Dear...Everyone,
This week has been absolutely amazing. I love my companion. Not that
I didn't love the one that I had before him, but this one is especially
awesome. We have been working very hard this week because we had to leave the
area for two whole days! That is a LOT of missed opportunities. Somehow we
still got all of the work that we needed to done. We had some pretty amazing
things happen along the way as well.
Most of this week was spent on introducing Elder Sproul to all of our
investigators. One particular lesson seemed to outshine the rest of them. We
were teaching Fred and Lisa. Lisa is the lady who volunteered to translate for
Sacrament meeting, even though she is not a member. She is also the one that
wanted to get up and bear her testimony the first Sunday that she came.
Anyway... So we start going over what we left them with. A couple passages from
the Book of Mormon and the 4th and 5th articles of Faith. We reviewed the
Gospel of Jesus Christ, teaching mainly about how we can build our faith. Lisa
chimes in and says, "You know, when I read what Alma says about that seed that
we need to plant in our hearts, I knew that that is what I needed to do. I
think that is what we all need to do." At that point we really debated having
Lisa teach the rest of the lesson, but alas, the Spirit continued to prompt
thoughts so we expressed them. We led into the Restoration and shared the
Joseph Smith story and discussed the Book of Mormon. We simply explained that
Joseph Smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ and the only way that they
would ever know that that was true was if God told them it was. We then led
into prayer. At about this time Lisa started to cry. We asked if she knew that
what we were sharing was true. Through the tears she nodded her head saying, "I
know...I know it's true." We bore testimony that only the Spirit could teach
that. We invited both of them to be baptized next month. They both said that
they would love to. We then talked about the rest of the lessons that we needed
to go over and set up a return appointment.
After the prayer, as we were
leaving she said, "Before you go, can I tell you something?" Uhh...YEAH! Tell
us anything that you want. She then proceeded to tell a story. "You know that
one day that you and the other Elder talked to us? Well, when you found us, we
had just gotten kicked out of our house. We were waiting there at our friend's
house for our friend to come and pick us up. I had been praying, asking God to
help us; That He would show us the way and help us out of that situation. Then
you showed up. I believe that you were sent by God, and I am so thankful that
He did. That is what I wanted to share with everyone in my testimony. I know
that God answers our prayers." I live everyday of the mission for moments like
those. It is truly a miracle that God would allow 19-22 year old kids to be the
answer to someone's prayer. I echo the words of our beloved prophet when I say
that there is no greater joy than knowing you were an answer to someone's
prayer. I think that I cried for 20 minutes straight as we made the long drive
that night to Mt. Pleasant. I will never forget the Spirit that I felt that
night.
I will definitely have to write more at another time. Sorry, I only
get an hour. Thank you so much for talking to me last night! I loved every
minute of it.
Love,
Elder McNinch
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