Monday, March 24, 2014

Miracles and Promises (SP)

We met a miracle man this week.  His name is Abraham and honestly DID NOT think he would call us back.  He had some interesting ideas about the meaning of life.  We gave him a card and invited him to church and to call us on Saturday if he wanted to come.  He called.  Saturday was crazy and we never called him back.  We went early to the church Sunday morning and he called during the rehearsal.  (By the way, mom, I've not sung in a choir for EEEVVER.  It felt SO good.  I thought about all the training I've had in music and leading.  Our wonderful little members are doing their best and singing their hearts out.  I love it.)  I stepped away and gave him half of the directions on how to get here and then waited for him to call us back for the rest of the instructions.  He never called.  His number was an unknown number in our call list.  At the end of the Relief Society meeting, the first hour of church, Csaba (chabah) in our ward pokes his head in and tells Sister Friedrichs and I to come out.  Abraham was sitting there.  Holy cow if that's not Heaven sent, I don't know what is.  He'd called us from a pay phone and even though he's lived here not even a month, speaking NO German, FOUND the church on his own with aweful directions.  His heart is gold.  Csaba bore a powerful testimony about meeting a man on his mission that accepted the gospel and three weeks after being baptized passed away.  Struggling to control his emotions which I've never seen him have at church, bore his testimony about how he knew he needed to find that man.  That man couldn't bear dying without being clean as he would stand before his maker.  The Spirit in that room was one of the most powerful I've ever felt on my mission.  I know I met Abraham, this lost little soul, to help him for the first time, come to know who Jesus Christ is.  I know I promised him I'd find him.  I can hardly write these words without holding back the emotions.  As Csaba asked us, i9s it not a sin to get those promptings to talk with someone, to help someone and not do it?  Is it not a sin to have all the abilities to share with others the message of the Restoration of the Gospel and not do it?  Are we not all entitled and in debt to our Lord and obligated to share that message which in so many instances saved us from the aweful feelings that grief, pain, and dissappointment bring?  If you are reading this and are thinking aobut serving a mission, let me tell you, not as Nicole Packer, but as a servant and representative of Jesus Christ our Lord, as if He Himself were speaking that it IS your responsibility.  It is your duty.  If you can walk, breath, talk, and know that Jesus is the Christ and that this church is His, you are responsible to share that with the people of this world.  Is it your duty.  Think of the times you were able to pray and received peace.  Those weren't just nice little lottery prizes.  Those were heaven sent.  They were without price and free.  So much more is it our duty to share that with others. 

I know this is the work of the Lord.  We are NOT here just for ourselves.  If we're stuck in that rut, get out.  Get out and forget ourselves.  We are not the only human on this planet.  We are not the only children of a Loving Heavenly Father.  I know that if we love the Lord, we will recognize this.  I know that truly loving the Lord would be to serve him in the way He's asked us to.  It's not a full time mission for everyone, but it is the work of Him who Gave you the clothes you're wearing, the shoes on your feet and the peace in your heart.  How are we giving that back to him?  

I leave my testimony that this work and life is not our own.  We will stand before the Lord one day and tell Him if we did or did not do our visiting teaching or home teaching, whether we helped that person we saw and felt we should, whether we did or did not go on a mission when we knew we were able.  We will remember those times.  And we will account for them.  I leave my testimony and admonish all those along with myself to with greater fervor think on these things in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ, Amen. 

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