Greetings from the oven of the southwest.
Well, I am not sure what to write about and I am extremely limited on time today. Remember how last week I had to split my pday in half because of the temple trip? Well this week it was cut short because of the Spanish specialized training we had this morning. That went an hour over… we also scheduled a lesson for today at 4, but that was our bad.
Speaking of the trip to the temple. I had kind of a cool experience there. The Sunday before our trip to the temple I was working in the vc, and I had a chat with a member. He said that he was there seeking revelation. He had recently proposed to his girlfriend but was still waiting on the confirmation to know if she was really the girl for him. He kept talking about how this was like Ether 12:6 ‘…ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.’ I talked a little bit about a video I had recently watched on the Mormon channel http://mormonchannel.org/power-of-the-holy-spirit?v=1365732854001 and talked about how Gerald N. Lund says that sometimes we just have to keep moving forward unless the spirit tells us no. Which is actually how I usually receive revelation, but… more on that to come. He said thanks, and that he’d check out the video. When I asked if there was anything else I could do for him, he said I could pray for him. So, I made sure I had his name down and said I would.
That Tuesday while we were waiting in the chapel for our session, I was thinking about what I should pray about while I was in the temple. I thought about how I’m not really seeking any advice for a specific problem… I need to find people who are willing to get baptized, but that’s just a matter of waiting on the Lords time, and I remembered back to when I really needed the Lord’s advice to know what to do and I thought about this guy I had met at the visitor center. I wondered how he was doing, if he’d received an answer, and if maybe I should put his name on the prayer roll. Then I started reading something weird in Leviticus and didn’t think about it anymore. Anyways, I saw him in that same session, and I really wanted to tell him that no matter what answer he gets, things will turn out alright. Unfortunately, we had to rush to get ready for the next session right after the first, and I couldn’t get anyone to wait with me. So, the end to this story is really anti climatic, but I still thought it was sort of cool.
The other really cool vc experience this week was that I met another lady who’s friend I’d been praying for with my district. As a district we’ve been praying for each other’s investigators when they have specific needs. So, we were praying for our zone leaders’ investigator, because she had a lot of things to learn before her baptism the next week. Anyways, when it came time for us to report back on who our investigators who everyone had been praying for were doing. The zone leaders said that not only did Betty get baptized but that her friend decided she wanted to learn as well. After the first lesson she couldn’t sleep because she couldn’t stop thinking about Joseph Smith, so she said a prayer and opened up the Book of Mormon. She opened up to either Mormon 7 or Mormoni 7, I don’t remember which, but it doesn’t really matter because they both say to repent and be baptized. So she told the Elders she wanted to get baptized. Her name is Jan btw.
Anyways, I was taking this older couple through the exhibit we have here at the vc, an investigator, and her fellow shipper friend. We went all the way through the exhibit and it was really good for me because I learned a lot more things I could say at the paintings instead of just being tempted to talk about the composition. Anyways, when they mentioned where they live (Leisure World a 55+ community) it all came together, and it was really cool getting to see that miracle that I’d prayed for.
Ugh, I’m out of time but I said that I’d talk about how the spirit only tells me what I’m doing wrong. The other day we had planned to visit a less active family, but Hna Schwartz wasn’t super digging the idea because they’re never home, and I didn’t really care because we had other people we could visit. Anyways, while we were in the area I thought that maybe we should just walk over there. I didn’t really want to because it was hot, and they’re NEVER home, but I got a sick feeling as we started to walk away. I told Hna Schwartz that I thought we should visit them, and that they were just down the street, which was kind of a lie because it was actually pretty far. Anyways, the 2 kids who were the first ones to get baptized were outside riding their bikes, and it was a miracle.
Okok, Adios.
Rachel