Monday, September 8, 2014: Miracles

I'm convinced. We have found our golden area. 

It's not that we're finding a million baptism-ready investigators, per se. It's just that the people we tract into are just SO nice. It actually makes us excited to go tracting because we can't wait to find out who we're going to run into next! 

Here are the three biggest miracles we experienced this week. First, on Tuesday we went and knocked some doors. The third house we got to was a nice, big house with a gardener working outside, who directed us to the "woman of the house". We knocked on the door and an older lady (probably in her 60s) opened up. Well, in my head wealthy and old means there's no chance of getting let in, so I introduced ourselves and our message, expecting her to turn us away, but to my surprise she let us right in. Her husband was sitting in the front room and he welcomed warmly while his wife (Mrs. Thomas) went to get us some water. We sat down and had a good conversation with them. We talked a lot about their values and beliefs and about how the most important thing you can do in this life is love and serve your fellow men. That was a perfect lead in to the Book of Mormon for me--I opened up to my mom's favorite scripture, Mosiah 2:17, and talked about how when we're serving others, we're really only serving God. Then we shared with them what the Book of Mormon was and briefly summarized the restoration for them. We had to leave quicker than I would have liked because they had a repairman coming and he had arrived, but before we went Mrs. Thomas left the room, and returned with a carton of eggs from their own chickens, a loaf of homemade pear bread, and--my favorite--a loaf of homemade banana bread. She and Mr. Thomas said how much they appreciated us coming into their home and how we were doing wonderful work and we were a blessing to them just by knocking on their door. So nice! Who just gives complete strangers a whole sack of food? I was planning on leaving the Book of Mormon on the couch for them because I didn't want to push them to take it too much--but to my surprise Mrs. Thomas asked if she was going to get to keep it! Needless to say, Sister White and I left with our sack of goodies thinking, "Did that really just happen?" 

Second, here's the second half of the story I told in my last blog post. Remember the lady we left the familysearch card with and offered to come back and help organize her new home? (I'm going to call her Janet in this post) Well, on Thursday we returned, and it turned out to be her birthday! I was kind of surprised she didn't ask us to come a different day. But in any case, we arrived and she took us to McAllister's for lunch (that place is so good!) We ended up just talking with her for a good two hours! It was so sweet because she said we were her birthday gift--and she was the one paying for our lunch! She was just so happy to have us there with her. What was cool was we didn't really do any preaching since we already knew she wasn't interested, but when we got up to leave she said, "I feel so happy! It feels like I've been to church!" It's pretty neat that she can feel the Spirit just by being around us, without us even saying anything. It makes me think of the quote, "Preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words." 

 

After that we went back to her house and helped her dejunk a bit, but really most of our time there was just spent talking, and I think more than anything that was what she needed! No worries, we will definitely be going back to help again sometime very soon :) 

Last miracle! (Sorry, I know this is forever long) On Wednesday we were tracting (still the same neighborhood) and we started up a driveway to another large house. I realized when we almost got there that the house was actually on a different street and we were going in through the side door, so we were about to turn around but just before we did a 16 year old boy (We'll call him John) came outside. Well, I always feel awkward talking to teens, for multiple reasons. So I quickly said who we were just to say it, and he started asking questions. A lot of them. We were there for probably an hour answering questions. This kid is crazy smart, and curious--which is good! After all, where would our religion be if a 14 year old boy had never thought to ask a question? 

What was cool too was his parents came outside a couple of times. I was waiting for them to tell us they'd found Jesus and shoo us away before they corrupted their son (one of the reasons I feel awkward when teens answer) but they just said "Hey" and told us we could go inside if we wanted to. Then later John said, "My family's not the traditional southern family, my mom claims Christian, Buddhist, and Hindu as their religion and my dad was a southern baptist, but they just think it's important that we have some sort of spirituality. What I'm saying is, they wouldn't care if I came to you church--and I want to learn more." Oh my heavens. My jaw must have been sitting on the floor! It seemed way too good to be true! Unfortunately I didn't have a Book of Mormon on me (I'd forgotten to replace the Book of Mormon I'd given to the Thomas family and I try to pack light on walking weeks) so we promised we'd come back and give him one. 

 

And we did! And his parents gave us some gatorade (which is a relief since I'm pretty sure I was gonna pass out) and we had another good talk with him about the Book of Mormon and the power it holds. I think he's more curious than anything but it's a really good start! He wasn't able to make it to church this week unfortunately but I think he will soon. 

I think sometimes I just have to have a little more faith! Lately I've been approaching doors expected to get rejected but this neighborhood is definitely showing me I can hope for more than that!  

Janet and I at McAllister's