Follow the Spirit

Here are some things that we have experienced the past week:

- A huge fire is burning just a few miles north of us. A lot of members from our ward have been evacuated and at this time are waiting to hear the fate of their homes. The fire is over 15,000 acres. 2,700 firefighters are working on it. 1,600 homes have been evacuated. 22 homes are confirmed burned. This is the fourth year in a row that this community has suffered such a fire and the locals are very traumatized. Your prayers are needed. We are prepared to evacuate in the remote chance that the winds pick up and change direction. The Mission Office is also prepared to help us and the other missionaries here for such an evacuation.

- We were able to challenge a family to prepare for the temple and put them “on date” to go there. Very exciting!

- We traveled to Santa Rosa for a Senior Couple’s luncheon and then to Ukiah the next day for a Zone Training.

- We are preparing a missionary booth to set up at the city’s annual Independence Day Celebration.

- We spend most of our time finding and visiting members who have fallen out of touch with the church and/or the gospel.

Here is one of the many experiences we enjoyed this week (from Sister Stewart-Longhurst’s journal):

"Our meeting with the Bishop took longer than we thought, so we didn’t have much time and thought about changing the plans for who we would visit this evening. For some reason which I didn’t understand I felt really compelled to stick with our original plan and resisted any idea that we choose families who live closer to the church.

Plunging forward, we ventured out to the north end of the ward to what they call Clearlake Oaks, which is mostly rural residences along small creeks about 10 miles north of town. No one answered the door at the first two houses, and at the third we could barely get our car off the road before the driveway was blocked by a locked gate and all kinds of warning signs about a mean dog and trespassing. Thankfully they answered their phone and eventually came out to talk.

They were afraid the rottweiler (dog) would attack us if we went inside the gate, so we stayed on the safe side of the gate and Terre’ on the other with the dog. We invited her to come to church. They haven’t been in about a year as they have been in the process of relocating from Utah. There was lots of pleasant small talk and we were about to leave when I felt impressed to share a message with her. We had some videos prepared for this purpose, but none of them seemed right, and the spirit seemed to say to read her the verses about heavy burdens (Mosiah 24:14-15) that our niece Moriah had shared in her missionary letter to us yesterday. I thought, this woman hasn’t said anything about hard things in her life. She had just given us glowing reports about their life. Why would the spirit tell me to share those verses?

But I plowed ahead and explained that when Alma and his people were being heavily persecuted and heavily taxed they were discouraged and pled with God for help. The Lord promised them he would strengthen them to bear up under the burdens—” I will ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs. . . that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions”. And then that promise was fulfilled! They were able to “bear up their burdens with ease.” We read the verses together and I testified that I know this principle is true as I’ve lived it many times.

Then it was quiet. When she finally spoke, she teared up and said how much she needed to hear those verses today. And how could we know that? That some time she’ll tell us the whole story and we will understand what a burden she is carrying.

Wow, I guess I did hear correctly what the Lord was saying to me! It brings me such joy to know that our work here has a purpose and is touching someone who really needs it. I miss my life in Spokane, but moments like this make this mission worthwhile."

We LOVE being missionaries!