TENDER MERCIES

Every Sunday we serve dinner for single soldiers who live in barracks and do not have transportation.  We were out shopping for food and I dropped my ID card.  Someone saw it and told me.  It would have been such a nightmare to have to replace it; plus security is high right now so I have to show it everywhere.

Patrick got the school he needed for promotion!! We went to a candlelight vigil for fallen soldiers and realized no one in our immediate family has been a victim of war!!  Hope it stays that way.

Mindy attended Kerry Jr's graduation from Medical School and he made it home safe in his truck with trailer.

I felt prompted to call one of our less active members but no answer until the next morning when I caught her crying.  She's having trouble with a pregnancy and her husband is deployed.  She agreed to come to Relief Society with me!  I thought I knew everything there was to know about 72hr kits, but learned to put it all in a small rolling garbage can which then fits neatly in the car.  This is good since I forgot to bring my water purifier and hauling our cases of water on foot would be problematic.

Chaplain Brown was SO grateful that we were going to visit patients at the post hospital on the weekend.  Another less active mother participated in our story for her children and agreed to a return visit.  We had a good turnout of young single adults Wednesday night for a lesson on faith.  Of course, ice cream helped which is still available and still fairly affordable.  We celebrated Elder Baum's 72nd birthday and he lived through it.  We had another reactivation today which means God is blessing our efforts to encourage people to make and keep covenants.

It occurred to me today that light mindedness is the opposite of reverence.

COINCIDENCE??

We only had one young single soldier that could come to Family Home Evening at the church (usually we have 2-3).   She seemed grateful to get off post and talk about the Gospel.  She has been newly called as a nursery leader.  When we were leaving, she stopped to talk to someone and a young woman drove up in her truck, got out and started crying in the darkness of the parking lot.  She hadn’t been coming to church because her husband was a non-member and so we had been teaching her 18mo old nursery lessons at home.  She said she had never left home before and she didn’t want to park at a restaurant.  I hugged her while she wept.  We talked her into coming with us while we drove our soldier home.  We picked up ice cream on the way and she was laughing and talking before too long.  Millie invited her to bring her daughter to nursery as she got out of the car.  We were able to encourage her to approach her husband with love and gratitude on the way home.  I don’t think it was coincidental that we were the only ones she knew and we just happened to be there when she drove up, along with a young woman about her age who taught nursery.  Since then, she and Emma have come to church regularly and her husband even thanked her that they were able to discuss it without anger.

Obedience and Sacrifice

At the Misstionary Training Center (MTC) we were told missionaries were sometimes called to certain mission presidents.  We have had the privilege of serving under the visionary and inspired leadership of President and Sister Bowman, who love the Lord, their missionaries, and the people of the South.  Under their direction, there has been a five-fold increase in the number of baptisms in this area (1014 new members in 2010!).  

The obedience and faith of the missionaries is astounding.  For example, under direction of the President they got rid of their couches, only eat for half hour per meal, and do not eat at member’s homes unless there is someone there for them to teach.  These young men and women get up at 0630 and go to bed at 1030 after grueling days of tracting.  Our dear district leader Elder Bradbury (left) walked holes in the gel liners he put in his shoes.  The chemical burned all the callouses and skin off his feet, but he just kept right on walking regardless of the pain.  That kind of dedication produces miracles e.g. a young married soldier saw our Elders riding their bikes in the hot sun and hailed them down, requesting to be baptized, so Elder Bradbury got a chance to get off his feet and teach.

We set goals, not because we have power to control outcomes, but because we want to demonstrate our willingness to do God’s will.  If we are aligned with what He would have us do, He then produces the outcomes.  It doesn’t take long before our belief becomes deep abiding trust and we begin to rejoice in our privilege, no matter the cost.

Just Do It

What an experience so far!!  It has been a mental, spiritual, physical, social-emotional shock coming out of the world to serve the Lord full time in the Georgia Macon Mission.  Furthermore, the challenge of writing about our experience in a public forum seemed daunting, but we believe, with God’s help, we will be able to communicate some of the great things He has done.  

To begin, missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are called by revelation to areas where they have been specially prepared to serve (see Elder Rasband’s address on the remarkable process for calling missionaries:  http://lds.org/general-conference/2010/04/the-divine-call-of-a-missionary?lang=eng.)  So why were we called to Ft Stewart in Coastal Georgia?   (We wanted to serve as military relations representatives, but we didn’t request any particular location.)

Georgia (GA) was the last of the original Thirteen Colonies and the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution.  It was also one of the original seven states  to secede from the Union and was the last Confederate state to be restored.  We, like GA, strongly believe in States rights, but understand the importance of one nation under God.  We contemplated working in the political arena but then decided to go on a mission instead because we believe what Ezra Taft Benson said in his address “Born of God” http://lds.org/liahona/1989/10/born-of-god?lang=eng&query=slums :  “The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature.”

Georgians would support that statement.  They love the Lord.  They have stopped us in the grocery store, on the street, and in restaurants to talk about it.  A woman waited on us in the Post Office, and when she saw our tags, she took our hands in hers and thanked us.  Even restroom graffiti reflects the thinking of these humble people:  “God is watching” and “Jesus loves you.  Believe it.  Think it.  Live it.”   

We are here as representatives of Jesus Christ because the Lord wants to bless these people for their righteous hearts.  Part of the challenge is to believe that God will help us in spite of our weakness.