probably proofread it before you think about sharing it with the kidos
Jesus spent time with the vilest of sinners, he talked about the fact that the whole need no physician, He spent his time with the sick. Those that needed healing only He could bring.
So do we.
IT'S TRUE
missionaries do live in a spiritual bubble that is not matched outside of our missionary service besides when in the temple.
We do come home awkward with biblical senses of humor and shocked about the violence, drugs, sex, and everyday ruin of the lone and dreary world.
(so I've heard, I'm not actually home yet)
but that isn't because we aren't surrounded by it here
it's because we are not the reason here, but at home we choose to become just a little more of the world with music, movies, and more
we aren't used to the lack of abundance of the Spirit.
Here, we are experiencing the consequences of the most heinous of crimes against God and man firsthand front row seats to something much more real than the realest of reality tv shows.
Not only do we see the effects of sin and hell and pain and suffering and sickness more than ever in our lives, but we are actively striving to seek it out in order to FIGHT it, reduce it, and allow God to HEAL it. For good.
I am proudly in a spiritual bubble in but not of the world
but I am more aware of, involved with, and faced with everything under the sun that is of the world and shockingly in it
most of these stories I don't share on my weekly blog as to keep a positive spirit and inspiration
but today I am going to share two stories
they aren't stories, they actually happened and are continuing to happen
Story One
When she was twelve she married a man that was Chinese and could barely communicate with her so that she could get custody of her younger siblings to raise them because her mother committed suicide, her father was in prison, and her stepfather was the reason for her mothers death and didn't want to be involved.
She learned Chinese in order to understand her husband, already spoke Spanish as her first language, and knew English being in school.
After and during raising her many siblings and three children of her own she finished her high school education, and got a degree in college.
Many of her siblings got tangled up in drugs, her husband was unfaithful, so she divorced and remarried an extremely abusive man that put her in a situation that should have ended her life but by a miracle she survived many days unconscious in the woods up north surrounded by snow. His abuse later came out to be the cause of her Leukemia cancer that formed because of too much extended bruising.
After divorcing him and getting away, she did a number of things that led to her now dealing with the reopening of her brothers case, she finally went through his autopsy and realized that there is substantial evidence that it was murder, not the "accident" that it was made out to be and she did more digging, found more evidence, and turned it in to find a winning case to arrest those involved.
In the midst of all this heartache and other things that have recently come up causing flashbacks of her mothers death and all of the abuse of her past, she was faithfully reading her Bible on her phone when a message about a Book of Mormon popped up and soon there we were, Sister Fast and me, in front of this daughter of God, our sister and friend, listening to her story.
Her lack of peace, and her lack of hope.
Her tears of despair turned to tears of happiness. The Spirit was so strong.
The trials have not ended there.
She came to church, and another brother got out of jail. What he did to her in the past is what put him in jail in the first place, and it was unsafe for her. He was supposed to go to prison for two years, they let him go.
Unfortunately she suffered some very sad, dangerous things just this last week but is now safe. She is out of the situation, and all is well for now.
Getting off the phone with her yesterday and hearing about what she's going through, tears came to my eyes.
She has peace. She has hope. She has love. Because of Him, as she is progressing to baptism nothing in the world is sweeter for me to see and be part of.
Later that night we met with
Story Two
Last week we stopped by to see how he was, he's the man that believes in aliens and has the sickest pony tailed beard I've ever seen.
He was about to pull out of his driveway but turned the car off for us explaining that he was so depressed because he rarely has human contact outside of his parents. He lives with then now only because he is waiting for them to die/has to take care of them because they're old.
They live in the boonies. He said he was so down he stayed in bed for two days. Said he was on his way to go get high.
Then he gave us a dissertation as to why marijuana is so great and all of the medical support
"bleep" guys, the stuff can even cure schizophrenia. they get so doped up and relaxed they don't even see the people in the bushes anymore."
He triumphantly told us he's been sober for many years we were very supportive of that and he told us why,
I will leave out the sorted details but
again.. very supportive of his decision to stop drinking.
The whole time he was spitting tobacco out the window and occasionally dropping expletives.
Then he said he had to go so we left
but went back Sunday as we had made an appointment with him
As soon as we pulled up we saw him working on a project in the front yard, he offered us a log he had out there to sit on by his fire pit, and continued working on his project claiming to be much too busy to sit with us.
"What are you talking about today ladies"
not even a sideways glance
after some awkward statements of Preach my Gospel "how to begin teaching" we decided to ask some questions and read from the Book of Mormon while he worked with his screwdriver and two pieces of wood at a table fifteen feet away.
We had to almost yell as we read and explained the section we were reading in the Book of Mormon
he eventually cut us off and said something along the lines of
"This is boring. Where's the hook, I'm not sold at all"
In frustration and a little bit of built up anger from his disrespectful attitude towards us and now the Book of Mormon, I said without much restraint
"This isn't for your entertainment!!"
"Well good because you'd be failing in that department."
"What do you think we are here to do!!??"
"get me to join your church"
Sister Fast and I both shook our heads.
"get my money?"
we again shook our heads no.
"Well, whatever it is, you've picked the toughest nut to crack."
I said (having regained back some of the spirit and love for this misguided son of God)
"We aren't here to crack you, we aren't here to sell you anything, we aren't here for your money, we aren't getting paid to be here, we don't want you to join our church, It is not OUR church, and we are most definitely not here to entertain you.
We're here to tell you about the Lords church, the only true and living church on the face of the Earth and how you can benefit from His promises and blessings associated with doing the things we invite you to do, experimenting on it, so that you can know for yourself why we are here, and why this message is important."
He finally took us seriously and stopped working on his project, sat down, and said something rude but at least he was paying attention now.
Sister Fast and I bore testimony of the reality of the power of the Holy Ghost and how it can change his life and testify of the message that we have yet to share with him, if he is sincerely willing to try this out. "Just listen to us, and listen to the Spirit with an open heart."
he asked us what that meant
I explained to him how I feel the Spirit with me, and tried to describe how I personally feel it and that everyone feels it differently, as I explained the Spirit filled all of our hearts and I told him that I could feel it very strongly right then.
I told him that "I already know that these things are true, so the Spirit I'm feeling right now is not testifying to me of that, it is testifying to me that you are feeling it.
We all sat there in silence letting the Spirit "work in his heart" as he was finally allowing it to.
I felt prompted to talk about our purpose for life on this Earth, we asked him if he had a belief on that because he seems to have an opinion about EVERYTHING else under the sun.
He said he didn't know. Can't figure that one out.
The Spirit told both Sister Fast and I to talk about why we are here meaning: What our potential is as sons and daughters of God.
AKA
The Celestial Kingdom and becoming Gods
WHAT
Silly Spirit..... this man is a nut. He believes in aliens and that Christianity is completely corrupt and that there are no men with authority to tell others what to do. The Celestial Kingdom?
Spirit: We believe in life outside of this Earth, and everywhere he has looked for truth in the MANY different denominations of Christianity has been corrupt and has had a lack of authority. He's actually very prepared to accept Gods laws and commandments because contrary to his words, he is unhappy with the way he is living his life. He knows there is a God. He just hasn't yet found the right way to become like and follow Him.
It was so incredibly awesome people.
Wayne looked at the ground very carefully and muttered
"that's pretty kicka--" in the most respectful and reverent tone I've ever heard those words said
More to come with this nut. Love him to death.
Make it a great day, and remember
someday we are going to become like our Heavenly Father
so start acting like it :)
step one two and three:
Church
Pray
Read The Scriptures
Saying good-by to Elder Chamberlain, he got transferred:(
Love you BIG!
Sister Saunders
