I had my last district meeting this past Friday...it's strange to think that in an all-too-short week and a half, I'll be headed home. My two years are nearly up, but the end of my full-time mission is just the beginning of a life of participation in the Work of Salvation! In fact, I discovered this week that I will be at home for exactly 6 weeks before heading off to BYU for school...I literally move into my apartment in Provo on the next transfer day! I'll be at home for exactly one transfer, and so that's how I'm going to look at it. I'm just getting transferred to Mesa, and then to Provo. I'll still be a missionary, just in a different capacity of service.
We've had the chance to tract a little bit in the past couple weeks, which has actually been pretty cool. I feel out of practice a bit, so to speak, but we did have a couple of great experiences. At one house, I felt prompted to knock on the door across the street...we did so, and no one answered. As we turned around to walk to the next house, a car pulled into the driveway - turns out that the mother of the family (who got out of the car to talk to us for a couple minutes) went to school at Weber State and has several LDS friends. She has a very positive impression of the Church and asked for our number and any information we have! The Lord will lead us as we trust in the promptings He sends us through the Spirit.
Yesterday, I sang in church with three other brethren from the ward. We did a quartet arrangement of "How Can I Keep from Singing?" and it turned out quite nicely. It's such a joy to be able to use the talents that Heavenly Father has given me to glorify His name and bless the lives of others. I've decided that that's what my life needs to be about; I want to be able to touch the hearts of others through music. I don't know if that's through playing piano, singing, or writing music, but we'll see what happens. For now, I have the privilege to reach out to others as a full-time missionary. =]
We found out yesterday from our Bishop that we'll be getting a new ward mission leader this week. It makes me sad, since Brother Hampton has been great. We should find out who our new WML is sometime soon.
Cool story from this week! We have a list of inactive brethren of all ages who fall under the category of "prospective elders." We've been visiting them and working on helping them come back to the fold. One such visit from this week was seemingly unproductive - the man was in his 60s, has never really been active, and wasn't interested in coming to church. His 20-something year old, non-member son Bryan was there as well, and he seemed rather apathetic to our presence. He was friendly, but nothing in what he said or did would have said that he's interested. We had a nice but short spiritual thought, and left our number for them to call us if they decided to come to church or if we could offer any sort of service. Bryan walked us out to our car; once we were outside, he began asking us tons of questions about the Church, the priesthood, who we are as missionaries, and if he could take the lessons. It was amazing! He remembers getting a blessing when he was younger (his aunt is very active, and used to be the Relief Society president in this ward), and asked if we could give him one. It was an awesome experience, and definitely a lesson that you can find those who are prepared in the unlikeliest of places!
Keep making those gospel invitations to those around you, and pray for direction from the Lord on who and how you can serve today. I promise you that great joy comes through forgetting yourself and serving others.
Love,
Elder DeLong
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.