Called to Serve

Monday, September 1, 2014

See people not as they are right now, but as they can become

Hey Fam!

Thanks for all the birthday letters and pictures and packages! It was great! This last week was awesome. We didn't have very many meetings so we were able to go on a couple exchanges with zl's and it went great. Our first exchange was in downtown Memphis and that where my homegurl Latrice lives. She is Elder Boyers recent convert. Mom she said she is friends with you on facebook. ha ha thats awesome. Our next exchange was in Pine Bluff with the elders there. We also went to some Sketchy areas on my mission this last week. So you know thats a good week!

We also went to the Branch on Mountain view on sunday with President for sacrament meeting on sunday. He is doing this thing where he wants to go with us to all the outlying wards and branches on the mission on sundays so they dont feel out of sight and out of mind. The branch president at mountain view and his wife went to EA for school so it was cool to talk to them.

Basically, I don't have a lot of cool things to say this week but i do have 1 "call to repentance" experience I would like to share. Me and Armstrong were in a apartment complex saturday night teaching one of our investigators and this girl walked up. She was drinking a beer and was a little drunk, but she was just saying the crudest things and not exactly inviting the spirit into the lesson. So at the end of it all, we were about to leave and then she said "yall to good to  pray with me." I thought she was just trying to be all contentious and what not but we told her we would pray with her. Armstrong started to say it and all of the sudden she interrupted and said "Hold on, I know yall are Jesus people, so could you pray for me that I will be able to get a job. Because my 3 kids are in foster care and the only way I can get them back is if i get a job, and all I want is my family back again." That took us off guard. So we prayed for that and at the end she was crying and she said "thanks I needed that." Man I felt like the lowest piece of dirt there. I thought this lady was just all about herself but I realized the reason she was doing things like drinking was just to numb the pain of what she has to deal with everyday. President Monson said "We must develop the capacity to see people not as they are right now, but as they can become." President Petersen always told us "Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is, but treat a man as he should be and ought to be and he will become what he should be and ought to be." I feel like thats a lesson I have been learning over and over again on my mission. Its amazing to see how people and the world look as we try to see with our spiritual eyes. Thanks for everything yall do for me!