To begin, let me tell you about Alli and Michael. They are such an amazing and powerful couple! He is in medical school and they have four young children, and another on the way! Sister Brooks found Alli from mormon.org chat a week or so before I got here. We have been teaching her since and they are SO prepared! She would stay up in the wee hours of the night reading her Book of Mormon because she loved it so much. She met with the local missionaries 3 times a week and our phone lessons 2 times a week. She is just on fire. After her first Sunday going to church with her kids, her husband decided to join her the following week. After that first Sunday he started mentioning "When I get baptized..." She was so excited to tell us this! We started teaching them both together and got to Skype this last week for their baptism. It was so powerful. In the scriptures in D&C it talks about how the power of God is manifest in the saving ordinances of the Gospel, that is one reason why I love going to/watching baptisms. Because the power of God is truly manifest.
I would like to relay a story shared by President Slaughter in stake conference back in San Antonio. He was in the state championship game for his high school basketball team. There as 3 seconds left on the clock in the last quarter and his team was down by one. You could feel the excitement and intensity in the air. The plan was to pass the ball in to President Slaughter and he would shoot the final shot for the win. The game resumes, President Slaughter gets the ball and shoots. The ball goes rolling around the rim, for what must have felt like an eternity, then the ball falls out. No points. No re-do. No win. President Slaughter stood staring at the hoop hours after the gym had cleared; jaw dropped, with tear-filled eyes. He later, to his disappointment, received a certificate of participation. He continued on to say "If all I get after this life is a certificate of participation in missionary work, I will rejoice." Although our efforts may not always have a positive result, the effort is not wasted. Someone may reject us, someone may slam the door in our face, someone may yell at us, but we are still participating in the work of the Lord. We cannot simply be instruments; the Lord will not use a vessel that does not act. We must be agents of the Lord, actively seeking opportunities to be an instrument. I am so grateful to have this experience now to serve a mission, so that I can learn how to share the Gospel in my everyday life. This is the Lords work, and we all are apart of it. May we ever be found in the work of the Lord.
I love you all and wish you a very merry Thanksgiving!
Sister Brock
P.s. This week for thanksgiving we will be going to a member's house for dinner! Then the next day is black Friday/p-day. Y'all know what I will be doing... :)
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