Words to the Wise

1. When filling a baptismal font, remember to compensate for the mass of the individual entering the water. For instance, you wouldn't want to fill a font to the brim and then submerge a lovely frizzy-headed redhead and her not-too-small priesthood-holding baptizer. If you DID, you might experience a tsunami of sorts. The male and female bathrooms and the entire hallway might flood. This is all just hypothetical, of course. Wouldn't happen to Sister Stewart and Hermana Goodfellow. We don't endorse that sort of hullaballoo.

2. When inviting someone to take a look at a mormon.org card, be sure to enunciate and use proper grammar. Because if you don't, then "can I leave with you...(a card)" might be misheard as "can I live with you?" Maybe I was looking particularly fine in my missionary tights and name tag, or maybe I really fumbled that poorly. Either way, it was totally inappropriate, and exactly what we needed to enjoy tracting that afternoon. A nice healthy chortle does a vast deal of good when knocking doors.

3. When interacting with the mission president, don't act confident. Or put-together. Or reliable. Or whatever else might induce him to prematurely make you a trainer. Eleven weeks in the field!! By mission standards, I'm still a boppin' baby girl! The scriptures don't lie. God really does call the weak things of the earth.

Humor aside, I do believe that it's a call from God. I'm humbled. And frightened. And, alarmingly, even a little bit grateful. But let us pray that I don't ruin this fresh MTC-arrival! And that this spot of vineyard doesn't wither up under my watch...and I think it is safe to say that we can expect many more humorous anecdotes to bedazzle my days. I may have to learn not to take myself so seriously.  :)  I'll obey and trust, and God must do the rest.

4. Be grateful. Be optimistic. Be humored. Obey and trust, and God must do the rest. That is what I know of the Atonement this week.

To Quote A Cheesy Country Song: There Are Angels Among Us

"God does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs." Spencer W. Kimball, December 1974



This quote has been fulfilled in every sense this week.

Remember how I sometimes feel like my resources are insufficient? It's not true, but sometimes I try to understand how to feed 5,000 with a few loaves and fishes...and by all account, the numbers don't add up! This week our loaves and fishes came from a Baptist engineer. Melanie* is not at all convinced about the Book of Mormon, but she teaches me what it means to be Christian. On Monday she waltzed into our dinner appointment, thrust a giant laundry basket at us, and muttered something about us needing help. Having heard ounce the smallish sum that missionaries live on each month, she decided to take things into her own hands with her coupon-clipping skills. The laundry basket was packed with toilet paper and shampoo and laundry detergent. My cup runneth over, indeed!

As for my gloomy February spirits, our favorite investigator sends heart-winning texts. We woke up at 5:30 this morning to a stream of happy texts as a follow-up of last night's lesson on tithing. Please allow yourself to imagine how two young sister missionaries squeal when we receive such joyful feedback from our meager efforts:

"Good morning Sisters!!! i just want to share the joy I have in my heart for the gifts you gave me last night. I've just been like a kid on his birthday. My new Bible has brought so much back to me. It has maps!!! Hehe. And beautiful pictures! And this incredible thing I have never seen before, The Harmony of the Gospels. Wow. So I had to visit Isaiah 58 again (just incredible) but one of my favorite books of the Old Testament (way back to my youth) was Ecclesiastes. It was written as poetry to me too. And made the burdens of the world seem a thing we all share. But here is my last bit of excitement. The name Enoch has always stayed with me (and you know how I am with names, hehe), and he is only a shadow in the sea of those mentioned in the Bible. But the words "he walked with God" were drawn to my attention and have remained with me a long time. I found him!!! Hehe. In Moses 6 and 7. It's a small thing, but don't you think great things are sometimes like little hidden treasures? I'm rambling again. I just wanted you to know the depth of my gratitude. Have a beautiful day sisters."

Ah, God does love me. and I know it because I am surrounded by angels on every side.

Grateful

I am grateful that God shows His hand even on the worst days. It seems that we try until our wits end, and then God plunks an unsuspecting investigator into our laps (metaphysically, of course--this would be rather inappropriate otherwise).

