Exact Obedience Brings Miracles

And another missionary portrait.

This past week Elder Harden and I got invited to a member's home to come teach a referral he had gotten us. When we arrived the referral wasn't there and when she got there she could only stay for a couple minutes. After she left, the members offered us food and said we could hang around for a while. Keep in mind, having dinner with members and not having some sort of investigator there is disobedient in our mission. It gets too easy for missionaries to waste a lot of time just hanging out with members. 

It would've been pretty easy to justify staying at their house. There was food, it was raining, and they had started out with having a referral there. We were obedient, though, and we left. 

Right as we walked out the door, we got a call from a former investigator that we had stopped teaching because we fell out of contact with him. He said he wanted to meet with us again and that he wanted to join our church. He came to church this past Sunday and is excited about the gospel. If we had stayed at that member's house we wouldn't have answered the phone because we were talking with the members. Obedience brings blessings. Exact obedience brings miracles.

Never Give Up

A missionary portrait.

It's fun to imagine how the gospel will change people. The other day Elder Harden and I were walking down a street and a couple was sitting on their front porch. We talked to them and they were both pretty drunk. The woman in particular was pretty tipsy. She explained how her life had fallen apart and that she hoped to be a better person. 

I thought about how the gospel could change her life as I was talking to her and it was pretty cool to see the potential she has. It would have been easy to just say that she wasn't worth our time, but if we give up on people so easily we'll have to explain that to God someday. Pretty scary thought. I think I'll try and keep myself out of that conversation. Anyways, I just thought that would be a small but interesting experience to share.

All Kinds of Reactions

Yes, he's that cool.

It's so interesting to go into another missionary's area and be on an exchange with him. It's cool to see the different dynamics of another area. The people are different, their ages are different (Port Charlotte has the highest population of elderly people in the U.S.A. from what we've been told), and the receptivity is different. 

I went on an exchange to another area last week and we mostly contacted people in shopping center parking lots. People are in a hurry! Of course, no one is really used to having someone walk up to them and ask to say a prayer or give them a book about Jesus, but you'd think we'd asked people if we could steal their car. Some people run from us, some curse at us, some threaten to call the police, and some are very kind and they listen to us. Which one of those would you be?

Jumping for Joy!

Happy Independence Day! Missionary Monday came on
Tuesday this week because of the holiday.

If you pray for miracles, they will happen. Guaranteed. 

Every time Elder Harden and I get out of the car we say a prayer that miracles can happen, whether it's while we're finding or while we're teaching an investigator. An example is that on Monday night, we prayed that we'd be able to have a miracle happen in a lesson with a couple investigators. During the lesson we weren't sure if they were retaining what we were teaching, but at the end we asked if they had any questions and one of them just started asking about how to receive answers to prayers and she was super excited to try and ask God questions so she could get the answers. It was a great moment in her conversion process and it made Elder Harden and me want to jump for joy!

Now these two investigators are excited to come to church and excited to be baptized because they know they can find out from God if it's what he wants them to do. Moments like this are really motivating for me.