This week contained one of the coolest miracles of my mission to date. Do you remember Kirstin who I briefly mentioned in my last email? Well, we picked her up as a new investigator on and she's incredible. I organized my email by days; sorry it's a novella.
Monday night we doorknocked until it was time for trade-offs with the assistants. I went to MSU for the third time in a row, this time with the new AP Elder Rhodes. He's legit and we had a good time together all Tuesday. We taught one of their recent converts, Derek, who I taught 6 weeks ago for his Restoration lesson. He's way cool. The rest of the day we PC'ed on MSU which was deserted (campus break life). Meanwhile, our companions taught Kirstin for the first time and had a sweet Restoration lesson with her. Committed her to come to church, read, pray, and be baptized as we strive to do in the first lesson.
Wednesday we did trade-offs with Allegan. Nothing super exciting happened, but I talked with Elder Finlayson about music during our whole trade-offs. We also scored a bunch of Bruce R. McConkie devotional talks from them. On Thursday me and Elder Mac were back together for half the day. We taught some sweet new people that immediately after our lesson left for home...That night we started trade-offs with Kalamazoo 2.
Friday, I did lots of finding and teaching with Elder Paulson's trainee, Elder Olsen. He is doing awesome for 8 weeks out. At the end of the evening we went to our return appointment with Kirstin. Unfortunately our male member fell through on us so we could only chat with her on her doorstep. She reported that after her first lesson, she read the Book of Mormon that night until she fell asleep. She posted on facebook that she met with mormon missionaries and got blown up with positive remarks about it. That never happens here! In fact, one of her friends from back home who joined the church this year called her and they talked for three hours. She read mormon.org, read about the word of wisdom and decided to quit caffeine which is a big deal because she loves and lives on coffee. Her dad is a non-denominational pastor in Chicago and he's supportive too! Her mom is the only person that isn't against her meeting with us. It's truly incredible.
Saturday, we walked everywhere and doorknocked a ton. We were supposed to teach Kirstin in the evening but she ended up having to work a 14-hour shift. She was still excited to come to chruch though.
Sunday. We waited for Kirstin to show up. Waited. Waited some more. She never showed up. She didn't respond to our texts. I was freaking out. Church was really good though- gospel principles was all about the Millenium and everyone speculated hard since there were no investigators there. After church we went to the K-zoo public library to use a computer for FB since campus had been shut down for a couple days due to the break. No luck, all of the computers were full. The thought crossed both mine and Elder Mac's mind, "the only thing that could have kept Kirstin from coming to church was her being hospitalized". Neither of us vocalized it at the time, but I was considering going to the hospital to ask if she was there. I shrugged off the thought and we went home for key indicators.
At the end of key indicators, Kirstin texted us and told us she had been hospitalized since the previous night and was very disappointed she didn't get to church. I had a sort-of President Monson moment where I promised myself I wouldn't miss a spiritual prompting. We offered her a blessing and we accepted. When we went over with a member from the K2 family ward, she sat us down and told us what happened. After her 14-hour shift, her coworker offered to buy her a drink. She made a point to tell us that she loves alcohol and it's her one concern with the "Mormon church" so far. She accepted the offer and went to the bar. After one drink, she passed out, hit her head, and was rushed to the ER. As a result of a difficult hospital stay, she found out she had an ulcer and can no longer consume alcohol, tobacco, or caffeine. Ever.
That takes care of her word of wisdom concern.
We gave her a blessing and the Spirit was incredibly strong. So yeah, that was the week. I am simply blown away by how perfect our Heavenly Father's plan is. He knows all of His children, and is aware of the fall of every sparrow. There is only one answer to why anyone would change their life so drastically in such a short amount of time: this is God's truth.
Merry Christmas everyone!
-Elder Schmutz
No comments:
Post a Comment