9-17-2013

The mission field is so awesome! We meet all sorts of cool people! Just the other day I was able to meet a super sweet lady and her husband! I was going with another elder in my zone, Elder Cole, to help some other missionaries find some work in their area. We went to some apartment complexes and started knocking doors. We were able to setup a few appointments when we got waved over by some lady. She invited us in and we started talking. Her husband had gotten baptized just over a year ago and had recently gone through the temple! As the conversation went on we found out that she was a member but didn't go because she had a smoking problem. Elder Cole and I felt inspired that we should talk to her about Jesus Christ and how he can help us through any problems we may have. She said that she had quit smoking before but she would eventually get angry at someone and start up smoking again.

To me it sounded kind of silly, but I was quickly reminded not to judge people for what they think or do or go through. We were prompted to share a story from Dieter F. Uchtdorf. The story talks about how when a baby is learning to walk the will, without a doubt, fall over. And when we are the parent of that child do we laugh at them for falling over? Do we tease them? Do we look down to them? No! We congratulate them! They are, after all, learning to walk! When they fall it helps them grow, it helps them learn from their mistakes! It's the same thing with our loving Father in Heaven! When we make mistakes, when we fall off the path, is he angry with us? Absolutely not! In fact, he is pleased! When we stumble and fall it means we can learn from that mistakes. We can overcome the trial and be even closer to our Heavenly Father!

That is an awesome analogy when it comes to making mistakes. We knew it would be helpful for her because the Spirit told us to do it. However, we did not know how big of an effect it would have on her. She told us that because of that story, and the other thoughts we had shared we helped her more in that 20-30 minutes period than all the missionaries had for the past year(That certainly made my testimony of following the Spirit and trusting that God knows best grow!). We then told her to pick a date to stop smoking for good! To pray about it to God and let him know and ask for him help! We also invited her to pick a date so that she herself could go through the temple! She agreed and said that she will keep it between her and the Lord. We left knowing that we would probably never see her again but we also left knowing that we had helped someone grow close to our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Now for smiley faces, because telling that story makes me happy!
:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)