One More Precious Soul

I sat in class on Sunday with a very important person.  All of the members of the class were of course important but this person makes me marvel.  He is one of our recent converts.  I have not written about him for reasons I have not known.  We met him in a most unusual way.  Ken spoke to him at an op-shop one day shortly after we arrived here.  It was a very brief conversation about how hard it was for big men like them to find clothing in these shops.  Ken did not even take much notice of it.

Three weeks later, while out contacting less active members, I picked a name from our list.  We drove up to the home, got out of the car and walked to the door.  Upon doing that, we could hear some very loud voices out back of the house.  Ken went around to find out who was there.  A man said, "It is Elder Jarvis!"  We had never been to that home, nor had we ever met it's occupants that we knew of.  After a few seconds, Ken recognized the man from the op-shop.  He had read the name on Ken's tag and had been trying to find us.  Interestingly enough, this man is named Ken, he is a big man and he was born on April 19, Ken Jarvis' birthday as well.

We soon began teaching all the people who lived in that home, Ken, a woman and Ken's son.  He told us that he and the woman had been arguing and it probably didn't help their conversation that he kept saying things like, "What would Joseph Smith do?" with a less than amiable attitude.  As we taught him though, he began to do everything we asked him to do.  He started to read all the things we gave him, including the Book of Mormon.  He began to pray.  He and the woman split and he began living laws that are so important to our progress in the gospel.  He stopped drinking coffee, a very important thing to him and he quit smoking.

On December 1, 2012, he was baptised by Elder Jarvis.  On December 2, 2012 he received the Aaronic Priesthood and baptised his sweet 12 year old son.  His son now holds the Aaronic Priesthood which his dad confirred on him a couple of weeks later.  I have never seen such a visible change in a human being take place in such a short time but then again, I have never seen the Spirit work on anyone like it did on this man.  He is now happy, relaxed and moving forward with his life.  He is determined to make a better life for himself and his son.  He sat in class and tried to help others who were there see the direction they could take to live happier, more productive lives.

I am beginning to understand why the Lord wants us to help people reach his love and kingdom one step and one person at a time.  Each soul is precious and the Lord and the Father know this.  They are just hoping that one day, all the rest of us will discover this truth for ourselves.