AND HE CAME TO CHURCH!

February 20, 2011 Sunday

Saturday afternoon we had an appointment to teach a 9 year old girl who was baptized last year. She is one of the middle ones in a family of seven kids. The parents are from England and really sharp. We pretended to be the investigators and had the kids take turns telling us about the various elements in the lesson about the restoration. Then we had Sydnie, the recent “baptizee,” summarize what they said and tell what she knew. It was fun to be with a big family again. They even fed us dinner at a table a little bigger than our big table at home. The sticky date pudding with homemade butterscotch sauce she made was incredible! It was a great time.
Later we went to the Tomlinson’s home. Collin had never received the new member lessons, so we started teaching him. It was good to discuss the Gospel with him and Verian, his wife. And they fed us cake and ice cream. We went home feeling very well fed.
This morning we went to teach a fellow who had been contacted in the city by the elders. He turned out to be a “uni” student from Zambia. Seth is a sharp kid. We met in the tiny room he’s renting in a house over in Gosnells. On his desk he has 3 photos of his mom—yay, he’s not living with a partner. He has a pretty strong Baptist background and his bible has had a ton of use. We went over the “17 Points of the True Church,” and then we taught him very briefly about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. He wouldn’t give us a return appointment, but he said he would call us. We both felt really good about the time we spent with him. He gave a beautiful prayer at the end. Afterwards, we realized we hadn’t invited him to church, so we called and invited him to attend church at 1 pm. And he accepted! We found a member family that lives close by who picked him up and brought him. The Sacrament Meeting talks were excellent. The Stake YW President talked about the power of the priesthood, and the patriarch talked about revelation. Seth only stayed for the first meeting, but we were very happy to have been blessed to teach him.
Tonight we attended the missionary fireside presented by Elder Callister and his wife. It was incredibly powerful. They spoke about the prophet Joseph Smith and what he accomplished in his short life. He said that Joseph Smith had translated the Book of Mormon in just 64 days. We had been telling people 90 days, so now we have something even more impressive. He also mentioned that Willard Richards is his great-great grandfather. He quoted a prophecy that Joseph Smith made to him that in the not distant future he would be amid bullets flying around him and that his friends to drop on his right and his left but not one bullet would pierce his garments. Willard Richards was in Carthage Jail when the mob hit. Each of the other 3 men, Joseph & Hyrum Smith and John Taylor were struck by 4-5 balls, but Brother Richards only had one ball graze his ear. Brother Callister also talked about how Satan works to prevent good things from happening. He spoke to the investigators present telling them that Satan would work hard to prevent them from being baptized and then told of an occurrence that we’d never heard before. He said that one day not long before Joseph went to the grove to pray a bullet whizzed past his head as he stepped out of the house. They later found the bullet imbedded in the neck of one of their cows. They never did discover who did it or why it happened. The fireside was one of those that you wished would continue for another hour or so. I’m so impressed with Elder Callister. He truly is a man of God.