Greetings from the "Land of my Inheritance!"
Spring
has finally come in full force. Green grass and wildflowers everywhere.
Today, it is 78 outside and it has been in the 60's (with lots of rain)
all this last week. There is nothing like a spring in the great Ohio!
This area is a definite 4-season place.
This
week, although warm, the area's success has been hot and cold. We worked
hard, striving in all things to be obedient and diligent. It was full
of some super powerful lessons. We worked closely with the ward to get
people out teaching with us and things just seemed to work out. The
lessons we taught were full of the spirit. Then the weekend came. . .
Elder Jones and I had committed a number of people to attend church. We
had rides set up and everything and the morning of, it all fell through!
Not to mention all of our appointments for the day.
It
hurts when people do not keep their commitments. Literally, it is
painful inside. We love the people we teach and we want them to do the
simple things that lead to great blessings, and when they do not, we
know what they are missing. It is almost unbearable. At the beginning of
my mission I would be stressed on days like these because it would mean
that my "key indicators" or "numbers" would be bad at the end of the
week, but now I am sincerely sorry for what the people I love are
missing out on.
I often have wondered the
last 2 days how it is that God can feel that very pain for not just for
one or two investigators, but for all of his children who are not
keeping his commandments. It has to be overwhelming. What we feel as
missionaries times billions. And then on top of that He gives his only
Begotten Son, the Only Son that actually did keep All of his
commandments, His only perfect Son, and He gave him up for all of his
disobedient children. I can't even fathom the Love God must have for us,
his children, and the pain he must feel when they, or we, do not do what
he asks us to.
As we partook of the
Sacrament, alone, that Sunday I seemed to pray with the words of Zenos
in the Book of Mormon, "but what could I have done more for my vineyard?
Have I slackened mine hand, that I have not nourished it? Nay, I have
nourished it, and I have digged about it, and I have pruned it, and I
have dunged it; and I have stretched forth mine hand almost all the day
long, and the end draweth nigh. and it grieveth me that I should hew
down all the trees of my vineyard, and cast them into the fire that they
should be burned. . . . . And it came to pass that the Lord of the
vineyard wept, and said unto the servant: What could I have done more
for my vineyard?" (Jacob 5: 41, 47)
I reflected
on these words in the Book of Mormon, and then read what happened after
to Elder Jones. The servant advised his Lord who is weeping to "spare it
a little longer." So the lord of the vineyard, and his servants go to
work with "all diligence" and the servants "did obey the commandments of
the Lord. . . in all things." After their continued labor the Lord
preserves unto himself the natural fruit. These words comforted both
Elder Jones and I, knowing that our continued labor would at some point
in the future, bring fruit.
That night, in the
last hour and in our time of need, we found an awesome family! We had
talked to the Mom before, and when we came back they let us in and we
were able to teach both her and her husband/boyfriend (hard to tell
these days). They seemed to agree with every point of the restoration,
and then asked if they could have a copy of and read from the Book of
Mormon. This finding opportunity would not have happened had the
previous investigator cancelled their appointment.
As
we continue to labor with "all diligence" and "obeying the
commandments in all things" the Lord will place people in our path. "You
will find them, or they will find you." That is the promise for members
or full-time missionaries. We look forward to the others whom we will
find in the near future as we labor with "all diligence" and "obeying
the commandments in all things."
Much Love!
Elder Beutler
