So this week has been a super cool week. We were just walking down the street (as always) and ran into this around 60 year old guy walking down his driveway. We were about to talk to him, but he flagged us down first, and just asked "I see you guys all the time, why do you walk so much?". We then just led into who we are and our church, and talked about the book or Mormon. He is one of the most genuine men I have met, and asked us if we could come over and teach him. We had to hand him over to the English Elders, which is still kinda annoying, but they taught him and he came to church Sunday, and stayed for a Baptism after! The man went to 4 hours of church and just loved it! We were sitting next to him for priesthood in the 3rd hour, and he told us that he had gotten home and was going to just go inside, but the he saw us down the street and that a good feeling told him to just wait to talk to us. That made our day.
It really goes to show how important it is to always be an example, and to remember that we are servants of Christ. It gets hard to feel like a pure, representative some times when you have been walking for 6 hours, your most recent blister has popped, and you are almost hungry enough to eat your tie, and honestly, sometimes bitterly expecting the next door to slam in your face with a curseword like the last 5. I almost thought the guy was flagging us down to try to bash with us. But it is always nice to get that reminder that people can recognize it if they are humble enough, and the Lord knows were are trying and still lets us be his servants, as imperfect and impatient as we so often are.
I continue to learn so much about the need to listen to the spirit. I have had to real myself back lately. It is a cycle every missionary goes through. In the beginning you know nothing and have to rely on the spirit so desperately, but then, over time, start to think you know enough and find yourself getting a bit arrogant, then the Lord has to show you just how little you know again. My companion and I were teaching an inactive member. She had invited us back after giving her a blessing last week, but started off the lesson by saying that she was happy with her new church and didn't want to change. We started talking about her conversion story to the Gospel 20 years ago, and she almost couldn't tell the story of her baptism without tears filling her eyes, yet she still through out a list of concerns and reasons she had fallen away. I quickly whipped out scripture and started teaching what I "knew" would answer her concerns perfectly, while my companion stayed silent. I started addressing all of her concerns with scripture and other things that directly spoke of and answered them, but the spirit kept nudging me away. I wouldn't listen at first, because on the surface, it all seemed like perfect answers, but looking at her, you could tell it wasn't going anywhere. Finally I shut up for a moment, and after a short pause, my companion (who just hit 4 weeks in the field) started to talk. He just bore a simple testimony about the importance of prayer and not giving up on what you know to be true.
We then asked here to pray as a closing prayer, and after she did, she raised her head back up and was crying. She said she knew it was true, she felt it, but that she didn't know how to tell her family and get their support when they were so against it. We were then able to have a short, but awesome lesson to help her, and the spirit was present and strong as we followed it. She called us later that night and told us she would be at church, and had set up a ride with her visiting teacher. All her other reasons before had just been excuses to try and ignore her testimony so that she wouldn't have to face the backlash of her family for going to a different church, and If I had just listened to the spirit, I would have learned sooner. I am learning more and more why the Lord sends us in twos. So if one is being too stubborn to listen, the other can smack him upside the head. Love you guys, I know this church is true.
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