We had a pretty good week! Our teaching pool is dwindling a bit in one ward, and it's very slow in the other, but it's all good! We are seeing progress, though it may be slow.
We met a woman in a parking lot this week getting some things out of the back of her car. We approached her, calling out as we were walking toward her, but she didn't flinch. Then as we got closer I said, "Excuse me..." but no response. I wasn't sure if she was ignoring us on purpose to be rude or what... but as I got closer she turned and I said hi, then she motioned that she was deaf. I automatically switched to what little sign language I know to ask her if she wanted help unloading her car. She said no, and that she could do it alone, but we gave her a pass-along card and she thanked us. It was just cool to see how even my past experiences of having deaf friends, a friend in the ASL program, and nonverbal clients has prepared me to be a missionary. So cool.
Another day we were out trying to contact some people we had in our records, and we were wanting to see a man named Jose. We had never met him, but knew the address so we drove on over. As we pulled up we realized it was the same address for a unknown name referral we had gotten several weeks ago. We had tried and tried before, leaving our card in the door, with no answer, so we hadn't been back there in while. We looked at each other, and had an unspoken conversation of, "Well, we already tried a bunch of times and never succeeded, so let's just go to the next one." As we drove down the street I had an undeniable feeling that we should go back. There had to be a reason we had picked his name, right? So we stopped and walked back to the house to knock on the door. And what happened? Nothing. No one answered. I stood there thinking, "Is this supposed to be like an Abraham and Isaac experience?" Or maybe it was all just in my head and the Holy Ghost hadn't been telling me we needed to go back.
Fast-forward to later that day. It was 8:30. We were tired, and just wanted to go home. We had just finished talking to a less active member in a parking lot, and we stood outside the car not sure what to do the rest of the night, and I was honestly more stumped than I've ever been. We had already used all of our back-ups we had planned for the day, and going home is such a tempting thought at moments like these! But I had the impression that the person we needed to see was in an envelope of old referrals we had inside the car. So I got out the envelope and passed over the name of Leticia twice before deciding that was who we needed to go see. We pulled up to her house, and it looked very dark. Sister Unsted said something indicating we should probably just go home, and it really is so hard to bother people that late at night, but I thought the least we could do was try. We knocked on the door, and a very excited Leticia answered the door! She was so happy to see us. It turns out that she's a less-active member, and she doesn't come to church because she has to care for her dad who lives with her. Her brother works to support them, and she stays home with her dad 24/7. We talked about her mission she served in Venezuela, and her experiences in the church. She told us about her mom's death and how hard that was for her, but she bore a beautiful testimony of the gospel and shared her feelings. We asked if there was anything we could do for her, and she hesitated, then said, "Actually, yes, could you sing a hymn for me before you go?" My heart melted. Such a simple request! Sister Unsted and I smiled at each other and readily agreed, then asked what her favorite hymn was. She requested "A Child's Prayer," and we began. The Spirit filled the room with such force! It took everything I had not to start crying, though Leticia was across the room wiping away tears of her own. As we sang I felt so strongly that her mom was there with us, thanking us for coming to see her. When we finished, she told us that the sister missionaries used to come and sing hymns to her and her mom when her mom was dying. I will never forget the feeling I had that night, and I am so grateful that I followed the promptings that were put into my heart.
I believe that our fruitless labor earlier in the day was simply a test to see if we would do as we were directed later in the day. I read a talk today called The Law of Sacrifice (https://www.lds.org/liahona/2002/03/the-law-of-sacrifice?lang=eng ) by Elder Ballard, and he speaks of how the law of sacrifice and the law of obedience are inseparably intertwined. He shares this story:
Brother Madsen writes: “I almost burst out, ‘Why, then, was Abraham commanded to go to Mount Moriah and offer his only hope of posterity?’
“It was clear that [President Brown], nearly ninety, had thought and prayed and wept over that question before. He finally said, ‘Abraham needed to learn something about Abraham.’”
I know that the Lord tests us to see if we will follow. The purpose of sacrifice is to test us and bring us unto Christ. We must be tested! We came here knowing that, and we must not complain when it happens! A faith that hasn't been tested cannot be trusted, and if we want our Heavenly Father to trust us we must be willing to go through the refiners fire that we knew and expected this life to be. I am grateful for the opportunity to build my faith as I sacrifice what I think is important for what I know is most important.
I love this gospel! I love being a missionary! And I love all of you!
Love, Sister Porter
QUOTE: "Salvation cannot be bought with the currency of obedience; it is purchased by the blood of the Son of God." Dieter F. Uchtdorf
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