Called To Serve

Howdy Family,

First off R. was baptized!! I truly love that man like a brother. He was so prepared and ready. He is the one that is a very well known surgeon here in town. He was attending a very popular and well known Church in Lubbock, but he knew this was the true church, and we helped him really recognize the feelings of the sSirit for the first time. It was a really neat experience to see him change over this past month. He gave up coffee, tea, beer, and his most favorite--cigars. He told us if we knew anyone that could use some nice cigars he could send them their way. ha. He has SO much fellowship in the ward, so honestly it made our job easy. I can't remember if I told you but he is SO smart. I was a little intimidated at first teaching him, because honestly he probably already knows more than my companion and I. He had already read Preach My Gospel and knew all the lessons, so he was really checking up to see if we had done our homework. ;) In one lesson he quoted Lorenzo Snow (yes--what investigator even knows who that is?!) and talked about the pickle analogy he gave. We start off as cucumbers and we are being pickled, but its a LONG process. So we had to get him a jar of pickles as a gift!

 

He knew a lot of history and doctrine of the Church, but he was lacking the spiritual aspect, and so that's where us missionaries came in! He had a plan to read and study (and by study I mean right now he is cross referencing Doctrine and Covenants with Ether) The Book of Mormon for 2 months and then consider baptism, but at the very first lesson we taught him which was about 3 weeks ago, the Spirit was SO thick, he couldn't say no to our invitation to baptism on the 6th! The next day he wondered why he had said yes when he really was thinking "No, i'm not ready." That's when we were able to explain to him that the Spirit was confirming to him that it was true and that he could be ready by the 6th. After that it was pretty smooth sailing, he began just eating everything up and enjoying all our lessons at member's homes. He said there is an attraction with LDS values and beliefs and he just wants to know it all! We told him he's got the rest of his life for that ;) ha. It truly was an amazing and spiritual day, because not only did we have a baptism, but it was General Conference! 

I have an awesome story a member shared with us this week. How lucky we are to have the gift of the Holy Ghost and how we need to follow the promptings. A few years ago, this woman in our ward got a strong prompting that her husband needed to apply for graduate school. He had already gone to school and  had a good job, and thought no we are good, I'm done with school and I have a good job. She kept getting that prompting though, so finally he applied to a bunch of different graduate schools. He didn't get in to most of the schools, and a couple he never heard back from..... 7 months later he gets laid off from his job. They had 4 children and didn't know what they were going to do. The very NEXT day they get a letter in the mail, an acceptance letter to Texas Tech for graduate school. Tears filled her eyes as she shared this story with us. The Lord knows our paths better than we do. As we follow the promptings of the Spirit we are blessed, both for our temporal and spiritual needs. I hear stories on my mission like this ALL the time. I wish I could share them all with you, but its just a faith builder for me to know  that God is there and aware of all our needs. He knows better than we do what path we need to take in life. In fact, he usually has a better life planned for us than we would be able to come up with on our own ;) ha. So remember to always trust in the Lord, and know that everything happens for a reason!

I love this gospel so much. I know this is the Lord's Kingdom, and I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God. 
Hope you all had a great week!!

Love,
Sister Turner