Well, I've got a lot on my mind today...I'd like to share 3 main things with you all.
The first is an experience that happened with me about 3 weeks ago. I was debating with myself as to whether or not I should share this story by email, but I couldn't stop thinking about it so I guess that's the Lord's way of telling me "yes". Maybe you remember me telling a story about a 17 year old girl named Taynar who was almost baptized....I gave a part of the story to you guys. Here's what happened..while preparing her for her baptism during the week (it was marked for Saturday night), we completely lost contact with her....apparently her cell phone broke or something, and she never picked up when we called her. We called her neighbor several times (who is a member of the church), but she didn't have any contact with her either. I'll remind you that she lives in an area that is currently without missionaries, so we were taking a bus and a train to get to her area....it takes about an hour each way to get to her house.
We tried seeing if she was at home every other day, but with no luck. When Thursday rolled around, we were pretty worried that we were going to lose the baptism. Through some miracle, she picked up when we called her. She said that we could meet her at night. When we showed up at her her neighbor's house (note that we tried to do the right thing by teaching her at the member's home!) to meet with her, she wasn't there....after waiting a half hour, we tried going to her house yet again....she was there, but said that she needed to wait at home while some furniture guy was putting a new dresser together in her house (weird....but whatever). She said that she was waiting for her mom to show up so she could leave to go her neighbors house so we could teach her (I hope you guys are following my story here....) Realizing that we had another appointment that night, we had two thoughts.....teach her right then and there, alone at her house and at the same time breaking a mission rule, or leaving her there and taking the risk of trying to meet up with her again to prepare her for her imminent baptism and baptismal interview. What do you think we did?
My conscience was functioning very well. I knew that the right thing to do was to wait to teach her with another responsible adult present....my companion and I looked at each other....We reasoned to ourselves that we could justify teaching her alone, considering the circumstances. We entered and taught her for about 10 minutes when her mom showed up (she was drinking when she showed up....little did we know at the time, but that drove her nuts seeing us at her house....she said that we were invading her privacy....it ended up costing us that baptism).
All in all, the moral of this story is simple. People sometimes tell me I'm crazy for wanting to obey all of the mission rules, but that doesn't mean that I, or anyone else is perfect. My companion and I didn't make the best choice. We thought that we were smart or prepared enough to not need to obey that rule at that time....we were dead wrong. No, we didn't do anything serious and there was no sin committed (thankfully!), but we transgressed a lower law, and we paid the price for it. This girl, Taynar, is super elect. She will be baptized without a doubt, but unfortunately, our act of disobedience cost me the privilege to watch that baptism. I was transferred two days later. I really felt that I learned the price of obedience. I thought myself as an obedient Elder before that day, but the Lord showed me that there is still more that I can do. I feel very grateful for the lesson I learned....I really do feel that it was priceless. It will without a doubt serve me in the future. Absolute obedience is key. Therein lies safety and peace!
Well now that that's off my shoulders, the other things are rather simple. I've been thinking a lot of how I can show more charity and real love towards those I serve. Sometimes we serve others more as an obligation or as a sense of duty than as a real demonstration of love towards them. It's the more "expensive" option, but it's totally worth it!
The last thought. We found a man named Sidney. He's an inactive member's buddy. He's about 30. He told us how confused he is by all of the various religions in the world, and how he so desperately wants to find the truth. I know better by now that you need to test an investigator before seeing if he really is committed to following the Lord, or in other words, if he really is an elect. Our first lesson gave all the good signs...he was willing to accept all of the commitments we offered him. This was Saturday night. We were expecting him Sunday morning at church. When we called him Sunday AM, he told us that he went on the Internet Saturday night and found some information about the church that he didn't like, and said that he would rather sleep than go to church....it left me real sad to see someone so desperate and so hungry for the Gospel continue being deprived because of a lack of sincerity. I asked him if he believed that everything he reads on the internet is true....his response wasn't very creative. He told us that he read from the Book of Mormon and prayed, but he was missing the "works" to complete his "faith". He was our biggest hope for this week. We are going to try and keep working with him. The work here is difficult (always was! and always will be!), but it is the battle that makes the victory oh so sweet! The battle against darkness continues! Through obedience and faith, we can and will succeed!
