Seeing the Blessings of God

Letter #78

February 23. 2015

Area: Trinity River

Companions: Gamez and Reed

It sounds like you all had an interesting week, and that there were a lot of birthday parties celebrated! This week wasn't the best for us, but we tried making the best of it. We ended up having a lot of appointments cancel or fall through, but during those times we decided to go contact referrals or go walk around contacting and we were able to see the blessings of God as we did that. Our branch is in need of more Melchizedek Priesthood holders to be able to separate more from the English ward. This week we found out that a family of four is moving into the branch and the father of this family is a Melchizedek Priesthood holder! We also found out that there are two more inactive Melchizedek Priesthood holders that live in the area and are willing to talk with us.  One has said that he wants to come to church, he just needs a ride. We have also seen the blessings in the form of new investigators--three of the four lessons that we taught to investigators this week were with new people, and the last one was with an investigator that we haven't been able to talk to for about a month.

The investigator that we weren't able to contact for a month is Maria M.  Since the death of her mother to cancer a few months ago, and her husband, who was supposedly doing fine after his eye surgery in Mexico, has recently started having problems again, and he is receiving treatments. She has been really worried and depressed due to those things, and miraculously we showed up just during this time that she has started to feel bad again. We were able to give her the help that she has been needing; she specifically mentioned that she felt like she was knocking on a bunch of closed doors and is trying to find her way through this time, but she can't seem to find the right way to go. I suddenly had the phrase used in 2 Nephi 31:17 "For the gate by which ye should enter is repentance and baptism by water" come into my head. It was perfect because in Spanish the word used for "gate" is the same as the word for "door", which is "puerta". We were able to explain to her that the reason we come and the reason we teach these things is because we have found the door, or gate, that we need to enter, and we are on the path that leads to Eternal Life and we want everyone to know it. She obviously felt the Spirit testifying to her the truthfulness of these things and we left her 2 Nephi 31 as a reading commitment and she committed to read an pray to know if these things are true. I truly love that woman, and I feel a stronger connection with her because Mom wrote me a letter that said that when she was about 27, she lost her mother to cancer, and I was able to share that with Maria and that the gospel knowledge and assurance is what pulled Mom through that.  I honestly feel like she will progress if she just lets the Spirit work with her.

I love you guys, and sorry, no pictures this week either, I need to get a new memory card reader thing for sending pictures, which I'll probably buy today.

Elder Stanley Scott Dye