From Karsten Hinckley
Teaching in Thailand
One day while we were at the church
making phone calls before we go home we get a text from someone who wanted us
to call them back. What happened next was an unexpected miracle. I call the
number and a lady answered. She asks, “Is this the Elders?"
"Yes", I reply "Well I’ve been looking for you”, she said. This
lady goes on to tell me that she is a less active and how she wants to get
reconnected with the church again. I asked her how she got our phone number and
what she told me I couldn’t believe. Someone that this lady teaches English to
held out our inviting card and asked her if she knew who we were. I remember
the lady this member was talking about because we ate lunch together one day.
After that we could never contact her and her husband again. Anyways this less
active member took the inviting card and wrote down our number. After about a
week or so the spirit prompted her to call us and it went from there.
That was only the first miracle. We
met with this member one day for dinner. She told us her story with the Elders
before us."One day I just prayed to God to have Him send me the Elders and
the next day at the grocery store checkout line she saw the Elders. The next
time is the time that I met you. I prayed to God because I needed the Elders
again and a week later my student showed me your inviting card which I snatched
up." This lady is amazing! We sat down to talk with her for a while. She
told us soo many things! She is very well educated. That first day she called I
felt prompted to tell her to watch conference because it would be on that day
so she could watch it. She said," It was great to watch conference again.
It has been a long time since I’ve seen conference." As we were talking
with her she had mentioned to us that she had been to the temple before and the
spirit told me to tell her, “You should prepare to go back to the temple."
Well I told her that and she said that was the best advice she has ever gotten.
Before we left we gave her a Liahona which she thought was great as well.
The second time we met with her she
told us about a dream that she had. In her dream she saw her father and her
grandfather. They were just standing there in their Sunday best. She said,
“What I got from that dream is they were trying to tell me that they have
already received the gospel and are waiting for me to go do their temple work
for them." She told us every since she has met with us she has been less
stressed with work and knows the Heavenly Father is guiding her life more.
Meaning she can feel His presence in her life more. I think that is great she
understands the feelings she gets. Another thing is that she understands what
she needs to do as well. She knows she has some problems with commandments but
right now she is trying to do all that she can to start keep those specific
commandments again. One thing that we told her the first meeting was," Heavenly
Father still loves you." She was thankful we said that because she
said," I knew that I was always to love Heavenly Father but I forgot that
He loves me too." This whole experience has taught me that someone you
invite can help others find you. If we didn’t invite that first lady, the less
active member may have never found us. This member needs your prayers.
