WHO MESSED UP THE PHONE CALL?

August 22, 2010 Sunday

We feel like the Lord had something to do with it. Tonight was a scheduled mission priesthood leadership meeting for the branches and their leaders. Earlier this week, Orson had run into Tony Connelly (the guy who owns the camel) at a shop in town. They had a good chat and Orson casually invited him over for the meeting tonight, even though Tony is unordained and inactive. And he came! President Robinson was trying to get the phone set up for the teleconference, but no one seemed to have gotten the pin # and it was a great mass of confusion with phone calls back and forth. So here was Tony, who was baptized at 12 and joined the army at 16 ½ (legal in New Zealand back then). He basically knows next to nothing about the church. President Robinson looked at him and asked, “So what brings you here tonight, Tony?” Tony replied that he feels a void in his life and is trying to find out what it is. So we proceeded to talk gospel with him. The phone rang one more time. President Robinson stepped outside and told them they weren’t going to “attend” the meeting but that we were talking to Tony. We spent 1 ½ hours talking to him. He left with the Restoration and Families Forever videos and a Book of Mormon. We are so grateful that the meeting hadn’t started on time because otherwise Tony would have sat and listened to a bunch of administrative stuff that really wouldn’t have helped him. We feel like Orson’s running into him in the shop and then the phone problems were the Lord’s doings. The spirit is working with Tony to bring him into activity. We are so excited. He’s a neat guy.