"Commitment is doing the thing you said you would do, long after the mood you said it in has left you." George R. Zalucki
"I sure thought it was a miracle"
I was working at the Christmas Lights. I stopped to talk with this man who was walking out of the Visitor's center. He was way closed at first and was quick to brush me off. I asked a question of the soul and then he totally changed. I just simply asked if he had ever wondered where he could find real happiness. He opened up and told me about his life, wife, kids, and how the church he was at felt like it was missing some parts. He mentioned how he didn't like the fact that when he was married, they said "until death do ye part". There we were on the temple grounds, and Heavenly Father blessed me with the opportunity to share with this man, who at first was totally unreceptive, the message of eternal families. He liked that he could be with his wife and his kids in an eternal family forever. It was a sweet and neat experience.
It was something little, but I sure thought it was a miracle. Following Preach My Gospel let this man open up and share a little about himself so that he could be taught true doctrine and be able to feel the spirit. I don't know what's going to happen, but I feel confident that a miracle took place when I stopped to talk with him.
Thanks for all you do. We're all praying for you.
-Elder S. Morgan
When I was 14 or 15, I had a teacher that prided himself on being a thinker. We had some enlightening discussions in his classroom. He helped me ask some great questions that led to tremendous answers that still guide me today. We agreed on many things, but were at odds on a few. One of them was religion. I had a lot of respect for this man, but it amazed me that someone who claimed to be open minded was blind to just how closed minded he was when it came to God. He was always challenging my faith. He considered my beliefs to be a sign of my weakness. His claim was that unless it could be acknowledged by the 5 senses, there was no proof that God existed. I struggled as a young person to help him understand that he was limiting his understanding to what he had personally experienced, cutting himself off from other possibilities. The best that I could do was to try and help him understand how I knew; that things of the spirit could only be understood and perceived by the spirit. Years later, I still don't have a better answer to this one fundamental question, but I face the same dilemma. This blog is dedicated to preserving stories and experiences of missionaries in the Arizona Mesa Mission both during and after their formal missions. Some stories are fun and light hearted, but others are of a spiritual nature. The blog forum is so convenient, yet the format is limiting. There is more to these words than letters on a page. To truly understand the messages requires not only an open mind, but a soft heart.
After all, "A man's reach should exceed his grasp, else what's a Heaven for?- Robert Browning"
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