Man...Conference was pretty good. I haven't been able to see the
Sunday sessions yet but I am looking forward to them! We had to leave
Groningen early so we could go to an appointment but thanks for the preparation!
The words form the prophets, seers and revelators...something else. This
conference...every talk just went by too fast. The talks in mother
languages were so cool and yes...it would have been nice to have heard them and
to read them. I loved the jokes that President Uchtdorf and Elder Christofferson
said haha.
This week has been a lot of fun. We did not get to teach a lot.
Appointments fell through, schedules conflicted...just wasn’t much of a
teaching week. But it was far beyond a week of ''failure''. We
started off the week by wanting to see a less active couple. We felt
prompted to go and see them so we looked up their address, got directions and
headed out. When we got to the address...Elder Thom said that it didn't
look right. We called the Sister missionaries and asked where this couple
lived and they told us their address. Turns out the ward list has their old address.
Beautiful. So we walked to the closest bus stop. About 20 minutes
away.
As we were waiting for our bus. We saw that we had time to knock
some doors. We looked around and tried to feel out where the Lord would
have us go. We felt prompted to knock a particular door. I thought
for sure that this was going to be one of those miracles where you knock, they
are prepared and bam....they take the lessons and are baptized. However...it
was the polar opposite; before we got to the door they mouthed through the
window....go away. haha. I was confused. We had felt prompted to go
see this couple...to end up going to the wrong address. Then we felt
prompted to knock a door to be rejected before we could get a word out.
We persisted and knew that the Lord would have us go and do this vs waiting
around for nothing. We continued to walk in the direction we felt like we
should go. We tried contacting...nothing. We knocked a couple more
doors....nothing. By the time we got the next bus stop...our bus came
just on cue.
We rode the bus to the station and were prompted to go and see an active
couple who live super close to the church building. We showed up to their
house and...they weren't home! haha. I was really, really confused
now. What was going on? Was I following the direction of the
Spirit, or was I confusing it with something else? Didn't really matter
to me...Elder Thom and I had a goal to just follow whatever promptings we
had.
After our unsuccessful visit to the active members...we felt prompted to
go and visit an active priesthood holder. As we rode the bus to his
house...we came across a certain bus stop. Now the prompting said...get
off the bus and go and see so-and-so. I was beyond confused now.
First I was prompted to go see this man....I got on the bus to go see him and
now the Spirit was telling me to get off. I tried thinking myself about
not getting off the bus. I guess you can say justifying myself not to get
off the bus. Just before it was too late....the voice came back and said
very loud and clear...get off the bus and go see so-and-so. It was
impossible to deny it that time. I pressed the halte button, just in-time
for the bus driver to stop.
We walked to this less-active member’s house. She is NEVER
home. However...this time she was. This was a miracle. She
had time to visit with us. That was a miracle. As we chatted with
her friend, we'll call him Charles, came by, this was also a
miracle. Charles’ life has been a tragic but miracle life. He was
hit by a train many years ago. He was in a coma for a long
time. Charles had suffered brain damage and various other damages to his
body but he lived. He was supposed to die, according to doctors, but when
his family ended their prayer with amen, as they stood around him in the
hospital as he lay unconscious...he awoke.
Charles recovered enough to be able to leave the hospital. He has
been trying to find out why God gave him a ''second chance''. He has been
trying to figure out if God had a plan for him and if He did, what it
was. We got to testify that of which Charles already knew. That God
did have a plan for him and that we would love to help him find his plan.
We bore testimony to him and assured him that God had something for Charles to
do and that we could help him find it. We invited him to learn more and
we exchanged numbers.
After this really cool experience...we had an appointment with a member
family. We had about 1 hour to kill before the appointment. We
sought for spiritual guidance to help us use our time wisely. We felt
prompted to walk down a certain canal. We contacted people...haha or
tried to...but no one wanted to listen. I was confused, once again.
We walked to the neighbourhood of the family and the Sprit whispered to me to
knock 5 doors.
I didn't know why 5 doors...but I knew that it was the Spirit. So
we started our 5 doors. 1st door. Once the guy knew that we were
representatives of our Savior...he closed his door. Door number 2.
A really nice Spanish girl who didn't believe in anything. She heard us
out and gave us permission to go by again if we were in the neighbourhood and
if she was home. Door number 3. A lady who didn't want much to do with us
but accepted our invitation to take a mormon.org, just in case
she changed her mind. Door 4. A young man who said that if God
existed...why was it the way it was. Why would he let war happen?
Why would people get sick? Why would God let things like this
happen? A legitimate concern but I don't think he expected us to testify
to him the truth and in the end...have him agree with us. helaas, he said
you guys would end up spending your time helping someone else. He accepted
the card and had the chance to feel the Spirit testify to him the truths of
what we shared with him. This meant the Lord had one more door for
us.
We walked some more until we were prompted to visit a certain
house. We knocked and a lady with her 5 year old daughter came to the
door. We spoke with them and kind of ended up teaching her The Plan of
Salvation. We bore testimony to her why families were so important; how
we have a Father in Heaven who loves us and who has a plan for us. We
invited her to learn more the next time we were in the neighbourhood and she
said she would like that. As we walked away from house and I looked at my
watch...we had just enough time to get to the members house at exactly the
right time for our appointment.
These experiences kind of have a pattern. All of these
promptings....led to other promptings...which lead to other promptings...which
became a pattern but all were connected. We go the ''wrong way''
sometimes so that the Lord will see if we continue to follow his
guidance. These situations where I became confused were not
failures. The Lord was testing me to see if I would continue to follow
promptings, even if I thought they were ''failures.'' They were the opposite.
They were successes. I followed the promptings and I strove to continue
to follow the promptings. Eventually, the Lord blessed me by helping me
see this truth by allowing me to meet Charles and this nice lady.
Don't get discouraged when you follow a prompting and you don't see the
''fruits''. Keep learning to work with Spirit. He helps us and
sometimes we just need to keep chugging along in faith and not by sight.
We don't see the bigger picture. But as we follow the Holy Ghost, the
Lord will reveal parts of it. I know that as we learn to follow these
promptings...we show the Lord that he can depend on us and we will become more acute
to the guidance of the Holy Ghost.
Love you and all and I hope you all have a good week,
Elder Holt
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