October 1, 2011

WWWWOOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!!

Or in the words of President Monson: HELLO!!!!

;_).

This has got to be my favorite conference I´ve ever seen in my whole life. This morning´s session was probably my favorite single session of my whole life. Blew me away.

We´ve prepared all week for this conference, and the preparation made all of the difference. We´ve fasted and prayed together as an office, we set up an environement to watch the conference, and feel the spirit. We prayed for an outpouring of that spirit, and we sure got it.

Favorite talks so far:

Sat. Morning.: L. Whitney Clayton. The time has come. We´re scraping the iceburg. Thinking of the implications gives me the chills.

President Thomas S. Monson: The spirit bore powerful witness to me that President Monson was a prophet of God. I could not deny it. (We re-watched his little 5 minute talk afterwards, just because we couldn´t beleive what he said. Provo City! First ever with two temples. Unbeleivable. FRANCE??!!!! I had heard that France had a Federal Law that said that government officials or police had permission to enter any building at any time, and because of that we weren´t going to have a temple for a LONG time in France. A marvelous work and a wonder.)

José L. Alonzo: Miracle story. At the end of this discourse, Pedro Servin and I were on the phone talking about his wife´s baptism, and his baby´s blessing. Yes, the Pedro Servin that came back to church last week for the first time in four years, and has expressed interest in a temple marriage with his wife.

I was thinking about other parts of Elder Alonzo´s message, when all of a sudden my mind locked on a little phrase that he said: "Happiness and Joy through church activity." My mind went immediately to Pedro Servín. Directly following that comment, Elder Alonzo repeated, "Doing the right thing at the right moment without delay". It hit me. I needed to act. I got up, walked out of our conference room, and called Pedro Servín to invite him to the Priesthood session tonight. I was very put out to hear that he´s traveling and won´t be home until midnight. However, he told me that his wife is sick right now. (We passed by to give her sprite and Ice cream, thanks to mom´s loving example of taking care of me with sprite when I was sick growing up. You made a bigger impact than you think, mom.) His wife is very concerned about her new born baby. She wants little sophi to be blessed ASAP. She also wants to be baptized herself. Pedro wants us to advance 2 lessons with her this week. He´s coming to conference tomorrow, and invited us over to teach on Monday night for family night. He says his wife´s ready, and doesn´t want the opportunity to slip by us.

The Spirit spoke, and I obeyed. Miracles followed.

I am a Child of God, the version the choir sang, is going on the All time Favorites list.

President Uchtdorf: I started taking notes, and finally just put down my pen and cried through the rest of the talk. That one hit me like a ton of bricks. Heavenly Father is such a loving, understanding Father. He touches us each individually though His chosen servants. I stand all amazed.

In this Afternoon´s session, Elder Curtis´ Uncle spoke. Unbeleivable. LeGrand R. Curtis Jr. He spoke of Redemption. A beautiful 1st conference talk for Elder Curtis. (Interesting inside fact: Elder Curtis´ grandfather, formerly of the 2nd quorum of the 70, was taught that to wear a red tie means business. Note Elder Curtis´ tie in the conference talk. He spoke of the Atonement, and there was no room for anything but pure, undefiled testimony in that discourse.)

Another Miracle:

Yesterday, we were looking for a new house for the Sister missionaries in Ñemby, and we ended up clapping the house of an inactive member who had just walked out of the bathroom, secretly praying for God´s help. (And at the same time finding a house to rent. :_)

We had been looking for several fruitless hours, when we decided to head up into an area that we didn´t have planned to look in. After making a few thoughtless turns, we found a presentable, two story house, and thought about asking if they were renting out the top part of the house, which is a fairly common practice in Paraguay. It didn´t look too promising, because the house was super fancy, and it looked all connected and inhabited. However, Elder Curtis noticed that the door was pen, and we decided to try our luck and ask. They curtly denied us, and pointed to a house two blocks away, saying we should look over in that area. As I was jogging away, quickly backing up Elder Curtis, who was driving the van, the woman who had sent us away called out to us, shouting. We came back and she said, "How are you doing, Elder?" She was a member! She told us that she was actually thinking about renting out the smaller, nice home right next to theirs, despite the lack of a sign or poster that so indicated. In the end, we ended up meeting her husband, who´s been the Mayor of Ñemby for 10 years, and is currently running for the National Government for 2013. (Eldery L. Whitney Clayton´s talk! Read it). They´ve been inactive for 10 years. We finished negotiating prices and contracts, and excitedly turned to more weightier matters, such as Alma 37:6-7. She told us that she knew that we were there for a reason, and that God, in his perfect planning, had instrumented our meeting. We prayed with two of the unbaptized children, and before we left the mother made a quiet comment about the sister missionaries possibly bringing her back to church. It´s true. The Lord works great wonders in miraculously small manners. I´m humbled to be a part of His Holy Ministry, and watch first-hand His Love change lives.

I leave these things with you, along with my prayers and dedicated fastings, in the Sacred Name of our Lord and Redeemer, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Elder Joshua C. Stewart