I can't believe how long the weeks are and yet how quickly they fly by. I feel like it was an eternity ago that we did exchanges with the zone leaders but that was just on Tuesday! I had a really good experience with Elder Cruz. It was about eight o'clock and everything had fallen through. We were working in the zone leader's area. He had me pull over so we could say a prayer. My initial attitude going into the prayer was, "I don't know this area. I'm not going to receive anything." But I received the subtle impression to not be so sure and pay a bit more attention during the prayer. After the prayer I thought of a family that lives here in Visalia who has family in Merced. Sister S M is currently on a mission in Costa Rica and when she heard I'd gotten transfered to Visalia she told me to go visit her family there. Well, there in the car I could hardly even remember the names, I wasn't in my area and so I waited for Elder Cruz to say something even though as they came to mind I felt the peaceful confirmation of the Spirit. Elder Cruz seemed stumped so I reached for my bag to find the ward directory. I managed to find them, we put in their address and went to visit them.
Well, they weren't there (sorry Sister M). We left a note and then Elder Cruz said, "Wait a minute, now that we're in this part of town there's a member over here that we've been working with that's been coming back to church. Let's go see them!" When we knocked on her door she opened it, looked at us and said, "You always come when I don't want you to come but when Heavenly Father knows I need you to come." We had a fantastic lesson with her and we both knew that that was exactly where we were supposed to be.
When we trust the Spirit and we try to do God's will no matter how much we dont' understand it, He can guide us in ways we couldn't have imagined. On Sunday we talked about the story of Naaman when he went to Elisha to be healed of his leprosy. I wonder if Elisha initially had the same idea as Naaman to just go out, cry in a loud voice and heal him. He could right? It would be easy. But then Naaman (and all of us through this story) would have been left out of an opportunity to learn a very important lesson. Isn't God smart?
The work has been going, very, very well here in Farmersville. It has been such a blessing. I is getting back from Oregon tomorrow and we'll be able to solidify her date for the 23rd, T and A need to get married, but they are also progressing towards baptism, C, an investigator who had stopped progressing for awhile, finally just told her managers straight out that she wasn't going to work on Sunday, she was going to church. She came yesterday, for all three hours, and absolutely loved it. We started teaching all of V's family, including his wife's brother and his wife and all their kids, about 7 people in total. And I could go on and on about all the good things Heavenly Father has been blessing us with.
I've been saying it to myself over and over this week (well, singing it actually if you've ever heard the "Trek" CD): God is good. I love being a missionary. I love learning and progressing. I love changing and becoming better. That's what this life is all about isn't it?
I hope that all of you are loving life as much as I am! Keep learning from you mistakes, being humbled by your weaknesses and finding strength in the redeeming love of our Savior Jesus Christ. There are good things to come!
Love,
Elder Lofthouse
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