I want to share a great quote with you all that I heard in Conference. “I have learned that where there is a prayerful heart, a hungering after righteousness, a forsaking of sins, and obedience to the commandments of God, the Lord pours out more and more light until there is finally power to pierce the heavenly veil. ... A person of such righteousness has the priceless promise that one day he shall see the Lord’s face and know that he is.”
it gives me hope that as long as we are always striving to do out best, to do whats right, we will be rewarded, in that in fact we are indeed righteous. we dont have to be perfect.
I needed that quote this week, and it was interesting how the Lord gave me the boost I needed in especial. This week as we did our responsibilities here trying to keep the mission running, I tried to do my duties as quickly as I could so that I could get out into the field faster. It is amazing that the Lord truly guides our paths sometimes.
A great experience happened as we entered into a pretty ghetto, unpaved road neighborhood and walked around. Every where we had planned had failed as sometimes it does, and so with not much else I just kinda paused on a corner and waited and prayed until I recieved even just a small prompting to go so somewhere. it soon came as I looked at a small, neat, blue house that stood out from the rest. the number on the house said 258 faded out. I didnt expect much, but I knew someone was there because the light was on. A man with curly hair immediately answered, confused and gazing at us with a saxophone in hand. "Ah sweet! are you part of a band?" I asked him. he said yeah, actually. Then the usual, what are you doing here? I would be pretty weirded out too if someone tried to cut my music jamming sesh. We said something not too impresionante it seemed at the time, but he seemed impressed so he let us in. He inquired us of our weird church name, about saints and the last days. We started a prayer and got into what was an extremely natural, inspired lesson. My companion and I, elder Talbot bore out testimony, something that we cherish now as our time gets cut some days. He smiled at us. That clicked inside of me. It had felt like that was the first time in my entire year when I had seen someone smile at us here in a lesson. It was a great genuine smile, and I knew he had felt the spirit that night. Unfortunately for our friend Francisco and us, he told us that he plays in a travelling band and was going to go play in a grand fiesta in the mountains. We are still are going to try to stay in touch with him, and we hope we prays about the Restoration.
sometimes we have a little more than free time in the office and I try to get done as quickly with what I have to do, and start studying or take someone out with me to go into the field. This week I got a little permission to look at my family history, and I read a story that impacted me. It was also an experience with the spirit. It is about one of my ancestors, Lars Wilhelm Hendrikson (sweet name.) this is what he said in his journal: I was born at Wingaker, Sweden Duly 19, 1861 to Hendrik Person and Dohanna Larson. My father died when I was 6. My mother auctioned off most of her belongings to get some money but the auctioneer failed in his business and she lost it all. She milked cows and cared for chickens and sheep end I helped her at these and other Jobs. At 13 I hired out to the druggist from whom we rented the farm. My mother was ill and bedfast and he turned her and my brother over to the poor farm when they couldn't pay the rent - however my uncle took them home to live with him. It entered my mind that I should emigrate to America, it must have been the Spirit of the Lord because I couldn't shake off the desire. My mother felt badly but said "Where can you get the money to go?" My uncle borrowed it and in April of 1881 I went by ship and then overland to Missouri, on to Iowa where I worked on a gravel train to pay back the money I had borrowed to come.
Because he had felt that desire, that impression to go to America, he later met some Mormon pals and joined with the church, and served 3 missions. The smallest naggings sometimes, the smallest whatevers, or impressions, can mean a whole lot to someone else, or to us. In the case of Lars, it was both. That story really hit home with me and Im sorry if I bored any of you with my letter today.
We also travelled to a place called Chimbote this week about 2 hours away from Trujillo to give a small training. Along the way we found a great sunset.
love you all very much. do good stuff.
elder caldwell.
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