It Was No Coincidence!

Natalie Willes

Teaching in Arizona 

About a week ago I clicked on a referral for someone named Lawrence who wanted to meet with the
missionaries on Mormon.org. I gave him a call, and he is completely prepared! When I checked his address, I saw it said Temecula California, and that's in the Carlsbad California mission where my twin brother is serving! 

So I thought that was awesome, but what was the real miracle happened today when I called him and asked if the missionaries had stopped by and he said they had, and he had a baptismal date for May 29th! Excited, I congratulated him and asked, "Who are your missionaries?" (just out of curiosity) He then said, "An Elder Willes and an Elder Abraham." I then felt the Spirit so strongly at
that moment because I felt how interconnected God is in our lives. Seriously I want you all to think of all the referrals in the world: all of the missions, missionaries, towns and countries in the world and my twin brother is teaching the same person! 

Heavenly Father is amazing and I know He is in every detail of our lives, including the referrals we take. It's no coincidence that I got that referral. I know that everything we do is part of God’s plan for you and I here in the center. "For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost, as well in these times as in times of old, and as well in times of old as in times to come; wherefore, the course of the Lord is one eternal round." (1 Nephi 10:19) he thought that was amazing, but alas, he had to refer Lawrence to the young single adult missionaries, but still he and I got to teach the same person. That almost never happens.

Natalie and the other missionaries serving with her were able to meet US Senator John McCain when he toured the temple grounds last week!

An Unexpected Miracle

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. 

A Sweet Feeling of Peace and Joy Came Over Me

From Karsten Hinckley

Teaching in Thailand 

When your investigators finds out for themselves that what you have been teaching is true, you get a sign of relief. That happened this last week. Last Monday we met with Sister You-Gee. We have been teaching her for over a month now. We told her that we would watch the Restoration video with her the week before, but never got to it. We got to it Monday though. After watching the video she told us, "Mormon is true. I felt it myself - the Mormon is true." A sweet feeling of joy and peace came over me and I was just so happy! She went on to tell us that every time she comes to church she feels great! After she told us these things I then asked, "What's next?" She said, “I have to keep the commandments." That is what I like to hear. She doesn’t have a baptismal date yet, but we are still working on that. It's not when we want it, it's when she wants it. I love my missionary experiences! 

… This last Saturday we started our fast like normal. I fasted for our investigators and for miracles. We didn’t think that any of our investigators would show up today because they told us that they couldn’t make it. Some of our investigators came today and together with the sisters we had ten investigators at church!! Yeah!! The sisters had a baptism today which was great and their investigator asked me if I would baptize her. I thought, “Well, she doesn’t even know me. Okay, well if this is what she wants, okay.”  So yesterday I baptized someone! Also we had about six less active members  return to Church! One of the less active brothers was given the priesthood as well, which was awesome! 

… I am seeing so many miracles just about every day! The Lord works in mysterious ways!! 

The Power of Prayer Exists

From Brooklyn Winn

Teaching in Argentina

We taught a homeless man this week. He has had a rough life and he really wants to change his situation.  He baths in the ocean and washes his clothes in the ocean.  He lives in a shack. We taught him how to pray and testified that God lives and that He answers prayers.  We then took the next step and invited him to church.  He looked down at his clothes and said, “I cannot go to church looking like this.”  The clothes that he was wearing that day were the only clothes he owned and he was so worried about wearing those clothes in the house of God.  I helped his fear and told him God does not care what he is wearing, but God does care if he is in the Church Sunday.

After the lesson my heart was touched by this man who did not own much, but still wanted to wear his best on Sundays.  It made me look on my past life on those Sundays when I did not know what to wear, but I opened my closet full of clothes and still I could not choose. Here this man has nothing and still he wants to wear his best.  The people who really teach me are the people who really are humble. We prayed with him and he said nights he is afraid of the cold. I told him to pray. I think it finally clicked in his head that the power of prayer exists. I learned two things from this experience. First,  if you think you have it bad there is someone else who might have it a little worse. Second, the  power of prayer exists. God answers our prayers.