esterday we had a miracle. Sergio came to church and hasn’t been to church for years and years. Two weeks ago when we visited him he basically said he gives up and that he cant' change again and he’s too deep in the hole and keeps digging it deeper and deeper. So, I threw down on him ( in a loving way ) and told him that I won't let him go any deeper or give up and if I have to drag him by the collar out of the hole then I'm going to do that because as long as I'm here I'm not giving up on you. I said that I will do all I can to help you receive the Spirit again and get through your problems. He appreciated it but I could see in his eyes that he didn’t have faith that it was even possible. I told him right when we left, "DO NOT go watch TV or go on the computer,;go lock yourself in your room and find your scriptures and read, and then ponder your life and pray for help , guidance and repent. I promise you that you will have a change of heart and that Satan will lose power over you."
That’s the back story. Yesterday after sacrament he pulls me to the side and tells me a story. Basically this is what he said, ”You were right. Right after you left I turned on the tv and felt sucked into it but then I remember you told me not to watch it so it was hard but turned it off. Then I went to my room and I spent countless minutes looking for my scriptures and then finally found them. I searched to find where the scripture was that you read to me that day but couldn’t find it so I kind of gave up and went to go eat. I left the book of Mormon on my night stand and came back and kid you not it was opened EXACTLY on the page of the verse you shared with my (Ether 12:27). It said how I can make my weaknesses my strengths. I was overcome by the Spirit so strong. I repented and prayed to God for help and strength and felt so much peace. But I was still down about losing my dog because he was part of our family so that next week I read and prayed and then I got a call later that week saying that someone has my dog and that they saw my ad. It’s a miracle Elders; the Lord answered all my prayers. I feel the Spirit again and have joy. Elder, you were inspired to come that day and to share with me what you did and what you said for me to do after you left was all perfect and from God. You guys are literal angels on earth sent to me. Thank you so much for everything. I want you to teach my daughter this Tuesday and we both will come to church next week all 3 hours."
I know that story is long BUT that right there is a miracle and an answer to many prayers. This was something I did not expect , and it is so humbling to witness. This man is changed again and has come back to the Savior. After he told me all these things and more I had to go into a room and pray and thank God for what has happened because it purely was Him working miracles.
Ray gave the closing prayer in sacrament meeting and it was legit and I was so proud of him and he did a great job.
Now these past few days have been sort of hard for me personally. I’ve had to give blessings and help and council to people going through the hardest trials ever. Families losing sons or brothers from death and suicide and coping with that, and then people coming to me individually telling me the depression they face and suicidal thoughts and addictions that they can't overcome and all the hardest things you could imagine. I want to just make everything better for them, to fix their hurt hearts, their problems and their pains BUT I've been taught from my mother that we can't fix everything but the Lord can and we need to do all in our power to help but we also can turn to the Lord because He is the one who can heal and fix all.
There’s a super less -active family we visited and they love everything about the church and live it all and know it's true BUT they don’t like the church’s stand on homosexuality because her son and brother-in-law are gay. Then Maria, an investigator. who I've talked about before and has had a lot of depression and loneliness just dropped us and told us she doesn’t want us to come anymore even though we had a baptismal date with her.
SOOO ... like the statement in the subject of my email these past few days haven’t been easy. I've been worrying about these people and many others and have been stressing on what to do to help them BUT I know as I continue to pray for strength and peace, and continue with faith that I can receive revelation on how to help these families and individuals. This life isn’t made to be easy because this is the test; we are in it, all of us, and some of us are closer to finishing it or some are just staring off but through the Gospel of Jesus Christ you can finish it with knowing that every tear,pain and sorrow was worth it for the eternal blessings from God.
Real quick another cool story. Yesterday after lunch we were studying for few minutes then all of a sudden I had this urge to do missionary work and to get out of the apartment. So, I said to my companion, “Let’s go out and conquer the world!” He agreed thinking I'm probably crazy for saying that; so we went out and as we were walking to a family’s apartment we were stopped by a teenager walking his dog. He asked where our church was because he and his mom and sister were looking .They were recently baptized in Arizona then moved here and couldn’t find it. I shared a verse with him from the Book of Mormon and applied it to his life, and then said, "I know that everything happens for a reason and that God was the reason why we met at this exact time!!"
It was so awesome to see how the Lord works in mysterious ways and how we need to follow every prompting even if it doesn’t make sense.
Hope you all have a great week! FIND someone who’s going through depression or a trial and do all you can to help!
Sincerely,
Elder Taylor
PS - My new companion is Elder Heimbigner and he is from Utah
This guy was just walking by and it's probably the most LEGIT picture ever taken! haha
Me and my new companion Elder Heimbigner
We just got some FADES this morning... short hair is better!
No comments:
Post a Comment