Monday, November 10, 2014

Messengers of the Lord (Week 60)

Sorry for last week's short letter. This last week has been great even though the weather hasn't. This week it's suppose to snow and ice over... Bikes on Ice.

I wanted to tell you guys about C~ last week but I didn't have enough time. I had so many emails to read in an hour (first world problems). You guys are awesome thank you for all of the love and support! Okay so C~, last week we had all of our appointments fall through, so we had a member drop us off back at our house and we walked to visit a less active member. During the walk we handed out two Book of Mormons and two Restoration pamphlets. Super solid finds. We arrived at the member's house and she wasn't home. Hmmm, we had 45 minutes left until 9 o'clock. We pulled out the roster and looked for a member to visit.

There turned out to be a inactive member that lived just up the street and around the corner. We knocked on their door. A man in his late 20s opened the door. We asked if Sister Bb~ was home. He told us she was his mother, but she wasn't home. We asked him for his name and we reached out to shake his hand. He hesitated on shaking our hand (he said he was sick), but told us his name was C~. We introduced ourselves and told him that we were representatives of Jesus Christ. We told him, "We don't want you to be out in the cold while you're sick, but when would be a good time to catch your mom home?" He told us but then abruptly told us to come inside. Me and my companion looked at each other, shrugged, and followed him in. We were slightly taken back by his invitation considering he had been really sick. We stepped inside with faith knowing the Lord would keep us from getting sick. He sat down on his couch and asked us if we could share with him our message. A little shocked by his eagerness, we said we'd love to. We taught him the Restoration and he loved it. The whole time we shared the message he was commenting and asking questions (the best!). We gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and invited him to read, ponder and, pray about its message. At the end of the message he told us that he had been praying for help and direction and when he saw us at the door he knew he needed to invite us in and hear our message. He recognized us as messengers of the Lord.

So, that all happened last week, and yesterday we saw him again. He was literally standing by the front door. He invited us in with a smile on his face. We planned on sharing the plan of salvation with him but something told us he need a different message today. We asked him what he has been up to this week and he said, "Just fighting my addictions."  We asked him what his struggle was and he told us he has been fighting a drug addiction since he was 18. We changed our lesson plan and talked briefly about the word of wisdom and the different tools the Lord has given us to fight Satan's evil influence. We told him about the church's Addiction Recovery Program and gave him a pamphlet with more information on it. Sister Bb~ his mother walked in and you could tell she didn't like the church too much. During our visit we had been reading verses from the Bible and the Book of Mormon. She just so happened to walk in while we were sharing Ether 12:27. Being irritated she asked, "Why do you guys always read from the Book of Mormon and never the Bible?" C~ jumped in, "Mother they just read a scripture from John." So awesome! We explained to her the importance of God's word, and how both the Bible and the Book of Mormon are both testaments that Jesus is the Christ. She told us of a bad experience she had with a church member a long time ago, which lead her to leaving the church. We explained to her humans aren't perfect but the gospel is. We continued to teach both of them the importance of the restored gospel we bore our testimonies. Sister Bb~'s heart seemed to soften. She sat in for the rest of the visit and listened as we gave her son advice to read the scriptures and pray every night. By the end of the visit Sister Bb~ seemed to have a different attitude of understanding and love. She told us she wants us to continue coming by as much as we could.

The Spirit softens hearts.

This will be Elder T's last full week in the mission field. I'm going to miss him. He has taught me so much about love and hard work. He has been a wonderful example to me of how a missionary should finish their mission.

Thank you all for your emails and support, keep me posted!

Sincerely, Elder Watkins

P.S. We are getting three new missionaries in the district, and two of them are greenies. No I'm not training yet, but soon. I can feel it.

 New Glasses

Members Concert

Thugs

Before Pen

After Pen





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