Week Forty-one:  Tender Mercies and a Tender Hand [May 7, 2018]

Hi Everyone, 

This week has been pretty good. We didn't get to do too much service this week, but we did get to help some members pick up a car. It was just the frame of an old Model-T, but it was still heavy. Here's what else we did. 

We had a really cool miracle with Judy. We had tried calling a lot of people to see if they could come to the lesson we were having with her, but either no one answered or they weren't able to come. I was getting a little stressed out and I was thinking we would just have to have it outside. I prayed for a miracle and hoped that someone would call, but nothing happened. As we were leaving the church to go to the lesson the Spanish elders showed up. We talked with them a bit and then left. While driving away I felt that the reason they showed up when they did was an answer to my prayer. We turned around and asked them if they could come and they said yes! It just goes to show that the Lord answers prayers, but not always in the way we expect. The lesson went really well. We went over Lehi's dream and applied it to her journey after baptisim. We also talked about how the temple was her next step and talked to her about baptisims for the dead. Thursday we worked with her on her family history, but since she doesn't have a membership number she couldn't get any names yet. Hopefully soon though. 

Another interesting thing that happened while we were walking. Alice and Dan (the ones we did service for last week and dropped) pulled up alongside us to say hi. Apparently they were on the other side of the road and did a u-turn just to say hi. We're debating undropping them now. 

Interviews were this week which really inspired me to do better. That day we ended up knocking a bunch of doors and talking with people we saw which was pretty effective since we found three new potentials in a relatively short amount of time. One of the guys we were talking to had a German shepherd that I was petting as I was talking with the guy. When I got up to leave the German shepherd quickly bit my hand! It didn't draw too much blood but it still hurt for quite a while. The owner was very sorry. At least the owner agreed to meet with us again! My guess is the dog didn't want me to stop petting him because other that that it was a very nice dog. 

 We got to meet with Jeff and Heidi again after two weeks since they've been pretty busy. Heidi's still working on giving up coffee. We went over the restoration again and placed emphasis on the Book of Mormon and it's role in gaining a testimony. 

We had a few people this week try to convince us why our religion is wrong. The first one told us how Joseph Smith found (or claimed to find, we're not sure which) papyrus in a cave and that's how we got the Book of Mormon. He also told us how Joseph was a well known con-man and how his successor Bingham (I didn't spell it wrong, that's just what he said) was a liar as well. The other people we talked with tried to use the scriptures to tell us that if we have works then we're sinning. Both of their anti stuff wasn't at all convincing.

We met with Betty a few times this week to say goodbye before she moves and to get her new address. She's been really busy and worn out from all the stuff she's been doing to get ready for the move. Pray for her and that all will go well with her. 

That's my week. I'm looking forward to a new week of miracles and I hope that you get to see some as well.

Until then,

Elder Jason Riches