Note: I do my best to conform my spelling to U.K. English, because that’s how we roll, baby. If you see a word “misspelled” just relax and remember that here in Northern Ireland, we have slightly improved Daniel Webster’s work.
If you are a regular follower of my musings on this blog, you may be surprised to learn that in addition to all of our other adventures, we also manage to do missionary stuff from time to time.
This past week has been jam-packed with wonderful experiences. I received a call from the mission president. It always makes me nervous to see his name come up in caller ID. I immediately assume that someone from Church headquarters has called him with information about my past and that he is ringing me up to tell me there has been a terrible mistake and we are being transferred to Blanding, to do penance at the high school or seminary building for restitution of historical matters that should not be discussed here. Or anywhere.
To my relief, he did not seem to know anything about Blanding. He said he needed me to conduct a baptism interview for him. This turned out to be such a sweet experience. The candidate was a young mother who has investigated the Church for five years. She has come to a place in her life where she feels that God wants her to become a member of the Church. Her husband is already a member and has made significant progress in his life to return from being less active to being able to perform the ordinance for his wife.
The interview was a wonderful experience and she was ready to take the important step of being baptised and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. We had a sweet discussion and it was clear to me that she is where she needs to be.
The missionary companion of my own choosing (Sister Blickenstaff) and I were able to attend the baptism service. It was sweet and tender and the Lord approved.
The following night we drove back to the same town for another baptism. This time it was a lady we met at the Christmas music fireside held in our stake centre. That was her first time in an LDS building. Talking to her after the fireside, she told us that she felt something very different and peaceful about being there that evening. It was wonderful to witness her baptism just a few weeks later.
These baptisms remind us of how precious every person is to our Creator. It is just a sweet thing to see people conform their lives when they feel the Spirit of the Lord speak peace to their souls.
After the second baptism, which took place Saturday evening, the stake president, who was also in attendance, came up to Sister Blick and I and said he had a thought come into his mind while he was looking at us during the service. He asked if we would be willing to attend ward conference in each unit in the stake and speak to the young single adults (YSA) during Sunday school. We said yes and he said, “Our first conference is tomorrow in this building. Can you be here and speak?”
We said yes again, not because we like to speak, but because we have learned by experience that when we say yes to our Church leaders we are happier than when we say no.
Prior to saying yes to him, we said yes to a bishop who asked us to speak in his ward’s sacrament meeting. So Sunday morning, we got up early and drove to his ward, where we attended an early morning council with his congregation’s lay leaders, then spoke in their Sunday service. As soon as that was over we drove back out to the town where we were the night before, met with the young single adults and taught them a fabulously good Sunday school lesson.
Some members of that ward very kindly invited us to come home with them to eat. We enjoyed their company and the food. One of the things she served was baked parsnips, just like the kind Mama used to make, which brought back a great memory.
From here, we rushed back to Belfast where we had 22 YSA attend our Sunday evening gospel discussion.
Experiences like these remind us of how precious each soul is to our Father in Heaven. We are so grateful to be here, serving a mission. It is fun to see the country, hear the fantastic accent, see the sights, eat the food, try new things and drive on the wrong side of the road (I almost got us into a head-on collision yesterday morning). But the lasting joy that gives us a feeling of peace, is to participate in missionary opportunities and to see what happens in the lives of people when they turn to God. This has helped us do a better job of turning to God in our own lives.
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