A Mission of Miracles and Blessings

This past week was full of little tender mercies and miracles and blessings.  We always tell our missionaries to look for the small miracles that occur every day.  The happiest missionaries are those who look for and recognize those miracles because they are those who are seeing the hand of God in their lives and know who is directing not only them, but this work.  God can do his own work and we are blessed to be part of it.  

One of those miracles happened with Sister Clark and Sister Shaw.  (We actually took this picture at our 3 week new missionary meeting because this tree at the Wissemann building was spectacular.)

So, these sisters were out looking for a former friend and stopped by where they thought she lived.  The person they were looking for wasn't there but they started talking to another woman who was there. She had a little girl and, of course, these sisters are always prepared with stickers to give to children.  They gave the little girl some stickers and continued talking to her mom, who seemed pretty receptive.  Sister Shaw, who had only been here for about three weeks, noticed the little girl again and had the thought to give her some princess stickers, which she had.  She asked the little girl if she liked princesses and if she'd like a princess sticker and she lit up and was thrilled to get a princess sticker.  Her mom told them that they could come back and teach her another time and they left.  When they went to record the meeting in their area book they actually found that another set of missionaries had stopped by and talked to this woman once before, she was in their area book, and the note by her name said 'you can come by again if you bring princess stickers for her little girl'.  When they told me that story I got chills and it was a confirmation that God is in the details of our lives and he cares about each and every one of us, even a little girl who loves princess stickers.  It also made me grateful to know that the spirit is always working in us as we are trying to do God's will.  Sister Shaw didn't know she was being directed by the spirit when she bought princess stickers, she was just going about trying to do good, but God knew. 

With the addition of three new Stakes/Zones into our mission Scott has been trying to get down and meet with each of the Stake Presidents.  He had a meeting scheduled with President Anderson of the Lodi Stake for a Sunday morning two weeks ago and President Anderson had invited us to attend Sacrament meeting with him in his ward prior to the meeting.  Something came up in his schedule and he had to cancel and reschedule for last Sunday.  We drove down to meet him and to attend the Mokelumne River Ward.  As we walked in to Sacrament meeting we met our missionaries assigned to that ward, Elder Manley and Elder Yazzie and they introduced us to a recent convert, Jen Tovar.  We chatted with her for a few minutes and I asked her how she came to find the gospel.  She said it started 10 years ago and that it had been quite a journey and left it at that.  We then went to briefly meet President Anderson, with whom we felt an immediate connection.  We went with him into the chapel for Sacrament Meeting and he asked us to sit on the stand with him.  I was happy to see Jen sitting on the stand also and so we chatted again and she told me she was speaking in the meeting.  

As she started her talk she began telling her conversion story.  She said about 10 years ago she worked for a dentist who was a member of the church who was a great example to her and she had never forgotten his influence on her.  As she started telling her story I leaned over to Scott and said "I know this story, she is taking about Jared Danielson".  Jared is in our ward and about a month ago I was talking on the phone with his wife Julie.  We love the Danielsons and have become friends with them, but I think I have only talked to Julie on the phone once and it was this time.  She had called to tell me something great about our missionaries (I love those calls) and then she said she needed to tell me about a baptism they had just attended in Lodi.  She told me about a woman who had worked with Jared 10 years ago, but they had lost touch with her after they had stopped working together.  Out of the blue, a few months ago he got a call from her and she told him that she was getting baptized and she would love for them to come to her baptism.  She said for all of these years his example as a member of the church had stuck with her, and she had thought of his example time and time again over the years and it was because of his example that when she started dating a member of the church and he suggested she meet with the missionaries, she started taking lessons and eventually decided to be baptized.  As I was talking to Julie she told me that this took them completely by surprise, Jared had no idea he had made any impression on Jen at all.  They hadn't kept in touch and he was completely surprised to get her call.  

It was unbelievable to me that we were in that very meeting, in a ward we just got into our mission, on a day we weren't supposed to be there, and that I had even had the occasion to hear this story from Julie, because we don't talk often.  President Anderson asked Scott and I to say a few words and so we went to the pulpit together and Scott began by telling the members how valuable they are to missionary work and then said that I had the rest of Jen's story.  I looked back at her and said "I know this story, it was Dr Danielson wasn't it?"  She was completely shocked and then I was able to tell the story from Jared and Julie's perspective and the joy it brought them when they found out she was going to be baptized, and the power of example.  That as we just live the gospel the best we can, as we go about doing good, as we are not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ and sharing the fact that we are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, we can be the catalyst for much good in the lives of people we may never even know about.  It was a tender mercy to be there, and I think it immediately drew us close to those ward members.  Another reminder that God is in the details of our lives.  

