Miracles and Adventure

Greetings world,

It has been a week of miracles and adventure.

On Monday evening, we had a HQ referral to contact--it turned out to be a special needs lady. We were talking to her outside when her mom came out. We told them about the Book of Mormon and set up a time to come back. 

Then we talked to the grandmother of all these kids that were running around next door. She was very strange, but pleasant enough. 

After that we went off to check on a part member family, we drove past and continued on because their cars weren't there (yes, we are creeps like that.) 

A block or so down, we saw a man sitting at the edge of garage trying to get rid of a TV. We went and talked to him. He was also really interesting. He worked for the government--he did some profiling, and blew up cocaine plants. We talked a little about the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. He asked us why he would want to be a part of our church. I volunteered that 1) because it's true 2) because it's true, and God really loves us, it makes us significantly happier than we could be without it 3) it brings strength and perspective. And Sister Mumford added that it brings people a lot of peace. We scheduled a time to come back and went our separate ways.

We'd missed a call from the elders about this family that we'd helped to move in a couple weeks ago. He'd been in and out of the hospital because his cancer had taken a turn for the worse. They are not members, but their daughter who lives in Indy is. He was dying, and they wanted to see if we could come pray with them. So we did. It's hard to pray for a dying man's family. What do you say? I dunno what I said, but I hope it helped. And we talked a little bit about the spirit world.

Tuesday morning, we got a call from his daughter. He died that morning. Later on Tuesday, we talked to one of the wonderful less active ladies we've been working with. The ward was worried that she wouldn't be as receptive when her husband returned home from prison. He got back a few weeks ago, and they've been having problems. But she was doing great. She talked about how she's been reading the scriptures a lot, and praying more. She expressed how she wished she had done that when they had problems in their family years before. It's amazing to see how fast she developed her faith so that it could carry her through this.

On Wednesday, we had a first lesson with this wonderful lady. She was very receptive, and the spirit was strong--that's what happens when you talk about how much our Heavenly Father loves us and discuss evidence of that love. She was excited to meet again. I love lessons like that.

Friday, we had zone training, which is always an great revelatory opportunity. 

In the afternoon we talked to some neighbors. The lady was happy to meet us, but when she learned we belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, she closed off. She talked about how we teach things that just can't be true "Jesus and Satan were not half-brothers!" We agreed, and talked about how we were all brothers and sisters when we lived with our Heavenly Father before this. She talked about how she had been saved in her youth, and that Christ is the only way. We agreed and talked about faith, repentance, baptism, the holy ghost, and enduring to the end. Then we prayed. Their hearts had been softened by the spirit, and we don't know if it'll go anywhere, but we left on a very high note.

And then general conference was fantastic. How grateful I am to have a prophet on the earth today. How grateful I am that God still speaks to us today. Listening to the prophet and apostles is probably my favorite way of obtaining personal revelation. Often times things I need to do become so much clearer. That's one of my favorite roles of the spirit--clarity. "It beginneth to enlighten my understanding"

I hope everybody enjoyed conference as much as I did. We've got a lot of work to do, but it truly is the key to happiness--doing the Lord's work. Taking on a load that will provide sufficient spiritual traction, that we may return home

That's all for today,

Much love!

Sister Bowen