Member Missionaries: Instruments in God's hand

            “And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith.”

            Justin and I had an amazing experience yesterday with missionary work. It was one of those moments that all of a sudden everything in your life lines up on its own as you suddenly remember what is most important in this life for you to be doing: sharing the gospel.

            This life is a test, a series of trials, challenges, and temptations to see if we, God’s children, will turn to Him, keep our faith strong, and endure to the end and receive the blessings which He has for us. This life is only a test and at times when I strongly feel the Spirit with me, I remember that having the cleanest apartment, doing fun things with friends, getting a great job, or Justin spending countless hours every day studying are not the most important things. Although those are not bad goals to have, in fact they are very good goals and can lead to greater opportunity in the future, I realize that Heavenly Father has a plan for me as He does for each one of His children and He needs us all to be spreading the beautiful gospel that we have been blessed with in our lives. I don’t know what I would do without the gospel. If I couldn’t look at this life with an eternal perspective, it would be a very bleak world. And so I want to share it and share this experience with you.

            As Justin and I prayed about coming out to Virginia three months ago, we prayed for increased opportunity to do missionary work. Personally, I found it kind of hard in Orem, UT to reach out to strangers to share the gospel because I felt like everybody there had already heard of the LDS church and knew about it…plus I felt like it was difficult to find those who weren’t members since most of the people I hung out with and worked with were. As we prepared to move to Charlottesville, we prayed that we’d be able to accomplish what Heavenly Father would have us do out here in addition to schooling, especially when it came to missionary work.

            We’ve had the missionaries come visit us three times since we moved here about three weeks ago, but last night was the first night they brought an investigator with them—Shay (changed for anonymity). The missionaries had met Shay on Sunday when her friend, another investigator, invited her to come to church. That was the first night the missionaries met with Tori. Yesterday was Monday and they already had their second appt with her at our house.

            The discussion was on the Restoration and the missionaries had brought the Restoration video to explain a little more clearly to Shay about the restoration of the gospel and Joseph Smith’s part in the organization of the church. The Restoration video always touches my heart and brings the Spirit into the room. After the movie ended, the missionaries asked Shay what she thought and felt. She described the Spirit—a peaceful, calm. She seemed really interested in the LDS church and had read the introduction to the Book of Mormon on Sunday. The missionaries then asked Justin and I to share our thoughts on the restoration and the Book of Mormon as the missionaries were testifying that the Book of Mormon was true and would guide and help Shay.

            Justin started explaining how the Book of Mormon has influenced him and then said, “Well Kim actually has a really cool experience with the Book of Mormon.” I’d thought about sharing this experience with her, but I’d given a talk on the Book of Mormon on Sunday and Shay had come to Sacrament meeting so I figured she’d already heard it. When Justin prodded me, however, I asked Shay if she remembered me talking about it. It turns out she hadn’t made it to Sacrament meeting until just after my talk. So I shared my experience personally with her:

 When I 14 years old, I had my first real trial that made me fall to my knees often in prayer. It sounds silly now but I struggled with feeling like I had any real friends and I struggled knowing who I was—I felt so completely, utterly alone. I prayed often to know what to do and soon found my answer.

In seminary, I often had teachers and peers share experiences where either they or someone they knew struggled with something and they would pray to Heavenly Father and then open their scriptures and point to a verse and that would miraculously be the one that helped them through their trial.

I’d always thought that maybe that was just a coincidence, but at this time in my life, I needed Heavenly Father’s help so I decided to go on faith and to try this. I knelt down and said a prayer to my Father in Heaven asking for His help and then I opened my scriptures and pointed to a verse—Alma 18:21

I’ll let you read it on your own, but I read it with Tori. I explained how this one little verse brought me such strength as I read how Heavenly Father would guard me with His armies and suddenly I didn’t feel so alone anymore. At this point in my life, I’d never read the BoM all the way through, cover to cover and so my knowledge of what happened in what books in the Book of Mormon was lacking.

Later, when I did finally read straight though the BoM I realized something interesting—Alma 18:21 is not Heavenly Father speaking, but King Lamoni speaking to Ammon. And I thought, How did I get this so wrong? And I had the thought, You didn’t. At that particular time in my life, I needed to know that Heavenly Father was with me, that He was guiding me, that He loved me, that He was protecting me and as I prayed about it, He answered me in a way I’d understand. That scripture still brings me strength because not only did I gain a testimony of the BoM, but the BoM helped me to gain a testimony of my Father in Heaven’s true, everlasting love for me as His daughter.

           I bore my testimony to Shay that I know the Book of Mormon is true and that it had been given to us to help us. I told her that I know Heavenly Father loves her so much because He is her father. I shared my testimony with her and I can’t even remember what I said, I just remember feeling such conviction behind my words and I felt the Spirit pouring out of me. Later Justin told me that the Spirit really was so strong when I bore my testimony.

            By the time I finished, Shay was tearing up, her face flushed, and she said, “You don’t know how much I needed to hear that.” She said a few times how much she needed to hear those things and she wrote down in her study journal, “Read the Book of Alma” and said that she wanted to go through and read that whole book because she thinks it could really help her.

The missionaries pointed out to us and to Shay what a blessing this was that she hadn’t heard my experience and my testimony of the Book of Mormon on Sunday so that I could share it with her personally today! I love it when the Lord’s hand in our lives becomes so clear!

It was such an amazing experience, getting to be a part of missionary work and to willingly be an instrument in the Lord’s hand to bring others unto Him. I love missionary work and am excited for the opportunity to do more!

Go Missionary Work! Woot! J