God Has Not Ceased to Be A God of Miracles

This week has been amazing. We've found an inactive YSA named Junior, and he's open and excited to meet with us. We've had lessons with him twice already, and will be meeting with him every week from now on. Our investigator Sopheak is progressing as well - slowly, but surely. We were also finally able to meet with a part-member family that we've been trying to visit for over a month now. We have more potential investigators in our pool now that I've ever had here in Lowell, and for my first time in Lowell, we received a media referral from Church headquarters. Things seem to just be falling into place here in our area.

The biggest example of this, though, is our newest investigator, Meredith. I wrote about her last week, and things are just getting better and better with her. She's incredible. This past week, she read more than 13 chapters in the Book of Mormon, re-read them, color-coded and highlighted them, shared them with family members, AND bore her new-found testimony to her younger sister. She also bore her testimony yesterday in sacrament meeting for the Heritage Park ward; she said she feels "at home" in the Church, and that it just "feels right." She also uses phrases such as "our church" and "my old church." An old family friend tried to persuade her to stop investigating and told her several lies about the Church, and she said she felt sick as this woman spoke with her. She prayed afterwards and instantly felt better. She's been recognizing the Spirit more and more in her life. She's one of those "golden investigators" and I feel that she truly is a gift from God. I'm humbled and beyond grateful to be teaching her. This week, we're planning on moving her baptismal date from next month to THIS month - she's ready.

Fast and Testimony meeting in the Lowell ward yesterday was inspiring as well. One sister stood and spoke about how she's always reluctant to have the missionaries over for dinner because they give her some sort of challenging assignment. She recently felt like she needed to sign up for her and her family to feed us, though, and so she did so. That was me and Elder Johnson! She told the story of us coming over and giving her a pass-along card for mormon.org and inviting her to give it to a friend she had told us about who was interested. She followed through and gave the card to her friend, and it ended up being a great experience for the both of them. She said that, for the first time in the life, she was thankful for the missionaries and for the tools we provided her with to share the gospel. I laughed as she re-told the story, and I was excited to hear how it all went. I'm glad to know that because of us, we helped her to change her views on sharing the gospel and on the way the missionaries work! Another sister bore her testimony of the power of daily scripture study. Elder Johnson and I were at her home and, upon learning that she didn't ever read the scriptures, invited her to read, even just for 5 minutes a day. After a week, she decided to actually give it a shot, and she noticed so many blessings flowing into her life. Each day of that second week was better for her than any day she's had, and she's gained a testimony of the power that the scriptures hold. Elder Johnson specifically was the one inspired to ask her more about her personal studies of the scriptures, but as a companionship, I'm honored and thankful to be an instrument in the hands of our Heavenly Father to bless the lives of His children.

To close, I'd like to share the experiences I had the other evening as we visited a less-active man. As we chatted with him, he told us how his leg had been bothering him for months, and how he got a special massage, but it hasn't helped. I felt prompted to ask him if he wanted a blessing - he said yes, and asked me to be voice. As I spoke, I felt prompted for the first time in my life to command him to be healed in the name of Jesus Christ. I had heard others use those words before, but I've never used them in a blessing before. Nevertheless, I listened to the promptings of the Spirit and commanded him to be healed in the blessing. Later, as we were discussing a passage of scripture, I felt the Spirit nudge me to promise him again, in the name of Jesus Christ, that he would be healed. As I said the closing prayer at the man's request, I felt prompted to bless his home by the authority of the Melchizedek Priesthood. All 3 of these moments were very poignant and powerful for me. I felt the Spirit with me so strongly that night, and I truly felt like the Lord was using me and the authority He's given me for His purposes. I don't think I've really used that divine authority so frequently in one night before, or even like that at all before, ever. It was absolutely amazing. I feel like I finally understand the authority I hold. It's been a game-changer for me as a priesthood holder and as a missionary. On top of that, while using the authority given me, I felt purged, cleansed, and purified of my sins and mistakes. Elder Johnson told me that the change of the Spirit in the room when I promised this man in the name of the Savior that he would be healed was very powerful and noticeable. I'll never forget that night, and I hope to always honor my priesthood, that I may forever be an effective servant of the Lord.

With love,
Elder Justin DeLong