Dear Friends & Family,
Our miracle adventures started last Tuesday immediately following the
email update I sent. As we perused the Walmart, I overheard a boy ask his
mother about us and she replied, "Oh, it's the Elders. They teach people
about God..." As a missionary my ears are fine-tuned to hear every
utterance of every variation of our name, it seems -- Mormons, Elders, LDS,
missionaries, JWs/Jehovah's Witness (common mistake), Morons, and the list
goes on. Elders, however, is a name usually only members refer to
us by.
So after my curiousity was peaked and my "missionary sense was
tingling," I slowed down and stopped to talk with her. It turns out she
grew up with a friend who was Mormon and took her to church and seminary. Her
son was super stoked to talk with us and upon our simple invitation,
"Well, you said you liked church when you went with your friend when you
were younger -- would you like to come again? ... Would you like to have us
stop by and visit with you?" The reply was an enthusiastic,
"Yeah!" from both the mother and the son.
Not only was it a miracle that we found her, but it was miracle enough
that despite us shopping in the Walmart outside of our proselyting area, she
just so happened to live a few streets down from us in Banks. We should just
going to go shopping to find people to teach! Haha
Then later in the week, we planned to stop by their house to meet with
them and unfortunately they cancelled. But another miracle occurred when we
were visiting with our recent convert and the boy showed up on his bike in
front of the house, appearing to be waiting for us. God truly does lead them to
us if we are not already lead to them.
Almost every morning this past week we've attended a district meeting
from each of the districts in our zone. Similar to how stakes and wards
function, we oversee the work in each of the districts in our zone. It's pretty
neat to be able to see the different missionaries in each area find creative
and effective ways to move the work forward. It's also cool to be able to be
trained and taught about the gospel other than on Sunday. As missionaries, we
are taught every day!
In addition to our earlier miracles, we also were blessed by having
several good referrals from members this week. Elder Clayton had felt inspired
to contact a member at home in which he mentally wasn't attempting to. As we
accidentally started talking with this member, she directed us towards another
member who gave us someone to visit two doors down.
The conversation we had with the woman who answered the door started
out like any other. Upon first glance, however, she looked vaguely familiar to
me. She explained to us rather quickly that she knows missionaries and what we
do and that she wasn't interested, though she loved the members she knows. As
she started backing into her home attempting to close the friendly chat so she
could get back to her life, she stopped and asked me, "Hey, you look
familiar -- do I know you?"
After exchanging thoughts and information, we came to the conclusion
that I had met her in one of my previous areas, Sunset Hills, at the Heywood’s
(a member family). We were having dinner at the Heywood's that night and I had
shared a Mormon Message (Civility Experiment)
with them in hopes to casually bring up the gospel in conversation.
It's crazy how small the world gets just by serving a mission... The
woman explained that she had previously fed the missionaries dinner and that
she would be happy to have us come by sometime. I promised to make my famous
peanut butter chocolate oatmeal goodies. What had originally started as an ordinary
door we knocked on, became a blessing heaven-sent from God. No coincidence. We
are placed where we are meant to be.
Since we now cover a ward and a branch, I split up with a Priesthood
brother and went to the Vernonia Branch yesterday for church, while Elder
Harding and Elder Clayton went to Dairy Creek Ward. I have never been to a
branch before and I was amazed at how small it is. There wasn't more than 70
people there and only half a chapel with no benches, just chairs. Everyone was
super friendly and excited to have a full-time missionary in the branch. A
missionary was giving his farewell and I was asked to give a lesson on
missionary work on the spot during Sunday School. I also met up with a guy I
helped move out of Sunset Hills Ward. Small world!
Life is great and I'm lovin' it! Hope you are too!
.JPG)