Greetings from the Great OCM!!!
A week of
miracles here! Many of which involve the Jewish people in my area. For
quite some time now Elder Hatch and I have been praying and pondering
about how to reach these people and this week we have started to see
those prayers answered. To name a few . . .
We were out in the dreary cold weather walking down the
streets trying to talk to everyone we could see. We had never been on
this street before as it is near the very border of our area. As we
walked, I suddenly stopped, as I had an impression undoubtedly from the
spirit seeming to urge me to return to our bikes. Fearing for the
welfare of our bikes, we hastily began walking in the direction from
where we had just come. Now this prompting came to me not because our
bikes were in peril, but because God was placing us in the path of
someone who was prepared, and more in particular, a Jew. We had not
walked 10 yards after turning around when a man stepped out of his house
and asked us if we were lost and who we were. I replied "we are
missionaries for our Church" he then replied excitedly, "Mormons?!?" He
invited us into his home and we learned that his family came from
Jerusalem and he is Jewish. He knew who we were because he was taught by
missionaries about 2 years ago, and he told us he is ready to learn
again and even mentioned that the last hang up was baptism so that
needs to be addressed next. We bore testimony to him that the spirit had
brought us to his door and he knew it too, as he felt like it was time
to meet with missionaries again.
God is preparing people to hear the message of the restoration!
Another
miracle . . we had dinner with a member this last week and they started
talking about this good friend they have who is very open minded and
has even talked with missionaries in the past. They then mentioned that
she is Jewish and I stopped them right there. I knew that we needed to
teach this person. The member talked with this friend over the week and
she said that she would be willing to talk with us, so hopefully this
week there will be another Jew, in fact it is a Jewish family, in our
teaching pool.
Another miracle. . . we were street contacting and ran
into this guy who was working on a house near our apartment. He asked us
what we were doing out in the cold and again I responded "we are
missionaries" He knew we were Mormons and told us about a good friend of
his that is as well. We offered to drop off a copy of the book of
Mormon later that day (because he lives outside of our area and was only
going to be working on that house that day--no coincidence) and he
graciously accepted. Again the spirit guided me and told me that I
needed to write my testimony in the front cover of a BOM before giving
it to him (I haven't written my testimony in the front cover before so
it was definitely inspired) so I wrote a heartfelt testimony and we
returned and gave him the copy. He then told us of some difficulties he
was working through and asked us to pray with him, we did and the spirit
was there. He exchanged numbers and hopefully can get a hold of him to
refer his information to another set of missionaries.
Another miracle . . . while we were walking out of this
house that this man was working on we ran into the owner of the house
who also has some good friends who are Members. She told us to come back
and said "I am not sure if we are conversion material but definitely
come back." They were in the process of moving in to this home and said
they are moving here to be near their grandchildren. We were definitely
supposed to be in that area for a reason.
So some really great things happened this last week as
the spirit was poured out on the people here and I possibly received
more inspiration on directing this work this week than ever before. I
know that God is there, I know that the spirit will tell us all things
we should do. We may not always have great promptings to do things, in
fact this week I could have easily shrugged off these feelings as I have
in the past. But when we need God's help or when he needs ours, he
speaks to us. Whether on or off a mission rely on the spirit in
everything you do and you won't go wrong, even if you diligently are
seeking inspiration and can't seem to get a definite answer, but make a
decision trying to seek that inspiration, then surely this decision
you have made is supported by God because you sought his help and really
tried to know his will. Then if you still feel like you don't know what
to do it usually means God is giving you the opportunity to make the
decision on your own because he trusts and knows that the decision you
make will be right. Like any loving parent, he doesn't make the
decisions for us but he wants us to find answers on our own.
Thank you for the pictures, the stories, and the
wonderful quote from Gordan B. Hinckley. Thank you for being a wonderful
example to me. Thank you for making my purpose in life and what makes us
eternally happy so obvious. You are my family, and I have you forever!
Have a wonderful week. This is the Lord's work and there is nothing
that will stop it from progressing.
Love,
Elder Beutler
