened. He asked a lot of questions such as where? when? how? Then he asked "how big was it"? Elder Sugi answered back, "I don't know, probably 7-8 feet tall when standing". Bill did not believe it could have been that big. "No way!" he says "that would be like a world record or something". I said "No matter how big it was it sure scared the crap out of us." "Holy shit! There it is!" Bill points and exclaims. Me not trying to fall for it did not blink an eye. I wouldn't turn around thinking he was just pulling our tails. "No really guys it's right there!" He hopped off his porch for a better view. I turned around hesitantly and sure enough a black bear was right behind us in Bill's driveway standing broad side looking right at us. I could not believe it! And the bear just walked away into the trees again. Bill absolutely lost it. The first thing he says is "That's a big sucker! Sorry for not believing you." He ran back inside, got his boots on and told us to hop into his truck. He wanted to see it again. So we raced over and hopped in his pick-up and took off down the direction the bear was heading. We didn't see it again after that, but we had a nice chat with Bill. He didn't feel safe letting us walk in the woods anymore. So he insisted on giving us a ride to our next appointment and we gladly accepted. As he drove us to the Jacobson's he asked, "So why did you actually know on my door?" I happily answered him. I taught very briefly about the Restoration and told him that the Book of Mormon is proof of this that you can hold in your hands and read to the truth of the message that we share. Would you like your own book? And he said he would love one, so we gave him one and invited him to read. Just before we left Bill said, "Thank you. If you two hadn't knocked on my door I would never have seen that bear. I have lived here for 23 years and I have never seen anything like that. That is the neatest thing I have ever seen. So thank you."
And after that, nothing really mattered the rest of the day to write about.
Elder Hawken (ward mission leader)