Until next time,
-Elder McKinley
The first is an experience that happened with me about 3 weeks ago. I was debating with myself as to whether or not I should share this story by email, but I couldn't stop thinking about it so I guess that's the Lord's way of telling me "yes". Maybe you remember me telling a story about a 17 year old girl named Taynar who was almost baptized....I gave a part of the story to you guys. Here's what happened..while preparing her for her baptism during the week (it was marked for Saturday night), we completely lost contact with her....apparently her cell phone broke or something, and she never picked up when we called her. We called her neighbor several times (who is a member of the church), but she didn't have any contact with her either. I'll remind you that she lives in an area that is currently without missionaries, so we were taking a bus and a train to get to her area....it takes about an hour each way to get to her house.
We tried seeing if she was at home every other day, but with no luck. When Thursday rolled around, we were pretty worried that we were going to lose the baptism. Through some miracle, she picked up when we called her. She said that we could meet her at night. When we showed up at her her neighbor's house (note that we tried to do the right thing by teaching her at the member's home!) to meet with her, she wasn't there....after waiting a half hour, we tried going to her house yet again....she was there, but said that she needed to wait at home while some furniture guy was putting a new dresser together in her house (weird....but whatever). She said that she was waiting for her mom to show up so she could leave to go her neighbors house so we could teach her (I hope you guys are following my story here....) Realizing that we had another appointment that night, we had two thoughts.....teach her right then and there, alone at her house and at the same time breaking a mission rule, or leaving her there and taking the risk of trying to meet up with her again to prepare her for her imminent baptism and baptismal interview. What do you think we did?
My conscience was functioning very well. I knew that the right thing to do was to wait to teach her with another responsible adult present....my companion and I looked at each other....We reasoned to ourselves that we could justify teaching her alone, considering the circumstances. We entered and taught her for about 10 minutes when her mom showed up (she was drinking when she showed up....little did we know at the time, but that drove her nuts seeing us at her house....she said that we were invading her privacy....it ended up costing us that baptism).
All in all, the moral of this story is simple. People sometimes tell me I'm crazy for wanting to obey all of the mission rules, but that doesn't mean that I, or anyone else is perfect. My companion and I didn't make the best choice. We thought that we were smart or prepared enough to not need to obey that rule at that time....we were dead wrong. No, we didn't do anything serious and there was no sin committed (thankfully!), but we transgressed a lower law, and we paid the price for it. This girl, Taynar, is super elect. She will be baptized without a doubt, but unfortunately, our act of disobedience cost me the privilege to watch that baptism. I was transferred two days later. I really felt that I learned the price of obedience. I thought myself as an obedient Elder before that day, but the Lord showed me that there is still more that I can do. I feel very grateful for the lesson I learned....I really do feel that it was priceless. It will without a doubt serve me in the future. Absolute obedience is key. Therein lies safety and peace!
Well now that that's off my shoulders, the other things are rather simple. I've been thinking a lot of how I can show more charity and real love towards those I serve. Sometimes we serve others more as an obligation or as a sense of duty than as a real demonstration of love towards them. It's the more "expensive" option, but it's totally worth it!
The last thought. We found a man named Sidney. He's an inactive member's buddy. He's about 30. He told us how confused he is by all of the various religions in the world, and how he so desperately wants to find the truth. I know better by now that you need to test an investigator before seeing if he really is committed to following the Lord, or in other words, if he really is an elect. Our first lesson gave all the good signs...he was willing to accept all of the commitments we offered him. This was Saturday night. We were expecting him Sunday morning at church. When we called him Sunday AM, he told us that he went on the Internet Saturday night and found some information about the church that he didn't like, and said that he would rather sleep than go to church....it left me real sad to see someone so desperate and so hungry for the Gospel continue being deprived because of a lack of sincerity. I asked him if he believed that everything he reads on the internet is true....his response wasn't very creative. He told us that he read from the Book of Mormon and prayed, but he was missing the "works" to complete his "faith". He was our biggest hope for this week. We are going to try and keep working with him. The work here is difficult (always was! and always will be!), but it is the battle that makes the victory oh so sweet! The battle against darkness continues! Through obedience and faith, we can and will succeed!
Until next time,
-Elder McKinley
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