Dear Family,
So I'm on my 9th to last day in Hot Springs. I will have been with
Sister Gladden for 6 months (well, not including the MTC). Isn't that
crazy? It's been a good run. It will be hard to leave the area...but
alas, I must.
This weekend was a special one for our area. We did this outreach
program where all the missionaries from our zone came to Hot Springs and
we all went on splits with the members to visit less active families to
invite them to take the missionary lessons
again. The ward council made 25 different routes and we all went out
on Saturday morning. It was a special feeling. I went out with Sister
Nelson. At the beginning she said, "I am scared. I've never done this
before". I said, "Oh, don't be scared, it's
not scary. You are going to be wonderful!" When inside I was thinking
about how I was scared too cause I'm not usually the leader, or haven't
been in our companionship for the last 6 months. It went really well
though! Probably the best experience we had
was trying to find Jeffery Lowery at 1008 Leach St. I knew I would
like him because he spells his name like my Daddy does. Well there we
were on leach street and there is no 1008 to be found. They were all in
the hundreds. I suggested that maybe it was
supposed to say 108. We looked for that-but there was not a 108
either. We ended up skipping to the next person on our route. After
that visit, I said, "Let's go try Leach St one more time." As we drove
down, we looked at every house. We got to the end
of the street where we saw a house that said 100 A. Sister Nelson
said, "I bet you anything that is the house". We got out of the car and
this way nice guy came out. We talked to him for a minute and found
out he was Jeffery Lowery. He said, "Did my Grandpa
call y'all?" "Uh..no..." "Really? He told me he had given my address
so that y'all could come visit me. You know, that's funny that
you came today because yesterday I was driving along and saw a woman at
the side of the street with a flat tire. I helped
her change her tire and then she offered me money. I wasn't doing it
for the money, I just wanted to help her. Then y'all show up today!
What a coincidence!" "Wow, that's crazy!" I said. I didn't see how it
connected..but the important thing was that
he did. It was meaningful to him. He said, "It just shows you that
when you do good things then good things happen to you." He said he
needed Jesus in his life and wanted to get back to church but that it
was harder than we thought. I understand that.
Last night we had a special devotional for the Hot
Springs community titled, "Because you asked...We Believe in Christ".
It was for them to learn about what our basic beliefs are. The stake
president and his wife were the keynote speakers. They talked
about what every mother wants her children and grandchildren to know,
and how the Book of Mormon supports the Bible. I can't describe the
feeling I had when I sat in that meeting. Something about knowing
that Christians of different denominations were there
together with us, sharing in our devotion to the Savior. As I listened
to the messages, I knew more than I had before that the Book of Mormon
is true. It miraculously came forth in our day
for our day. The prophets in that book clearly and boldly
testify that Jesus is the Christ, our Savior and redeemer. This is an
eternal truth that we can come to know more deeply as we seek to live
our lives for Him. President Petersen always says
that I shouldn't be on my mission for any other reason than that I love
my Savior. Not for friends, not for me, but for Him. I am coming to
know that more than I did before. After the meeting, there was a
beautiful display of pictures of Christ. So many
people came! Something especially wonderful was that Valerie's mom
(who is deaf) came. Valerie was home with a sick child. This is
significant because she and the other members of Valerie's family have
been hesitant about Valerie going to church. They have
heard a lot of anti from their pastor and were unclear on a lot of the
things we believe. Her mom brought an interpreter with her to the
devotional. As we sang "I Believe in Christ" I looked over to see them
signing the words. The spirit touched me in a special
way to see that beautiful expression of love for their Savior.
I love you all.
No comments:
Post a Comment