Blessings Come When we Follow the Will of the Lord

Monday, we saw many blessings from following the will of the Lord, and we saw that God accomplishes His purposes. First we went to K***. We had received the prompting to go the previous day, but we couldn't go because we had paperwork to fill out. When we first saw her, she looked really, really discouraged. She had been working really hard and hadn't seen much fruit. She told us that was beginning to think that all this wasn't worth it. She didn't go to the stake conference the day before, and she was really discouraged with herself and her family. We talked to her about her concerns and helped her resolve them.

Elder D*** and Elder B****

After that, we went to an investigator's house, because it was our plan. They were there, but had locked themselves IN the house and their husband had left with the keys. How likely is that?! We went to another investigator's home and she wasn't home. MY feet were hurting, and so we decided to finish off the night close to the house. We went to someone named Hermano N****. He is very kind and very diligent, but he's rather old. I'm not sure he can smell, and it was actually something really dangerous for him, as he had left his gas running. When we entered his home, it smelled really strongly of gas, but was diluted a bit because his door was opened. However, when he went to bed, he would have closed the door, and the gas would have killed him. It was a real blessing to be able to help him in that. The Lord needed us. Maybe we weren't the most diligent in seeking His inspiracion, which isn't the best, but he helped us, and he helped Hno N****, despite our weakness.

The lesson we taught him was so-so, as was the majority of what he said, but he was talking about sharing the gospel and said, "I used to be afraid of sharing the restored gospel with other people, but not anymore. I prayed and asked the Lord to take away my fears. Now I don't have fears of knocking doors and sharing the gospel." When I heard that, I was really impressed. I realized that I have fears as well, and I've asked the Lord to strengthen my confidence, but I haven't really asked him to take away my fears. Maybe it's the same with you. Maybe we're just too prideful to give up our weakness because we want to defeat it ourselves. It can't really be done. It can only be atoned, and fortunately we don't have to do that part.

I could probably give a synopsis like that for every one of the days this week, but I don't really have time, so I'll move on to another topic.

M**** (the recent baptism, and the mom) keeps surprising us with profound little quotes. The night after her confirmation, she said, "The gospel isn't learned as it is studied. Rather, it is learned as it is done." The other one was, "I always told my kids that 'If ice cream or money brought us happiness, I would work day and night to provide it for them. Now, however, I see in my children and myself that all we need to do are the simple things, like read the scriptures and pray.'" I'm sure that the first thought is that of almost any parent, and almost any spouse or friend. However, I asked myself if I worked day and night so that my siblings would read their scriptures and pray. Too many times I tried to solve their problems by my own power, but I realize now that if I want someone to be happy, I need to be their best friend and help them keep the commandments.

Another Battle with Blisters :(

Now for the feet. I spent two days couped up in the house, waiting for my feet to heal. It was actually a little bit relieving, not because we weren't working, nor because I was tired, but rather because I had the opportunity to read the Book of Mormon like I hadn't in a while. Before I usually just searched a scripture that I wanted for a lesson or a principle. I just read the book of mormon the last three days, and it provided me with a much-needed renewal of energy. The Book of Mormon seriously has the power to change the world, if only every person and every family would read it.

 --Elder Brown