The new ward has decided they sorta like us, or rather, they have taken to Mom. She wins hearts when she tells stories from her life, and now that they know her a little, the story she told today in Fast and Testimony meeting really turned the tide. Everyone was hugging her and telling me off to the side what a wonderful woman she is and how much they loved her testimony. It is odd that she had not planned to get up, and suddenly she was on her feet and headed up front. She was quite surprised and didn't know what to say, so out came a short story about how scripture study had given her an answer to prayer several years ago.
So, that's the first part of the story. Then in Priesthood a man told us what it did to his wife. His wife is a non-member but she attends with him occasionally, and he is always afraid someone will push her too hard. Background; he and his wife invited the Elders to dinner a couple months ago and the wife was so impressed with one of the elders who just talked to her and didn't push and she felt he was so sincere. Then this week they invited two different elders to dinner, and he wondered and worried what they would say to her after dinner. Turns out that she is Catholic and that one elder is a convert of two years and was Catholic. They spoke of his conversion and about how she can gain a testimony of the church through reading the Book of Mormon. He invited her in a non-threatening way to find out for herself by studying and praying about the Book of Mormon, and told her that answers to prayer come through reading the Book of Mormon after praying with real intent. So, a couple days later she comes to church with him, and Sister Earl tells a story of a problem she faced, how she prayed with real intent to find the answer of how to proceed, and then went to her scriptures, and there was the answer in the Book of Mormon. It was in the story of the Prophet Helaman and the 2000 Stripling Warriors. The good brother says he can see that "it is going to happen this time." Today after Sacrament Meeting the woman said to her husband, "In the Catholic Church there is just the clergy. No one else says or does anything. You people are So Involved!"
Yes we are. We are ALL enlisted, aren't we? We are INVOLVED. The church is not a Sunday Thing, it is a Life Thing. It changes who we are, and helps us to Become. Putcher Shoulder to the Wheel and all that.
The lesson in Priesthood today was on Repentance, and ended with the thought that we can tell when we have truly repented because our hearts are Turned. Our will has changed, we have given our will, or rather offered it to our Father in Heaven. Our will is swallowed up in the will of the Father. We don't actually loose our will, it stays strong, we just align it with that of the Father.
I see that many of my mistakes in life still cause me much pain. I guess we still remember them so that we won't forget to avoid the pain that will come if we fall back into old habits. Harder for me than the pain of my past mistakes is the thought that many who I have hurt may still hold onto that hurt rather than let it go to Him who asks us to lay those burdens at His feet. I hope they can do that some day.
Love,
Pa
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