Good morning! I hope it has been a great week for each of you. This past week was actually a tough one for me, but last night we experienced a miracle.
Yesterday, we called a member of our ward asking if he would like to go on team-ups with us and he informed us that he actually wouldn't be able to make it, but he then invited us to come over to his house for dinner last night. He told us that his sister would be there for dinner as well, but that she is pretty against the church. He said, you are welcome to come over and eat with us and if you bring the Spirit with you, then maybe you can touch my sister's heart a little bit! That statement opened my eyes a little bit and helped me better realize that we aren't the teachers, the Spirit is the real teacher. So anyway, we went over to his house and once we walked in the front door, his sister was there to greet us and she didn't seem uncomfortable at all.
To make a long story short, it was a very comfortable visit and the food was amazing. He cooked up some good old roast, potatoes, salad, peach cobbler, etc. But as we ate dinner, the member and his sister were talking about all of their fun childhood memories together, and my heart was filled with gratitude as I heard them talk about that because my mind was taken to the great times I had before my mission with my older sister Brittni.
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| Hermana Brittni Vawdrey |
I thought about what a great blessing it has been for me to have a true friend like my sister. I don't know if that means that I was homesick for a second.. haha but I do know that thinking of the great example Brittni is to me brought me a feeling of great gratitude. So I want to say a quick thanks to Brittni and I'm grateful for your great example to me.
Well, this great experience keeps going...after we finished dinner the member asked my companion and me, "Hey, do you guys want a tie?" haha And man does he know us well!! We were like, boo ya!! Next thing we knew, he came back up to us offering us a tie!! I was so stoked because I was actually wanting a new tie! haha The Lord knows our desires. But anyway, after we got the tie, I was waiting for a good time to step in and ask if we could share a message...well the member soon asked us if we would share a message and so I was stoked. My heart was full of gratitude and I felt like I needed to talk about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I opened up to Alma 7:11-13 and before reading it, we invited everyone there to think about how they have seen God's blessings in their lives. As I read it, I choked up a little bit. If you're not familiar with these verses, I encourage you to read them...it talks all about what Christ did for us. After I read these scriptures, we asked each person about how they've seen God's blessings in their lives. When, we got to the sister, the first thing she said was: "That was interesting that you shared that and asked me that question, because last night, I had a dream..."
At this point, I was stoked because if ever you hear someone say that, you know its gonna be good. Anyway, she said that she has recently been thinking about how she feels her life is really hard and there isn't much good around her, but then she had a dream the other night and in that dream, God was showing her many of the blessings that he has given her in her life and the blessings he has given her right now. She then shared how she feels so much gratitude for the many blessings that she has because she has many. We then talked for a little while longer about blessings. But anyway, the Spirit was really strong. And I hope that we were able to plant a seed in this sister's heart about God's love, and that this church is true. It will be interesting to see if anything more comes of this visit with them here in the soon future!
And a analogy that the member told us at dinner was about a little pebble. If you throw a pebble in the middle of an ocean, it creates a wave that goes in all directions and goes on forever. He related that to how every good act we do has an influence that goes on forever. The good act this brother showed us by inviting us over for dinner and giving us a tie is something that went a long way for me and is something I will never forget. I know that when we do good things, we often don't immediately see the blessings that come from them, but they will make a difference. I'm sure of it! And I hope that I can be better and do more good acts of service so that I can help lighten one another's burdens.
I just want to thank you all for the good acts you do each day and for the influence that you have had and continue to have on my life. I love each of you and hope that you all have a great week!
Love,
Elder Vawdrey
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