"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on
me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he
do." - John 14:12
While biking to an appointment one evening, Elder Herr
and I passed by an Outback Steakhouse. The neon lights in its letters had gone
out, making it an Outhouse. I wonder how long it will take them to notice that.
Very quickly -- I am staying in Lakefield but will be
getting a new companion. He will be my eighth companion in eight transfers,
which is highly unusual. I'm thinking that if the Lord ever brings
back plural marriage I will have been prepared for it.
I will miss my current companion, though. I will miss Herr a
lot. Making puns about Herr was so much fun.
***
This week was an eventful one. On Saturday the 8-year old
daughter of our Elders' quorum president was baptized. We had two
investigator families at the service, and it was very beautiful.
We are currently working with the _____ family. They
were progressing very well until Brother _____'s mother-in-law suddenly showed
up. In short, she is living evidence that the adversary will oppose any attempt
to come unto Christ. She embarasses Brother _____ terribly. After one
particular lesson Brother _____, who does not like his mother-in-law,
escorted us outside to talk about it. I commented to him, "Youdo know
we believe in eternal families, right?"
One advantage of the mother-in-law being here is that we can
get Brother _____ to do basically whatever we want as long as it gets him
out of the house and away from her. On Saturday we even got him to come out
teaching with us. He came with us to a part-member less-active family and
actually did a really good job, bearing testimony of the First Vision after we
shared it. I had never seen anything like it -- aninvestigator teaching members.
It was unbelievably epic.
Later that day we succeeded in getting Brother _____
and his son to stake conference. It wasextremely good. I could share all
sorts of good things from the speakers but I will save it for another day. I
want you to know that our stake president is awesome, though.
This conference led me to realize that the Lord grants
requests. A few weeks ago I had realized that I'd never met an Area Seventy and
I wished that I could. And lo! at stake conference Elder Meredith was
presiding. After the Saturday evening session I remarked to Elder Herr,
"Well, with that, the only position I've never met is a temple
president." And behold, the next day President Amacher of the Raleigh
Temple was there.
***
I had the opportunity to be a part of a powerful experience
this last week. On Thursday we found ourselves with twenty open minutes. I
decided to go and try a less-active that we hadn't been able to contact in over
a month, an elderly sister named A___. She was home, but a few
minutes into the conversation her daughter and her niece J_____, both adults,
walked into the room. The next day J_____ was scheduled to go in to the doctor
for tests, as she had cancer. A___'s daughter, a member, had told J_____, a nonmember,
that we could give her a blessing in preparation for it.
We agreed. I briefly explained what a blessing was to
J_____, read the story of the woman with an issue of blood, and explained to
her that healing comes from faith. We then sat her down and I gave her the
blessing. Afterwards many of the people in the room were in tears. We
rescheduled to return on Saturday.
When we returned, J_____ explained to us that a month ago,
when she had gone in for testing, the doctors had found four growths and a
grapefruit-sized tumor. When she had gone in yesterday, they found nothing and,
slightly bewildered, had declared that she was cancer-free and could go.
I am not saying that the blessing caused the tumor to
magically shrivel up and go away. For one thing, I'm pretty certain that I
don't have that kind of faith. But things didn't have to happen that way for
the occurrence to be miraculous. I am certain that the Lord knew at what time
to send us to give that blessing so that it would be a faith-building
experience for J_____ when she went in for her appointment.
I am honored that the Lord would allow me to participate in
such a story. I am honored that He would allow me to have been a part of it. It
has been at times like these that I begin to understand what it really means to
be a representative of Jesus Christ.
I know that this Church is true. I love you all. Hurrah for
Israel!
Elder Fisher
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