Fam.
This week was a long one. But we had quite the miracle occur this week. As we were planning wednesday night, E. Johnson and I quietly stared at our planners. No appointments. 5 hours of tracting to do. I take a deep breath and say "Well, tracting from 1-6"
Elder Johnson says no. I ask him what he means. He says that he won't go tracting for that long, that tracting doesn't work.
"Well, what else do you want to do?"
Silence.
I offer a suggestion "we could hit up the homeless shelter?"
"okay"
"That still leaves 4 1/2 hours to tract." This is where he snaps.
"IT DOESN'T WORK! IT IS A WASTE OF TIME."
Now, I felt that the response I gave him was a miracle in itself, because there were a lot of other things that I had in mind to say, but luckily just the right words came out, words I hadn't even planned on saying.
"Elder Johnson, what is it you want to do here?"
He grudgingly answered "I want to baptize."
"How bad do you want it?"
"Oh," he said "I want it bad."
"Just not 5 hours of tracting bad."
He snapped at this. "IT'S SO USELESS. YOU'RE NOT LISTENING. IT DOESN'T WORK. People just slam the door in our faces and cuss us out!!"
I found myself speaking a response I didn't understand. It was for us both really, I listened, just as intrigued as Elder Johnson, to the words I was saying, for it was the first time I had heard them as well.
"Elder Johnson. You aren't here to have success. You aren't here to baptize people. These are our goals, but not our reason. We are here to invite people. You must realize that we are successful with every invitation we offer to the people here. If you haven't noticed, I don't care if the people slam the door in my face, I just move on to the next one. Because I know that I have done all I can to help invite this person unto Christ. You are doing an amazing job, Elder Johnson. Because you are doing all you can. You have to learn to find your success in fulfilling your promise to invite all others unto Christ. If you can do this, you will be the happiest and most successful missionary in all aspects of the work."
Silence.
"Let me suggest something, for this is a problem for both of us. I know you have faith, and I know I have faith, so something has gotta give. Tonight in our companionship prayer, we will offer to God a week of meticulous work, a week where we give everything. And we will ask in return, for a reason to continue working. Is this something you will do with me?"
"Let's try it."
Now here is the 2nd miracle. We prayed. The next day, we prayed for inspiration determining where we should tract, and we picked a street. On that street, the first house where someone answered, they invited us in, and asked us. "So what is the difference between you guys and the other churches?"
We spoke for 15 minutes, discussing our believes, and left, everyone smiling and nice. If that wasn't miraculous enough, this pattern continued for the next five houses, all in a row. That day in all of our tracting, only 1 person would not hear us out, and he didn't even slam the door.
Now here is the funny part. We had never been treated with such respect and kindness since we got to Val D'or. Elder Johnson and I both regard this as a miracle. But we didn't get any new investigators, no one invited us to come back. Why is it that we feel so successful? Because we were able to fully invite others to come unto Christ, without the barriers of prejudice. We got to teach. We actually struggled a little bit, when it came to sharing our message, because usually we never get past the word "Missionaries" In our introduction. God answered our prayer right there, somehow managing to soften the hearts of the people, without robbing them of their free agency. This miracle was a work of art.
This experience has changed my mission, in ways I just can't seem to describe. Hopefully we will continue to have the faith to be obedient so that God can answer our prayers in the future.
Well, I think I'm going to end my letter there, that's all I have to say. Hope everyone has a good week!
E. Holm
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