I am grateful for Sister Goodfellow. I thought that companions would be tedious, but it is a boon to have a friend and companion to share trials and sunshine.

I am grateful for adventure. Adventure, of course, is chaos viewed through a rose-colored lens. So I'm grateful for bike rides in the rain and flat tires and very long walks home. I'm grateful for cranky old men who refuse to believe, and who thus demand my boldest and most heartfelt testimony. I'm grateful for Baptist preachers who throw anti-Mormon literature left and right. They pull me into the Book of Mormon as evidence of our faith.

I am grateful for Steven Walsh.* He will be my first beginning-to-finish baptism, and I am sure he is the finest man I've ever met. He has a "willingness and easiness to believe," as the Book of Mormon says. He keeps all of his commitments, and then some. He reads CES firesides and conference talks, the Book of Mormon, the For Strength of youth pamphlet, and the Sunday school manual. After each encounter, we receive a sincere text about what he has learned and how grateful he is for this journey. We taught him about the Word of Wisdom, and he told us that he'd give up coffee in two weeks. The next morning he told us that his conscience convicted him, and that he couldn't wait-- he would start that very day.

I'm grateful for letters from home. There aren't words for this.

Ravsten, Goodfellow, Stewart, Thompson

Fatality Is Not Forever

"And thus we see the great call of diligence of men to labor in the vineyards of the Lord; and thus we see the great reason of sorrow, and also of rejoicing--sorrow because of death and destruction among men, and joy because of the light of Christ unto life." -Alma 28:14

2:30 p.m. on a Saturday.
Driving home from a perfect appointment with our favorite investigator when the call comes: Sister Smith was hit by a truck--killed on impact. She and her companion were biking home from an appointment in rural Oklahoma, where they were opening a new area. The driver was 18 years old. Her companion was only three days out from the MTC.

You cry in the car, but there isn't time. You are already behind, with five back-to-back appointments looming. So you press on with a chipper smile. But all day long you think and wonder, "Is it worth it? Is our message worth the cost of a LIFE? Can we justify the death of a faithful young girl for the cause of our religion?"

If I ever wanted to go home early, the desire is gone  Now I must share. I will finish my mission because people need to know that souls are eternal, and that Jesus Christ is our source of salvation both here and hereafter.

The missionaries of the Oklahoma City Mission will be teaching the Plan of Salvation very differently now. Fatality is not forever. Without Jesus Christ, nothing can ever be permanently right. but with Jesus Christ nothing can ever go permanently wrong.

HYPERLINK:  LDS missionary killed in Okla. remembered as loving, kind

Church Exchange

If only the Heritage Baptist Church had been housed in a large, gaudy, building. Or if the people had been cruel and derogatory. Or if the preaching had been mired in false doctrine. Heavens, at least the pastor could have played his guitar with a little less style! Then I could have judged, and known clearly that our religion is truer than theirs.

But we were greeted by a least a dozen members of the congregation, and the music was fabulous. The lesson on Job left me scribbling notes in the margins of my scriptures. The pastor reminded me of my favorite institute instructors, and even the baptismal service wasn't far afloat from correct doctrine.

What, then, should a Mormon missionary think?

The whole experience filled me with mirth. I laughed at myself and at my open-minded confusion. Because sometimes when I forget that all good things come of God, and I think that I need to judge and hate to create division between my religion and theirs. That is false. I love the Heritage Baptist Church.

But I also know by the power of the Holy Ghost that the Book of Mormon is true, and that we are led by prophets and apostles who speak for God today. And that makes us different--not better in a prideful sense, but maybe "fuller." The notion of a fullness of truth is the promise of a restoration of all things. Our purpose, if I understand it properly, is to add to the truths that they already treasure.

I am grateful for good people and honorable religions wherever they exist. But I am more grateful that God has granted me to know about the restoration of a fullness of truth.

And grateful to share, not by dogma, but by faith.