Mission
Experiences Sep 11, 2012-09-11
This has been one
faith promoting experience after an other.
I have have been
reading “Articles of Faith” by Talmage.
I have been reading about the fourth article of Faith, and about the
first principles and ordinances of the gospel which begin with Faith. He points out that belief is passive, Even the Devil’s believe. But it takes Faith the action word to really understand. It takes work to have Faith.
So anyway, last Friday
I lost my little credit card holder. I
keep it in the safest place in my purse.
Saturday Norm asked for my Vorteills Card to purchase the tickets to go
to München for a missionary conference, where we were going to have the
wonderful opportunity to listen and be taught by an Apostle of our Savior,
Elder Russell M. Nelson. He is also the
father of our Mission President’s wife.
Well I went to my purse, in my very safe pocket and it was not there. We tore the house apart looking for it and
then tried to retrace our steps mentally.
And we also offered up prayer. We
knew I had had it Friday as I used the Metro card. I finally remembered while we were out in
Eugendorf I had gotten it out to give Norm the Vorteill’s Karte as he was going
to go to the Bahnhoff to purchase the tickets when we got back later in the
afternoon. I went to bed Saturday
believing I would toss and turn all night but I slept peacefully the whole
night. I knew that I would find that
purse.
When we were set apart
for our mission, I was praying that I would learn the language. Instead our Heavenly Father knew my needs
more than I did and blessed me that I would have what I needed when I needed
it. It has been the most marvelous
blessing of our mission. A couple times
I have felt panic, but He has kept his promise.
And when I shouldn’t have it, I don’t.
So as I told Elder Storrer, he has not let me down yet. Oh, I prayed fervently all right.
But I was not
worried. Since it was the weekend we had
to wait until Monday. I had to prepare
for an open house, so I could not dwell on it Saturday Sunday, I had to accompany the Elders who
sang in Sacrament Meeting, (They did a great job, even with my mistakes, which
fortunately were minor.) Then we served
the Elders and Heinz a new convert the left overs for lunch, adding some small
maltaschen to go with the Mariana sauce.
We went to visit Sister Thibaut our shut-in, and she suggested that we
go to the City Magistrate’s office. If
it was found there we were required to leave a 10% of value amount for the
finder. Elder Storrer kept feeling we
should go back to metro as that was the only card that could be identified with
an address, however, the address is in Wien.
Well we did both, to know avail.
So we prayed again and
decided to go out to Eugendorf, about 15 km to the two stores we stopped to
check out. We went to Kikas. When we left I suggested we pray again. We were out of ideas with only Lufts left. We stopped at the cash register and she said
she believed something had been turned in and to check at the information desk.
As soon as she saw my name tag she got
excited. I had dropped it in the parking
lot, probably when I got out of the car.
I had not put it back in it’s safe place.
I knew we would find
it and it would be a miracle. See our
Father in Heaven always keeps his promises.
And then today was a
wonderful and warm experience. The
spirit was so strong. There were three
of the zones represented. Tomorrow they
will be in Zurich, and I believe they leave on the 13th.
He did a lot of
question and answer. They had emailed
all of the seniors and asked us not to ask any questions. Well he asked for questions of the young
missionaries, and he kept saying that they were good questions. And they were. One young man asked how he could be an
affective missionary, and he worried about remaining faithful after his mission
as he had friends who went completely inactive after theirs. He told he wanted him to answer his own
question, which came down to keep doing what he was doing now. Praying and studying his scriptures and
planning his life. Then he told how
disappointed he was to see how so many of those missionaries return home and go
scruffy. He said, “It is not a good
reflection on their attitude.”
But he brought up some
ideas about missionary work that goes along with how Norm and I are viewing
it. And then in our Zone meeting after
lunch, a young elder brought it up and
Elder Storrer was able to reiterate it later.
Read Alma 31, I believe starting with verse 12. Then go to Alma 32. First they prayed for the spirit and asked
their Father in Heaven to touch the hearts of the Zoramites. They did not convert a one-----Until those
Poor of heart came to them. They were
not even allowed to worship in the Synagogues that they had built with their
own hands. They had no place to
worship. They had a need.
People are not
converted until they have a need. We run
in to it all the time, even less actives.
We had been trying to
work with a young JAE, who is living with her boyfriend. She gave Norm the brush off back in April,
but since it appeared she was reachable.
Well we made contact, told her we would like to get to know her and
Sabastian a little better. He is not
LDS, but his father is. She said, “call
about a good time in September. Well
when Norm called her she said, one of the rudest things one can say in German, “It
has no value.” She thought she was
sending an insult to us, but we were only representing the Lord, so she pretty
much told him “that it has no value.”
My heart goes out to
her for she thought she was clever, but she as no idea what she as done to
herself. God does not curse us, it is
our actions that do.
So in setting our
goals, we have decided we can go to the doors and meet with these people and get
the same results our predecessor have gotten before us or try a new
approach. I will write about it’s
success or failure in a different blog.
I just know we have to have faith in all things. If we create and work at this with a lot of
prayer, we will show our Father in Heaven our faith. We will have what we need when we need it.
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