"...because thou hast not murmured...I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them...and it came to pass that when my father heard these words he was exceedingly glad..."
I Nephi 3:6-8

2 months to go!

2 months to go!

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

He's Done It Again!

One of the most amazing parts of being on this mission is watching how the priesthood works when a man is listening to the spirit.  Last Thursday we had an appointment with some lovely people we met on the beach many months ago.  We gave them our card then and told them to give us a call if they wanted to go to the Family History Center in our little building.  Well, while we were in Greymouth, he finally called.  He said he needed to know who he was.  We made an appointment to meet him at the history center and went to do that after we got home.

We did some work the day we met but we also made an appointment to go to his home.  We wanted him to know that who he is isn't just about his genealogy.  He didn't believe that we would want to come to his house because it was "just ordinary".  He and his wife have a nice older home which they keep in good shape but it isn't fancy.  Never mind, neither are we.  We spent 2 hours there answering various questions and showing a couple of short videos about the church.  He was really intrigued and when we left, he told Ken that he had never had anyone teach him like that before nor had he ever been able to talk with someone so easily about such serious subjects.  We left him a Book of Mormon, a Bible, a Finding Faith in Christ video and a Restoration video as well as the video we showed the shorts from.

We met again at the FHC and did some more research, finding a couple of lines back several generations in a few hours.   He was amazed that we could find things so easily that he had been searching for years to obtain.  He invited us back this Friday.  He told us we could come anytime we wanted to and told Ken that we were "different" from all the other people he had talked with about religion.  He thought that we really must "believe it".  Interesting!

We had an incident with a person that behaved like a child and offended us as well last week.  I was pretty upset about it and so was Ken but when we went back, Ken remained totally calm and did a masterful job of explaining some very delicate things in a very sensitive way and so we parted later still friends.

On Sunday, we held a special priesthood meeting in the branch.  Ken had to get pretty direct with the men about stepping up to the plate and walking the walk.  He came out of it just fine.  It constantly amazes me how he summons the spirit and knows what to say and when to say it.  The directions about opening his mouth do not seem to cause him any problem at all.  He has total faith that what he says will come out right and it always does.

To our sons and grandsons, your grandpa and father is doing a masterful job that can only be done with the help of "The Master", the priesthood and the spirit.  You would do well to follow him.  Your families and many others will thank you for it.