Another amazing week here at Temple Square. We started off this week with speaking at the LDSBC devotional with President Poulsen. He was asked to be the guest speaker this past week, and asked us to come along and speak with him. Sister Jin and I only spoke for about 5 minutes each, and shared some of our favorite experiences from our mission. I shared my experience with the young man who refused to go to the concert because he came to Temple Square to "see Jesus!" Afterward, it was great to be able to talk to the students and hear the impact our experiences had on them. I also got to meet some unexpected friends afterwards! One being the sister of a sister missionary that I was a sister training leader over in San Antonio, another two being return missionaries who served in my ward back home in Oregon, and the other being none other than Sister Gyebi-Quarcoo! She wrote to Joel, my dear dear friend, and told him about it. Then I got an email from him this morning saying "I hope all is well! Well actually I'm sure all is well! We all know that you're over there inspiring the world. Or at least my Mum! She LOOOOOOOOOOVES YOU! She was so excited that she got to see you at that devotional. You're her new idol. In her email she was going on and on about how great you were. I even got pictures! You should send me a copy of whatever you said and I can save it for when I have to teach at Zone training." hahaha I just love my English friends.
Another great blessing happened last night. I have been feeling sick off-and-on since Friday, but wasn't having too much of a problem with it. Until last night. Sister Jin and I were taking a Chinese tour (one of only three tours we've taken this whole transfer!) when I began to feel like I was going to pass out. So we went down to our office and began to feel super clammy and light headed. Then I passed out. I woke back up and decided I needed to go to the hospital, because the pain was too much to bear. It has been almost a year since my surgery and haven't had complications thus far, but with my luck- three weeks before I go home I'd need another surgery. But right before we were about to go to the hospital, I asked for a blessing by Elder Skanchy, our mission financial secretary. And afterwards, I felt completely normal. No pain. No clamminess. No nausea. Nothing. They had me still go to the hospital to make sure everything was fine, and they couldn't find anything wrong. The Priesthood truly is God's power given to righteous men on this Earth. This is one of many miracles that I have seen throughout my life that have come from receiving Priesthood blessings. I know the Priesthood is real, and that it works like a Liahona; according to our faith. I have completely faith and trust in the power of God, and I know that is what healed and protected me last night.
This week I was watching an MTC devotional from Elder Holland back in 2011. I have seen this many times before, and thankfully got myself a copy of it to take home. In this devotional, he shared a very moving story that has been passed down for many many years. It is a story of a woman and missionaries in the Czech Republic, back then Czechoslovakia. This story is placed in-between the two world wars. It begins with these missionaries knocking on this woman's door, and immediately she slams the door. But these missionaries were great missionaries and weren't going to take that for an answer, they were persistent and knocked again, she opened the door and in Czech asked if they were ministers. They said yes and she proceeded to clam the door again. This time, one of the Elders caught his foot in the door, and asked what was wrong with ministers. She opened up and told them that shortly after her husband had died in the war, her three year old daughter died suddenly. And in completely remorse, she went to the local minister to look for relief. But he in return told her that her daughter was in hell and so was she because she had not gotten her child baptized! And then in time of trouble and remorse, she came stumbling into this church, asking for help. Her shooed her out and she vowed to herself never to speak to a minister again. Now back then, missionaries had recited lessons. And you had to teach lesson one before lesson two, and lesson two before lesson three, and so on. Elder Holland said "So Elders and Sisters, what would you do? How would you respond? If you were Elder Holland, you would jump straight into lesson one." These particular missionaries responded in their broken Czech with "Would you like us to tell you where your daughter is?" The door peeked open a bit more, and she said "I would give anything to know where my daughter is." They opened up to Moroni 8, and taught her about the curse of infant baptism, and how children are saved through the grace of God. This story is all because of a missionary who had the sense to know what is in Moroni 8! What I learn and draw from this story is the power our own personal conversion and dedication to this Gospel has on our ability to share the Gospel. Imagine what would have happened if these missionaries hadn't had such a great desire to knock again on her door? If they had simply dived off into the first discussion? If they had not studied and loved the Gospel? This story would have ended a lot differently. She would not have gotten baptized and been one of the strongest members ever in the Czech Republic. We cannot come on our missions, or expect to share the gospel, without being personally converted to the gospel ourselves. For me, it took experiences with the Spirit, through studying the scriptures, really kneeling down and saying my prayers, and bearing sincere testimony and experiences. We all have the ability to change someone's life, just like this Czech woman, if we are first changed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And this is my invitation to you today, to pray about one thing you can change to have an experience with the spirit. I promise you, as a servant of the Lord, that you will be overcome with the spirit, and desire to do anything you can to regain the strong impressions from the spirit.
I want to finish off by sharing one of my most recent favorite quotes from one of my previous companion's farewell talk in sacrament meeting. "It is not about going through the refiners fire, it is about being willing to go through the refiners fire." -Sister Jessica Jensen, Denmark.
I love you all and hope you have a stellar week.
Sister Brock
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