The many things that should be
said are left without an utterance. The tasks that should be done remain
untouched while the songs that wish to be sung are quenched in the winds of
silence. I am in one of those retrospective moods where everything from the
past seems to be present and I am longing to repeat what is before me. I love
my mission. Man, I love you, Ma' FAMILY!
The chaos and the commotion that
I seem to live in is becoming increasingly enjoyable. I think at the end of the
day, the thing I'm learning the most is the importance of priorities. I want to
know where my priorities are and where my sight is fixed. Often times I feel
like it's faced inwards and that has always led to a hindrance of progression.
The power and the development I have learned is from facing outwards. I know
that there is power in submission and humility. I feel hypocritical saying this
truth because of my imperfections in it's pursuit, but I still gained the
knowledge through experience.
Ah, guys, guess what? You guessed
it. There were some miracles this week... because God is good and so is His
work. I'll just catch you up on the "latest and greatest." It was
towards the end of the day of an exchange with Elder Holt (my buddy) and we
stopped by our investigators house. The first part of our conversation
consisted of him and his wife listing ALL the reasons why they couldn't come to
church or keep their commitments we left with them. I prayed to understand where they were coming
from and how I could help them understand. After they let off their steam, I
just said to the wife, "I want to ask you a question. What do you think
our purpose is in coming to your home?" She responded, "To be
disciples and teach us what we're supposed to do. I know what I'm supposed to
do I just can't do it. I'm too busy. My husband
is too busy and won't make this a priority and I don't want to do this on my
own." I thought about it for a
second and just said, "Our purpose is to INVITE you to come unto Christ.
We represent Him and will ONLY invite you to do what He would say if He were
here Himself. I know that if Christ were here right now He would never stop
inviting you to attend church. I don't care what you have going on that seems
more important. He loves you and will always invite you to unto Him. I know that Christ will never stop inviting
you to be baptized into His church. I know that His arms are always open to you
both and He wants you to have peace, strength and happiness in the family in
this life and the only way that can continue in the next life is if you act on
the invitations He (and we) are extending to you. Will you come to church tomorrow regardless of
all the excuses you just made?" There is power in the call and mantle of
being a full time missionary, I have learned. It's nothing that I have
developed or done. After I said that it hit me really hard how true it is. We
really are His representatives. "Whether it be by mine own voice, or the
voice of my servants, it is the same." I wish I understood that more fully
earlier in my mission. Power comes from testifying of Christ and testifying as
if Christ were speaking through you. Missionaries are nothing in and of
themselves. I know I'm not, at least. They both said yes. We then said we'll close with a prayer and
that we'll see them tomorrow. Right then the phone rang from a random number
and someone from the ward was calling offering a ride to church. We didn't plan
any of that. We were all amazed at the way that Heavenly Father provided the
way for them to come to church after months of making excuses. They came to
church and had a wonderful experience being nourished by the good word of God.
We've been teaching another part
member family where the wife isn't a member and the husband has been less
active for a long time. She has a beautiful heart. She is on date for July 26th
and also came to church with her husband. It was a good week. Also, the family
of five I was working with in my last area all got baptized last week too. That
was cool.
I wonder what else has happened in
my life. I don't really know. My memory is darkening as the circles around my
eyes seem to be doing the same thing.
Cheers,
Elder Trent Jay Merrill
No comments:
Post a Comment