It has been a week of blessings.
Although, due to illness (theirs), we were not able to visit a couple of the
people we regularly visit. First off we were able to visit
with President and Sister Jones during our New Year’s District Meeting. We always
enjoy seeing and talking with them. They help us keep an important perspective on
the work and in this case the conclusion of our assignments here in Iron
Mountain (More on that in a future post). Their openness and frankness is very much appreciated. It is also good
to be able to report our activities as it identifies areas where we are doing
well and those where we can improve. In the vein of “doing well”, we can’t say
enough good things about Elders Trout and Christensen. It seems that because of
their youth, missionaries are often surprised at the results that come from
their sustained righteous efforts. This is the case with these two Elders. They
are enjoying success by simply applying Preach My Gospel principles with faith. It is a
privilege to be a witness to the process. Their success is now reaching into
the branch. With boldness they are challenging the branch members to increase
their missionary efforts as well. It is working. The Branch’s attitude is, by
far, the best we have seen it since our arrival.
 |
| The Iron Mountain District with Sister and President Jones center front. |
Next, at our regularly scheduled
visit to the Carlson family we challenged the parents of their nine-year-old
daughter to allow us to prepare her for baptism. We are now planning the
lessons and as we “warned” the parents we will together select a date for the
baptism to happen. In this family there has been resistance to getting her
baptized although her ten-year-old brother is already a member. We used the
fact that we only have a few more months to visit with them before we leave
plus we were able to draw on the mountain of good will and trust we have developed
since we first started regularly visiting them a year ago. You will be hearing
more of our efforts with this family.
We once again connected with the
Winter family. They are the ones that called us for the phone number of the
Branch President and when we asked how else we might help they requested
missionaries to come and teach a non-member spouse and some of the older
children. They were gone over the holiday season visiting family in Wisconsin
but they are now back. Our first meeting is scheduled for this Thursday. The
missionaries will be doing the teaching and we will help with the young
children and be representatives of the Branch to assist and fellowship.
Toward the end of the week we met
with a fellow who has had a sad and miserable life. It started as a life of
privilege and money but as Satan has influenced many of his choices his life
devolved into pain, anger and bitterness. As frequently happens in these
circumstances he unloaded all of that frustration and the much torment he
feels on us, two proclaimed ministers of God, which we are. We will spare you
the details and the language. He seems sorry and shed tears because of his life
and actions. We had a short lesson on our Father’s plan of happiness and left a
pamphlet he said he would read. We know if he will embrace the Gospel and
specifically the Doctrine of Christ, he will be healed both physically (he
smokes like a chimney) and spiritually. The atonement of Jesus Christ has the
power to do that very miracle. We will be his guides as long as he wishes, but
from here on out the important, life changing decisions are all his. Salvation
from death is a free gift from God (1 Corinthians 15:22); salvation from the
sin in our lives (knowingly doing things against God’s will or wishes) requires
us to bring our lives into harmony with those of God and His son Jesus Christ
(Matthew 5:48) and must be worked out over time.
Finally the weekend brought us
much happiness with the baptism of Matt Oslund. Matt attended the Mormons Next
Door presentation we held at the local library on the first of December. Sister
Johnson overheard his grandmother say that after he got home that Saturday he
was excited telling everyone he really liked what he had felt, seen and heard.
The missionaries did a great job answering his questions and assisting him in
his desire to be baptized. There was good support from members, his friends and
family and we are sure he will be an asset to the branch going forward.
Coincidently a schoolmate, who came at his invitation, was already in contact
with the Sister Missionaries in Marquette where she is attending college. It
came as quite a surprise to her when she got a text from him that said, “I am
going to join the ‘Mormon’ Church” and invited her to come.
 |
| Elder Christensen, Matt Oslund and Elder Trout with the baptismal font in the mirror. |
The Mormons Next Door
presentation was so successful that we have set up two additional times and
locations. On March 9th we will have one at the small library in the
community of Crystal Falls and on the 16th we will repeat the
presentation at the Dickinson County Library here in Iron Mountain. We will
follow the same format in both places using members to read from the prepared
script. They do a great job and it strengthens their testimonies. And yes, Matt
will be one of our readers at this next presentation. We hope some of his
non-member family will attend.
It is exciting being very small pebbles stuck to the
side of the “stone…cut out of the mountain without hands” (Daniel 2:44-45).
Elder and Sister Johnson
No comments:
Post a Comment