Recently, I was reflecting on how easy it is to get discouraged when things are not as fruitful or exciting as we would like. We sometimes begin to wonder if we are making a difference or touching anyone's life. I was preparing for my institute lesson this week and was disappointed that no one had attended the past two weeks. I was wondering to myself, how long should we continue to invite, encourage, send texts to remind, prepare lessons, and go set up and wait for soldiers to come and attend? As I started to prepare the same lesson that I had planned to present the previous two weeks, an impression came to me that I should prepare on a different topic. I felt that I should prepare to discuss the topic, "The worth of a soul." As I researched, I found a wonderful talk by Elder Robert Gay, and put together a lesson on this topic. As I studied, I began to realize that perhaps the reason I was studying this topic was for my benefit as much as for the soldiers who might receive it.
As we proceeded to our institute class and began to wait, about 5 minutes after the time we were to start, I received a text from a soldier who asked, what time does institute end? I responded to him and a few moments later, I saw him and two other soldiers headed our way. I met him at the door and explained to him that he was the only soldier there and that he could come in and we could sit and talk together or he could head back home, his choice. He said, I will come in and talk. He is a soldier who has been attending fairly regularly since he has been here, but he told me when he first arrived that he had not been active for a long time. As we sat and talked, I asked him about himself and his background. I found that he was baptized as a teen because of a wonderful neighbor, that he is the only member in his family, and that he has been less active for the past two years. As we talked, I asked him about his conversion story, he began to tear up and it was apparent he felt the spirit and that his conversion was important to him. It was apparent that he was very tender still in his gospel knowledge. I asked if he would like to have the missionaries meet with him regularly and refresh what he knows and help him come to a better knowledge of the gospel. He jumped at the opportunity.
As we concluded the evening with a prayer, it became more clear to me how important each of our Heavenly Father's children are and how much he cares for them. I understood why I had prepared to talk about the worth of a soul. We are here to assist the children of our Heavenly Father, one by one to receive a testimony of the gospel and make covenants.
We attended the baptism today of a lady who is a wife and a mother. Her husband and in-laws are members and it was wonderful to see her enter the waters of baptism and covenant with her Heavenly Father.
Those of us who have the gospel in our lives are so blessed. If you do not understand what I have been talking about here, I invite you to seek out the missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and ask them, do you have a message for me? I promise you that they do have a message that will change your life. Every soul is important to God. (D&C 18:10, 15-16).
This week we also got to meet the new Douglas missionary couple at our Zone meeting on Wednesday. They are a delightful couple, and will be a great asset to the mission and for the Douglas ward. They are from Colorado.
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| The Douglas missionaries with the new senior missionary couple |
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