I Know that the Lord Touches Hearts

Letter #40
June 2, 2014
Area: Humble, TX
Companions: Anderson and Strong

Thank you so much for all of the birthday wishes! I love you guys so much! 

This week has been a difficult week for us in the area because of the rain.  Almost nobody is outside, but we have made good use of our time and we are loving having Elder Strong with us! We have had a lot of people be sick, so we haven't been able to talk to them this week, but we hope for the best! Because people are sick, we have had a lot of lessons fall through, so we have done a lot of contacting. We faced a difficulty when trying to go and contact people because the rain keeps scaring them back inside, but we have made really good contacts and found ways to be more effective in actually teaching people when we contact them. As you could tell from our Hour of Power results, it has come in handy having the extra contacting ideas. We had an amazing time doing it because we could do splits because we had one of the young men with us and we were covering twice the ground as usual. This week we made many good contacts and set return appointments with them, so we have a planned out week.

I'd like to mention an Hour of Power Miracle that happened this week.  While I was knocking doors with the young man from the ward, we ran into a woman who was completely closed to our message and wanted nothing to do with it. I just asked questions (inspired questions) to understand her position and to figure out how I could help her. After a few questions I felt like I needed to explain the Book of Mormon a little bit and help her understand that we believe in the Bible too. I shared that and continued talking to her, and she stated that the Bible was inspired, and the Book of Mormon wasn't. I felt inspired to share Alma 7:11-12, and she said it sounded like the scripture in Isaiah that talks about the suffering of Christ, but asked why it didn't say the same words. I answered her question by retelling her that the Book of Mormon was written in the Americas, and they understood things differently than the people in Jerusalem, but that it is still the same message given by prophets. I told her that we would love to come back a different time to explain our message a little more and I asked her when would be a good time.  She said that we could come back Monday (today). I know that the Lord touched her heart through my words because no matter how good I may be at speaking, I never could have changed her heart enough to be open to us coming back to share more.

Actually the 14 year old girl's parents called off the baptism, so we were sad about that last week, but apparently its back on for next Sunday because our Bishop called us in and told us about it. :) I can't wait for Saturday or Sunday!

I love you guys,

Elder Stanley Scott Dye