I've gotten a bit concerned that my letters are a bit too
large, so I'm cutting it down this time.
"And there was much rejoicing. Yaaaay."
A couple of highlights from this week:
1. This week was the first time that somebody threatened to
sic his dog on me if we didn't get off his property. Not that we
were concerned; Elder Molina and I were pretty certain
that the
"dog" was
just him shaking
the door with a fuzzy black slipper. It still made my day.
2. I met my first Jehovah's Witness while on
the mission. That was an interesting experience.
3. This week we had Zone Conference, which was amazing. Two
zones met together to receive training from President and Sister Craven, as
well as from the Assistants. The biggest highlight of this story was President
Bonn, a stake president in our area who came to speak. He said he served in Korea ,
around 82-83, I believe, under a President Pock (that's what it sounded like.)
Did Uncle Boyd
ever know an Elder Bonn in his mission? Might be fun to find out; President
Bonn wanted me to ask.
4. By far the coolest story from this week happened just
yesterday, this Sunday. We were going to go give a do-or-die visit to an
investigator who had not been keeping her commitments. Before we left the
apartment, we knelt down and prayed, asking Heavenly Father to guide us to
people we needed to meet through the Holy Ghost. We went, showed up, talked to
her, and she did not want to continue investigating.
We thus went to go find some more people to teach. Instead
of knocking on the apartment doors around her house, though, Elder Molina felt
that we needed to go elsewhere. We hopped in the car and started going who
knows where. At one point, he reached a stop sign, and he had no idea where to
go. He felt he should go right, which would take us to one of our potential
investigators. When he got to the house, though, he was prompted to keep going.
Every time he slowed down to stop, he felt that he should keep going. Finally
he felt that he needed to stop at a certain house, and we got out and started
finding. After half an hour and some doors later, we had had no success. The
people in that area were fairly well off and fairly happy where they were.
I thought, "We're wasting our time here. We should
go find somewhere else."
And then the thought came into my head, "Don't give up
yet; keep going."
So I kept my mouth shut and kept walking. About three houses
later, we knocked on the door, and an old lady answered it. She said, "Are
you Mormons?" and we said yes. She said, "Thirty years ago, when I
lost my 7-year old daughter to leukemia, two Mormon missionaries came and
comforted me. They biked to my house every single week to come and help me in
the hardest time of my life. I will never forget what they did for me."
Her name was Dorothy, and she invited us in. We couldn't at
the time--there wasn't a man in the house, so we needed a member to come
with--but we came back two hours later. We got to teach her and her granddaughter
Anley, who was VERY excited to meet the missionaries. It was a wonderful first
lesson. We talked about the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation, and they
committed to everything. We have very high hopes for them.
It just hit me then that the Lord answered our prayer. I
have no doubt that He was guiding us that day; guiding Elder Molina and guiding
me. It also hit me that those two missionaries 30 years ago didn't convert
Dorothy, but their service left such a powerful impression that she was opened
to us now. We don't know what the plan is, but the Lord does. He is so in
control of everything.
This leads me back to our experience with President Bonn.
When he spoke
to us, he started off by quoting a line from The Dish. I thought our
family was the
only people in the world who'd seen that movie. I certainly was the only other
person in the room. Regardless, for those of you out there who have never seen
or heard of The Dish, it's about a group of Australians who ran
the satellite dish that picked up the Apollo 11 mission. It was a small but
crucial job. At one part of the movie, when the Moon landing is being broadcast
around the world, one of the workers says, "I can't believe that
I'm a part of this."
That just hits me. I see miracles all the time. This truly
is the Lord's work, and as He told us, His work is to bring to pass the
immortality and eternal life of man. That is what I am doing, and I can't
believe that I'm a part of this. I can't believe the Lord has let me join in
His great work.
The gospel blesses lives. The Church is true. Jesus Christ
died, and He did live again. Dorothy will be able to see her daughter again,
because He lives. I know this.
I love you all. I am so glad to be here. I pray for you
always.
Hurrah for Israel !
Elder Fisher
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