With President Anderson, Jen and Elders Manley and Yazzie

Last Saturday we attended several baptisms, one of which was for Doreen.  She has been learning for quite some time.  We first met her at another baptism a few weeks earlier and she said "you've probably heard about me. I'm difficult".  She definitely has gone through her fair share of Elders and Sisters, but when the Lord's timing was right for her, she received her answer that the gospel is true and she made the choice to get baptized. It was a wonderful baptism where the spirit was strong and the joy on the missionaries' faces says volumes about the joy you feel when you bring someone to Christ. 

Yesterday we were able to attend the baptism of the Knox family.  Elder Rodriguez and Elder Miller received a referral from a member for this family.  They went to visit them a few weeks ago and they were golden.  They just believed everything that they were taught and had a strong desire to get baptized.  Not often do we baptize a family of 5, with two more daughters who are hoping to get baptized this coming Saturday.  There was an amazing spirit at this baptism and what a joy it was to see a whole family brought into the church.  As we sang the closing song, 'Families can be Together Forever' it was hard to hold back the tears, knowing that the temple is the next goal of this beautiful family.  The River Park ward was amazing and the girls and the son have been welcomed in to the ward with open arms.  The girls are going to girl's camp this week.  The transformation of their lives was quick as they recognized the truth and the blessing it could be in their family.  These three experiences taught me that each individual has their own time table, for Jen it was 10 years in the making, for Doreen, a little less than a year, and the Knox family was about a month.  It is overwhelming to me that God knew each of these people and knew who and what they needed in their lives.  It makes me want to make sure I always live in a way that the Lord can use me to influence others in ways that will help them have a desire to come to the gospel of Jesus Christ, no matter how long the process.  And even if we aren't as blessed as the Danielsons to see the end results.  

We are so grateful for the missionaries we are blessed to serve with and for the things they teach us.  Earlier this week we had a missionary who got some pretty devastating news from home.  We heard about it and called this missionary and told her to call home and then to call us back after she had talked to her family at home.  We went and picked her and her companion up and took them to dinner and we were able to process some things and share our love.  We then went back to their apartment and Scott gave her a blessing.  After the blessing we walked out to our car and we hadn't even backed out yet and we see these two faithful missionaries heading out to work for the night.  I burst into tears as I saw this example of faithful dedication.  If anyone would have had an excuse to just sit for a few minutes, to take a little break or to sit and feel sorry for herself for a bit, it would have been her.  But she was so full of faith that she followed us right out the door and went to work.  That is one of those images I will never, ever get out of my head, seeing these two faithful sisters, putting aside their own grief, in order to fulfill their missionary purpose.  As she said to me "Sister Hymas, I can do more for my family here than I could ever do for them at home".  Oh how we love and admire our faithful missionaries. 

We got a request from a set of zone leaders last night asking us to make a video to put on their zone messenger chat, encouraging them to work hard to the end of the transfer. They have one week left and the zone decided to hold a zone fast in order for them to find miracles this last week of the transfer.  In this zone three of the missionaries are going home, and many know they will be transferred, but they are still fasting and praying for the faith to work hard and find miracles, and to leave their areas better than they found them.  

We were also blessed yesterday to see more of the blessings of the gospel in the lives of our new members.  I put pictures of our friend Gerardo's baptism in my last post.  Last night Hermanas Alexander and Singer invited us to join them at the temple where Gerardo was going to do baptisms for the dead for the first time. As we walked into the waiting room, he was there in his white shirt and tie, looking over some literature on Family History.  He had researched and brought some of his family names and was going to be baptized for them.  This gospel blesses families. 

And we continue to be blessed by our missionaries, even after they have gone home.  We have the very great blessing of being close enough for many of our missionaries to come back to the mission and we LOVE seeing them when they do.  This week our dear Elder Yorgasen came back to visit the mission with his wonderful family and what a treat it was for us to meet them and spend some time getting to know them.  Elder Yorgasen always raved about his family and about how wonderful they are, and he didn't oversell them.  What a great family with so much love for each other and for the gospel.  We were definitely blessed to spend a little time with them.  And it was especially wonderful to see Elder Yorgasen again.  

This picture represents the remainder of our week.  We spent Tuesday through Friday in interviews and these are the cookies I made to take with us.  We spent Tuesday in Lodi and Stockton and stayed overnight in Manteca, where we had interviews on Wednesday. Thursday we were in North Sacramento and Friday in Elk Grove. In total we interviewed 74 missionaries over the course of 4 days.  It was a blessing to get to know our newest missionaries in our newest zones, and it's always a blessing to be with the ones we know a little bit better as well.  We are so blessed to feel such love from them.  It never fails, that we usually get out to our car and we have a few notes under our windshield wipers, we had two sisters bring us the most delicious tacos for lunch after their interviews because they know we don't really take lunch breaks, we had a bag of Riesen candy and a sweet note dropped off 'anonymously' at our front door just after we had gotten home from our 4th day of interviews because the sisters in our ward know they are my favorites.  What we give is miniscule in comparison to  what we receive from these wonderful Elders and Sisters.  How grateful we are to be in this mission of miracles and blessings.