Listening to the Spirit

Dear Mother, 

I love you dearly! I know that, that is exactly how our father in heaven feels when we pray to him. 

Something I have been doing lately is praying for the gift of faith and for power in the priesthood... as Elder Cook of the Seventies suggested in a talk. I have noticed a huge difference in the way I handle trials and handle rejection. Yesterday was a rough day for me personally. We should of had 3- 5 investigators at church, and had three fallen threw appointments. We got destroyed by a bible basher, as we were tracking, they threw anti-material and everything at us. We bore testimony to them...to have them tell us that it was all in our heads. This week an inactive, atheist member tried to prove to us, logically, that God doesn't exist. We talked to two former temple workers who are now inactive, who threw all sorts of anti-material at us and testified with all the energy of  THEIR souls that this church is false. I bore testimony to an investigator who then told me, "get behind me Satan!" It was a frustrating week in that aspect, but I have learned so much from it.   And so how I have maintained a positive outlook. 

In all situations two things were lacking, FAITH and a DESIRE to believe! Faith is the first principle of the gospel. Faith is more than a passive belief. It is ACTION! Faith is who we are and as Alma said in the book of Mormon, 

"And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are TRUE."

 With everything in life we don't have the answer to everything, to every concern or question... but this much we do know:   That is our FAITH is TRUE!  That is something no one can take away from us! If you look at an ever failing world with the family being torn apart, with war, disease, death, famine, debt, political problems, strive, grief, pride, Love of things and money... more than God; It can be soooo easy to fall away to be torn down.  But Moroni says in Ether 12:4 

"Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an ANCHOR to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God." 

Our faith is an ANCHOR for us! Even though the world and all its concerns are those terrible seas, we are SECURE with our anchor of faith! Look at the fruits of the gospel in your own lives and in the lives of others! It is truly amazing and if it were not true it would those fruits would not be there. I know with all the energy of my soul that this is Christ's true church! I know it by the fruits. 

This week we were going to follow up with Sandra, an investigator we have. We got to her house at 2: 00 p.m. to find all their cars there.  We thought we heard someone in the house and no one answered the door.   We were super frustrated and a little bit heart broken.  We thought she was golden! We left and began driving home, when we had a small prompting to go back. Just almost like a thought in our head to return. It was hard to discern whether it was us just being stubborn or a spiritual prompting. It was impossible to discern the difference but we followed the thought. We turned around and headed back and the whole time I'm thinking,  "this is going to be embarrassing".  We arrive back at their home, knocked on the door and right away they open it ... and let us in. Her husband was there this time and his name is Martin. They told us they just got back from the hospital where their son had been... because he had appendicitis surgery.  They rode with Sandra's sister to the hospital and had just gotten back at 2:05 p.m...  hoping they hadn't missed us! God lead us back to them but oh how much easier it would have been to return to the apartment in defeat and pout. 

When we started teaching them and after the prayer we shared with them the experience we just had.  It brought the most amazing spirit into the lesson! At the end of the lesson Sandra asked us again if that experience really happened.  She was so amazed! The gospel is true and I know it by having experiences like that! LOVE Y'ALL!!!