This week, like the previous week, has been a lot of working and knocking doors but not a lot of interested people. However, I've come to realize that the lack of other people to work with has been a blessing and opportunity from Heavenly Father to help me to focus and work on myself!
At the very end of the week, we were able to see a miracle from all of our consistent efforts in these past two weeks. My companion and I were walking around the area, trying to contact some recent-converts and less-actives when I asked him how deep into the streets our area goes. He said that it doesn't go very deep, that we've worked most of the lower parts except for one little round-about. For whatever reason, I asked if we could walk to the other side of our area to go see if there were any houses on the round-about.
We made our way across the entirety of our area, which isn't too big in the first place but seems a lot bigger on foot, and saw a single house on the side of the round-about. We saw a young man and a young woman outside trying to round up a lost chicken that had escaped the fence. My love for farm animals made it really easy to go up and approach them and help them chase this loose chicken around until we finally caught it. I explained who we were, and what we do as missionaries and started bearing my testimony of the importance of the message we bring. The young man responded with the fact that he struggles believing in God, however his family inside might be interested.
He brought us into his Grandmother's house where his sister and mother and uncle and grandma were all gathered around talking with one another. Right as we walked in, the older sister started talking to us and we learned that her father was a member of the church and was baptized a couple years ago. She and her ex-husband had taken the lessons with the missionaries after her father was baptized and used to read the Book of Mormon every night. At that time, she was struggling with depression, divorce, and a difficult pregnancy. We talked to her about the Holy Ghost and pointed out the feelings that she used to feel when she met with missionaries. She looked at her mother and looked back at us and told us that back when the missionaries used to come, that was the highlight of her week. As she began to recount her experiences with missionaries she told us that she thinks that she wasn't ready for the message then, but that now might be her time. She jokingly said that God let that chicken out of the fence just so we could find her family again. She also said that she was very impressed with the LDS church, because despite the fact that her father hasn't attended church in over two years, home teachers have continued to come by and visit.
On church on Sunday, we found the home teacher that has continued to visit this brother of the church for over two years despite not seeing any fruits from his labors. As we told him everything that had happened and that because of his efforts to magnify his calling, a family is open and welcome to the gospel. His eyes filled with tears as he looked at us and said, "When I first began home teaching that family, I felt discouraged because no matter what I did, I saw no fruits. The Elder's Quorum President promised me that if I kept diligent at it, I would see miracles."
The spirit touched me as I related to this faithful brother and his feelings of discouragement and disappointment. God's timing is perfect. Magnifying our calling brings blessings and miracles. No matter what may be going on around us, miracles are waiting right around the bend.
"And they went forth whithersoever they were led by the Spirit of the Lord, preaching the word of God..." (Alma 21:16)
Con Mucho Amor,
Elder King
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