Week 9 - "Seeking Faith and Speaking Words I Never Thought I'd Say"

Hello, all!

This week's quote is from The Prince of Egypt. So this week has been weird -- I feel like a lot has happened, but also very little has happened. We haven't been getting new people to teach, really, but we've found ourselves in a lot of situations where we made plans, but the plans fell through, and then we felt like our schedule was being directed by the Lord. We had dinner with some members on Friday night, for instance, and we prayed that we would know what to do with our time afterward, because an appointment we had fell through. So we narrowed it down to two ideas, and then we started pursuing one of them (we were going to an area to try and tract it), and then we got a call from one of our investigators, who's visiting Texas right now. He called, and he was like, "Did you guys forget about me? I've been gone so long and haven't heard from you." I think he was just ribbing us because that's the way he is, but I got a pit in my stomach for a second--I was like, "No, no, we haven't forgotten you!" It was interesting to me that he contacted us, though. That says to me that we have a good relationship. He was also wondering what the next time we were going to meet was, and he let us know when he was going to be getting back from Texas. So after that call, we were like, "Wow, that was so cool." And then almost immediately, we got a call from Jennifer, and she was like, "Can we video chat?" So we hurried back to the apartment to sit down and talk with her. Again, it's really cool that an investigator wanted to get in touch with us -- they wanted it enough to make a connection.

It seems like that experience was just one of many throughout the week that have demonstrated to me that prayer works, and that doing things "Unto the Lord" (see 2 Nephi 32:9) is a very important principle. It seems like every time we've prayed for something, we've seen some sort of result. For instance, there's an investigator who's really difficult to set appointments with, and he's been taught for a very long time, but he hasn't committed to baptism. When I first got here, the missionaries were just coming over and reading the scriptures with him, but we never really committed him to anything when I had been there. And as far as meeting with him, it's kind of just this thing where the missionaries drop by to see if he's there, and if he is, he invites them in, and we have an appointment. We've been trying to more fully discuss our investigators and their needs and their obstacles in weekly planning, and we discussed George and weren't sure what to do about him. We decided we'd go and try to visit him, and when we did, I said a prayer beforehand. I can't remember what I said, but it had something to do with the spirit and knowing what to say and so forth. We knocked on the door, George was home, and we came in and read the first part of Mosiah 18 with him and then discussed baptism, and he just opened up and started talking about where he is in his progression and why he's hesitating to participate in the church and make the commitment to be baptized. It was awesome--we didn't have to navigate our way through a difficult conversation with him: He basically just went straight to the point, and we got the information we needed to know how to help him progress.

Earlier that week we went to work at a food pantry a ways west of where we live (which we've been doing weekly -- I guess some of the elders discovered the service opportunity through JustServe) and if I remember correctly either in companionship prayer that morning or before we went in, we had a prayer about the people we work with there at the food pantry. We've been getting to know them better, and I feel like a lot of them would really benefit from the gospel. When we were there that day, one of the workers there (actually one of the chief people -- his wife sort of runs the pantry) talked to me about why he helps the poor and how some people don't realize that there are people who don't have food. From my perspective it was a very heartfelt conversation, and I felt like I really connected with him, and I think that's a step. One thing I've learned about prayer, though, is that we need to pray by the Spirit. Elder Thomas told me about an insight he had about prayer, which we do "In the name of Jesus Christ." He said he realized that for a prayer to truly be in the name of Jesus Christ, it needs to express the will of Jesus Christ. When we say "In the name of Jesus Christ," in some ways that indicates that a prayer has his approval or is being given at his direction. I've been working this transfer on praying as Christ would pray -- praying in accordance with his will. I think the experiences I've had with prayer have taken place because as I've prayed, I've listened to the spirit and tried to say what he was directing me to say.

Last night we had dinner with the Tengbergs, a young married couple in the ward, and it was really enlightening to Elder Thomas and I. Sister Tengberg is a convert to the church, and she told us her conversion story, and she expressed to us that people's attitudes about church tend to be less about whether the church they're attending teaches them true doctrine but whether they like going to it. People sort of church shop, looking for a pastor or a set of services or a building or choir they like, and that's what motivates them to look for something new. It really changed my perspective to understand that, and I think having that understanding is going to help Elder Thomas and I in our conversations with the people we contact.

The night before we went and had dinner with our bishop and his wife, and that was great. The bishop gave a talk two Sundays ago at ward conference about the reasons people don't come to church and how we can resolve or address their concerns, and it made me realize how much he cares about the members of the ward and how much he wants to help them. Two of his own kids don't go to church anymore, and it's really hard on him. One of our relatively recent converts (she joined before I came) didn't come to church that day -- later we found out she woke up with persistent, demeaning thoughts about herself, like she was being assailed, and it made her feel like she wasn't worthy to go to church or be a part of the ward. She told us later that she'd never had that experience before -- she'd never woken up to that kind of attack, and I think it was because Bishop Kiehl was going to speak that day about what he did. I got a copy of his talk from him and gave it to the recent convert. Maybe I'll send it to you guys in this email. Anyhow, we had dinner with the Kiehls, and they're awesome. Spending that time with them affirmed in my mind that the ward is in good hands.

That morning we had gone and visited a less active member named Hawa, and it was super interesting: She hasn't been coming to church, but we learned that her work schedule includes Sundays, and I came in sort of expecting to have to resolve some spiritual concern or something, but Hawa bore testimony about the great things the church has done for her and told us her conversion story. The spirit was very present, and I got the impression that the only thing that was keeping her from church was her work, and in other respects she was being a faithful member of the church. We asked if we could come by at the same time next week to talk to her about what we would be discussing at church in case she couldn't make it. It was really cool to see someone really trying to keep the faith without much of a support system.

A few other notes:

We've been meeting more with Jennifer over video chats and teaching her a little more, and she seems super willing to learn. She couldn't come to church this week, but she should be able to next week.

We've been meeting with a young man named Dwayne who's going to start learning at an art studio in Worthington soon. His father wants him to have a spiritual education, as it were, but we're not sure if his father quite understands the magnitude of what we in particular can give his son. Dwayne seems to be progressing, though, and we're trying to get him to church as well. We've been talking to him about increasing his inner light, and we're hoping that he'll come to church and realize that attending church is one way he can increase that light.

Elder Thomas has been signing for a lot of missionaries, interpreting in their lessons over video chat, and it's been great for him, I think.

We've put up a notice about teaching Family History at the local library. We're going to see if anything comes of that.

Two of our less-active members came to church this week! It was great. We're hoping they had a good experience.

We did ward coordination this week with the ward mission leader and ward missionaries, and we've got some new ideas as far as how to fellowship and find people. We're going to try inviting people to a Bible Study in February and maybe do a game night and some other fun, non-threatening activities that we can invite investigators and potentials to.

I'm out of time. I love you all!

Elder Davis