It was so good to hear from you this past week! And I just can’t wait to tell you about all the miracles we have been seeing!
First off! Just want to tell you about the miracle with Jack! Oh man! Just telling you about it just makes me excited! To start off though, we thought we had lost him. He was not answering his phone and we dropped by his place and his daughter answered saying he wasn’t there, and basically, I thought we had lost our most solid investigator. Wellll, we were moving in between appointments and we had about 5-7 minutes until we were about to go in, and Elder Hsu leans over in the car and tells me to give Jack a call. Well! He answered! Long story short he had made an emergency trip to Alberta. Of course, that’s not the best part of the call...he told us that he had read up to Mosiah 21 in a matter of two weeks! So we set an RA for that Sunday and can I just tell you how great of a lesson it was? To start off he loved the member we brought and he testified perfectly! Before the lesson really began though, I asked him a question, and looking back, I realized how much of an inspired question it was. "What do you think of the Book of Mormon so far?" It was definitely not the answer I was expecting...he replied, "Well, I will tell you something. I have a bible downstairs that I have not read in years. I have been so busy because of my trip to Alberta to see my sister who is losing her memory. But I cannot put the Book of Mormon down. I have this very strong urge to just keep reading it." I was stunned. The spirit was so strong in that lesson. He even told us that he would read the whole Book of Mormon to find out that it is true. I about fell out of my seat. I have never had someone do this before. Someone who is so prepared, someone who would have, and he told us right there as well, that he would have come to church that week, but the only thing holding him back was medical problems that prevented him from coming. God has literally given us a miracle. A sincere 80 year old man that can tell that the Book of Mormon can bring the spirit into his life. It is NEVER too late to change.
Nothing else that the week contained can compare to that miracle. We did see Wayne though. His progression is going great. He has read parts of the Book of Mormon and is excited to jump into 3 Nephi 11 and continue on from there. We also had some great less active lessons. Matthew is doing great! Slowly but surely taking one step at a time to the temple! We were also able to meet with Brian. He literally is going through so much. He is surrounded with, lets just say, some of the worst environment someone could have. He’s handling it alright though. We have been able to see some progression in the members as well. Not necessarily in referrals, but in getting them out to lessons. They even mention in Elders quorum that we keep on "text bombing" them. If that’s the way to get them to do their missionary work then I will do it.
Oh yeah! almost forgot! Bro Sherwood is this super cool guy that just loves feeding the missionaries! Anyway, he and his wife, took us out to a Brazilian BBQ! They kept coming out with skewers of meat and you just tell them how much you want and they will give it to you. All you can eat too! We were so full from that, that we did not even eat dinner that night.
I was not expecting this this week, but someone I taught in Port Alberni, her granddaughter got baptized!!! SO EXCITING!!!
Reflecting on it right now, looking back at all the miracles, makes all that blood, sweat and tears worth it. All the moments of rejection and hardheartedness, seeing the blessings and miracles that come from just being willing to endure them, make it all worth it, and there is no better place I could be, or would rather be.
I sure love and miss all of you though!
Love
Elder McCown
