Dog Distractions

Elder Griffiths and Elder Wadsworth.
Thanks to the Thomsen family for sending this photo!

We have an investigator with a very rambunctious dog. It'll jump on you and lick you the whole time you're there. It gets a little bit difficult to have a spiritual lesson in that case. 

Elder Wadsworth and I said a prayer that somehow that dog would be distracted while we were teaching our investigator. As we were teaching him, there was a knock at the door and in walked his mother. She had come to visit and the dog has some sort of obsession with her. She was able to distract it while we taught our investigator. It was a miracle for us. 

I've been thinking a lot lately about how much God loves us and our relationship to Him. This is an example of how God is in the details of our lives and He is anxiously engaged in helping us with our individual needs.

Grateful for members who share Thanksgiving with the missionaries.

An Attitude of Gratitude

Mission Leadership Council with Elder Klebingat
of the Quorum of the Seventy.

In light of it being Thanksgiving this week, I'll go ahead and pursue the traditional route of listing what I'm grateful for:

• I'm grateful that the Lord trusts me enough to let me participate in His work. He doesn't need me to be here, but He wants me to be here. 
• I'm grateful for friends who had a lot of the same goals as I did when we were growing up. 
• I'm grateful that I have parents who understood the importance of teaching righteous principles in our home, and who did their best to keep me from straying off the good path. 
• I'm grateful for all the interesting people I get to meet every week. 
• I'm grateful that I don't have to be a perfect person, I just have to do my best and the Savior will work miracles in my life. 
• I'm grateful that God is our loving Heavenly Father. 
• I'm grateful for the Plan of Salvation. 
• I'm grateful for eternal families. 
• I'm grateful for the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 
• I'm grateful for the talents I've been given. 

I hope you each have a grand Thanksgiving!

Powerful Stuff

Throwback to Port Charlotte.
Elder Jorgensen, Hunter, and Elder Griffiths.

I'm grateful that God is the one who does pretty much all the work in the conversion process. I'm not nearly smart enough to do it. 

We've been teaching someone who can't decide if she's really interested in being baptized. We've been pulling our hair out trying to figure out how to help her. On Sunday we talked about charity in our Sunday School class and we watched a video about service. The video brought tears to our investigator's eyes because it hit home to some problems she'd had in her own life. We had no idea about any of those problems, but through the Spirit she was able to feel that God was aware of her and was trying to speak to her. 

That kind of a powerful experience doesn't come from some sort of intellectual persuasion on my part. It only comes when the Holy Ghost speaks to her soul and testifies of the truth to her. There's no way for any mortal man to replicate that feeling or produce it by himself. I'm grateful to see God's hand in this work and to see the power He has to bring His children back to Him.

Elder Griffiths getting a little sugar from Hunter's dog.

The Miracle Factory

From the mission home on transfer day...

I'm in Winter Haven now! This place is awesome! I'm going to miss the people I was teaching back in Port Charlotte, but luckily I'll still be able to keep in touch with them. 

I'm with Elder Wadsworth now. He's a newer missionary and likes to work hard so we're doing great together. He's from Nevada and he's pretty athletic so we'll definitely have to play some sports while we're companions. 

Winter Haven is smaller than most of the other areas I've served in but it's packed with people and it seems to be a miracle factory. Every day we seem to have something happen that shows us that God is definitely involved in His work. I'll keep you all posted on some of the things that develop in this area.