CONGRATULATIONS
ASH AND JIM! AHH :)
And Happy Fathers Day Dad! You are the best! Love You All
God
was so good to me this week. My goodness. :)
I
feel truly blessed by all the amazing miracles and life changing events that
happened not only in my life, but in the lives of those we are working with.
So as you know my sister Ashley and
now brother-in-law Jimbo got married this last week. I wasn’t able to be there.
All my family had promised me that the Lord would bless me for my sacrifice.
And I had no idea that the blessings that came would come. It makes me think of
a scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 117 12 And
again, I say unto you, I remember my servant Oliver Granger; behold, verily I
say unto him that his name shall be had in sacred remembrance from generation
to generation, forever and ever, saith the Lord.
13 Therefore,
let him contend earnestly for the redemption of the First Presidency of my
Church, saith the Lord; and when he falls he shall rise again, for his
sacrifice shall be more sacred unto me than his increase, saith the Lord.
Seriously.
The Lord was way too good to us. Right after we emailed last week we ran to our
appointment with our wonderful and beloved friend and sister. When we
went over there we started to discuss Joseph Smith. She said she had heard about
some of the persecution he had faced and we decided we should discuss with her
the problems he faced, but because he continued on great miracles occurred. We
talked about how almost every time something good happens, Satan will try to
stop it. He doesn’t want us to be happy and he doesn’t want us to succeed. We
didn’t know exactly why we were discussing this but the spirit knew and he
continued to prompt us to keep going. Then as we were talking I got the
STRONGEST prompting to ask her what was holding her back from getting
baptized. I had hesitation immediately come into my mind because we had asked
this multiple times but, we decided to listen. We asked and we paused, she was
looking at the floor and I thought for sure she was going to give us a negative
response, but I just felt to have faith.
She
looked back up at us and she had tears in her eyes, and she said “Sis, nothing
is holding me back. I want to get baptized. I’m ready. I woke up this morning I
just felt ready.” I started to just weep like a little baby. My goodness,
embarrassing. But then I looked at my companion and she was doing the same. We
were completely shocked but so happy all at the same time. After a couple of
more tears were shed, we discussed it and she said she wanted to get baptized
this weekend! Ahhh! YAY!
We
didn’t know why the spirit had invited us to talk about the persecution that
Joseph Smith had faced, but we realized later that week why. Literally every
day as we made daily contact with her, something bad had happened. Her
daughter, her brother, her friends, her neighbors, were all putting pressure on
her to not go through with the baptism. She was completely alone besides us and
her youngest son and the members. But she was strong. She faced the future with
faith and she told us every day, “I’m still going to get baptized.
I don’t care what they say. It’s my choice.”
Ahh
I love her to pieces. She had the most beautiful baptism on Sunday and it
was absolutely amazing. A lot of the ward members were there and we filled the
chapel. The spirit was so
strong and she was so happy. She said she felt so clean and light. It
literally was miraculous.
This
was certainly a growing process for her, but also for me. I had to really work
on my faith. Every week as we would plan the spirit kept prompting us she will
get baptized, just give her the time she needs. It was so hard to patiently
wait for the Lord’s time. I think I prayed harder for her than anyone in my
entire life. I gave my heart to her, and the Lord blessed her.
And
as it says in Alma 31:38
38 And the Lord provided for them that
they should hunger not, neither should they thirst; yea, and he also gave them
strength, that they should suffer no manner of afflictions, save it were
swallowed up in the joy of Christ. Now this was according to the prayer of
Alma; and this because he prayed in faith.
The
Lord does provide, as He always will when we put our faith and trust in His
hands.
We
had so many other miracles this week but I can’t begin to tell them all. But
one amazing one that I thought to share, which is my practice this week of
teaching as the Savior taught. On that same Tuesday we went to follow up with
one of our potential investigators but he ended up being in bed sick, but his
wife came out, along with their 3 daughters. It was about 7:45 at night and
freezing. But they came out and ended up talking to us for about 45 minutes. We
got to know them actually really well and we were able to teach some of the
Plan of Salvation. They are an amazing family and they invited us to come back.
When we went back on Saturday to follow up with them, hoping to be able to meet
Adam, the husband, they all came out and chatted with us and we taught the
Restoration and the spirit was powerful. We found our Golden Family. :)
Later
in the week we also followed up with a potential in the area book that had been
there for a couple of years but the Lord said, go visit this man. So we decided
to go on Friday night and oh my goodness! He is amazing. We were invited into his home and we started by discussing
his relationship with the Savior and with Heavenly Father. He got tears in His
eyes as He expressed to us how much they had helped him in his life. At one
point in the lesson the spirit so strongly prompted us to ask him if he had
ever been baptized. We heeded the prompting and we asked, he said no. And so we
decided to invite him then and there on the first time we had even met him to
be baptized. And he said YES! I Know the Lord guided us to him at this time in his life. There really are miracles, miracles everywhere.
We
love to say in our zone that this zone for along time has been the sleeping
giants. There is so much potential here and as a zone we say now that the
giants are awake and we are ready to give it our all. I have felt the spirit so
much, as my constant companion, guiding my every word, every thought and
action. I’m so grateful for the incredible gift of the Spirit.
I
love this work and I know it is the Lord who leads and guides us!
Love
you
Sister
Alexis Benjamin
No comments:
Post a Comment