Monday, April 21, 2014

Because of Him

Hope y'all had a great Easter, it was a beautiful one here in the Palmetto state! I love the strong christian morals here, while not everything closes most Sundays. Sis Hendrix and I enjoyed a peaceful drive Easter morning happy to see big empty parking lots and few people on the road, because everyone was going to church to celebrate the miracle of his resurrection. May we always remember the glorious message that he lives! (mormon.org/becauseofhim)

here's snapshot of my week and a taste of the many miracles that occur all because of my Savior and what He did:)
Wednesday: We had the most miraculous lesson tonight! Our other backups had sorta fallen through so we decided to go check on a past lead, Mike. When we got there Mike was free to meet with us but there weren’t any women home so we couldn’t go inside. We told him to wait 10 minutes and we’d get a member to come over, we called Bro Addison and asked if he’d be willing to bring Mike to the church for a lesson. So we went over to the church, did a mini chapel tour with Mike and had an awesome lesson! Mike really opened up about how he only has a 3rd grade reading capacity and 5th grade math, he just wants to be able to turn his life around. Grew up in foster care, at one point had been incarcerated (didn’t say for what) but he said that he had left those ways behind. We let him know to feel free to ask questions and he let us know he’s more one to sit back and soak it all in. At the end Sis Hendrix was feeling inspired and invited him to be baptized. I invited him to be baptized the 3rd week in May and he actually chimed in that his birthday was May 11, so we put him on date to be baptized May 10, and confirmed May 11th! Before we left we arranged for Bro Addison to bring him to church on Sunday! It was so great! We floated out of there, and the next day called into SCCM for a miracle moment. We had applied everything we’d been taught at the specialized training meeting, and this time Heavenly Father saw fit to show us a miracle.

Friday: We had a fantabulous lesson with Alisha and Sister Campbell. We talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ and focused on faith. We talked about how faith requires us to sometimes take a step into the darkness in order to find out there’s light up ahead. Sis Campbell shared about her own conversion and times when she had to take a leap of faith. Without prompt Alisha commented that she hadn’t taken that step of faith yet. She recommitted to reading the Book of Mormon and coming to church with us next Sunday. The lesson was so inspired, as we moved on through the lesson Sis Campbell felt the need to delve deeper into the Holy Ghost, it was totally Ammon status as she perceived what Alisha was feeling. She explained with beautiful simplicity how the receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost after baptism in no way meant she hadn’t felt the spirit before. I had always had the questioned before of why weren’t we born with the gift of the Holy Ghost, I had come up with some ideas to appease me for the time, but it always didn’t sit right with me. It was so neat as I had the spirit teach and testify to me via Spiderman. “with great power comes great responsibility” or in D&C terms “where much is given much is required”. I explained how Heavenly Father isn’t going to force us to have the Holy Ghost, or even the responsibility to live worthy of it. If we were born with it, we would be under greater condemnation for losing it. But as a loving father he allows us to choose to receive that gift after qualifying for it through baptismal covenants. One of the best lessons with her so far, and as we were walking out we mentioned again the Book of Mormon, and asked where she was planning to start reading from. She told us from the beginning, opened up to the table of contents and while pointing to the first book of nephi said, “I should be able to finish that one by our next meeting (one week later), and if I finish that I’ll move on to 2 Nephi”. Haha, I wasn’t going to doubt or limit her, but will be ecstatic if she makes it to 2 Nephi by then!

Friday: Sharon was too sick to have our lesson so we offered a priesthood blessing and she accepted. It was super quick, we went in explained, blessed and popped out. The next time we went over Allen couldn’t stop expressing how grateful he was for what we did, and how much it uplifted him. Sharon was so impressed as well, she said as soon as they started praying she immediately felt her ears draining and she could suddenly hear again!

Sunday: Mike couldn’t have picked a better Sunday to start coming to church. Easter Sunday he got to experience a beautiful spirit filled meeting, in Sunday school we went over the atonement. He really desires to have that forgiveness and Sis Hendrix and I could tell it really spoke to him. He kept nodding his head and readily raised his hand when Sis Addison asked who desired to change and become better? The 3rd hour of church was a miracle hour. In priesthood we found out later from the Elders that they had spoken about the Word of Wisdom and they were able to talk to Mike about it. Mike smokes and both S.Hendrix and I had been wondering about when we should teach it or bring it up-tada! Heavenly Father had it scheduled. Did I mention that the WOW wasn't even in the literal lesson plan, in relief society we went over the Joseph fielding smith lesson about building up the kingdom of god, NO IDEA why they went over the word of wisdom in elder’s quorum.

well we're off to go see what leftover Easter candy we can raid from walmart;)

love y'all!
Sister Smith

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