The Elder Poe Report
This was a good week where I learned the power of prayer, and fasting, as well as I am seeing the miracles that can be done when the pure love of Christ is manifested through us.
The first big thing that I wanted to discuss this week was the power of prayer. One morning me and Elder Fiefia and myself had a half an hour to plan for early in the day, where we didn’t want to leave the apartment because we were short on miles, and had to come back to the apartment anyway right after. So because of a wonderful district meeting we had earlier that week about the power of prayer we decided we were going to spend a solid half an hour praying and asking for the Lord’s help and guidance for the work in our area. We were going to pray specifically for help with finding persons that would be open to being taught, because right now we have one non member we are teaching right now and we haven’t been able to get a hold of her for over a week almost. So we got down on our knees individually and prayed for thirty minutes, and during that time we weren’t just talking to God, we were waiting for responses and in the words of President Hinckley spoke with him as one man speaketh to another. After some discussion we realized part of the problem might be the relative uncreativity of how we have been going about finding people. Knocking doors isn’t real original, so we discussed it a little more, then my companion Elder Fiefia received the inspiration to suggest we put together a talent show, and thus was born the idea of the Strongsville Ward talent show. So the Strongsville District of the Ohio Cleveland Mission, will be orchestrating the Strongsville Ward back to school talent show on Friday September 13th. (Fanfare and applause) Although this is a monumental task and will require nothing short of a miracle to pull it off we are already seeing the miracles starting to pour out, as the Lord has stretched out his arm to hasten his work. We came up with this idea Saturday morning and had to get it ready to present before the Ward Council the following day, coordinating between six different missionaries, yet we managed to do it, we planned out a lot of the work that would need to be done, and diagrammed it out. The next major hurdle was going to be getting the approval and backing of the Ward because without the Ward behind the idea it was going to go south faster than a Swallow with a coconut in the winter, however we prayed to ask the Lord to help us know how to present this in such a manner that the ward would find it a great idea, and when we had our turn at ward council we brought it forth and although there were some initial concerns the entire ward council decided to back it and the work of the Lord now continues to roll forward. All that started from a simple prayer offered up in faith trusting in the promises of the Lord. Prayer works, it is one of the single most important things in this world, it is an opportunity to consult with the All Powerful Omniscient Architect of the Universe to help you with your personal problems that you are having in your life, and call upon His divine aid, knowing that He has said that whatsoever thing we ask in the name of His Son will be given us. I really don’t know how anyone can not truly pray.
Another slightly more comical event this week was as we were out tracting we knocked on a door where a little nine year old boy answered the door. From the back his father yelled “Who is it” we introduced ourselves and the boy yells back “missionaries” the father in the back then responds “Tell them that we’re not interested and they are a cult that needs to learn who Jesus really is.” The little boy then looked at us, particularly Elder Fiefia with a pretty scared look. It may in a small part be due to the fact that Elder Fiefia is a large Tongan gentleman, very large, in fact enough that he is going to be playing for a fairly prestigious football university upon his return home. We just told him to have a nice day though and spared the boy the rather frightening experience of telling Elder Fiefia he was wrong. Although the event was humorous it was also saddening to see someone be spreading such anger and misunderstanding through such a small child, and already indoctrinating intolerance. It is sad.
One final note I wanted to hit on was how the when we start seeing things as they really are, everything changes. Once we look beyond these brief 80 years on earth, and look rather to the fact that we are creatures of eternity it will alter us forever, the people whom you interact with each day are not just your neighbors and coworkers, rather these are persons that the Saviour loved enough to suffer and bleed for, they are beings of eternities, they each have the potential to become like unto God and heir to all the Father hath. The next person you see I challenge you to view them for a moment as what they really are divine children of God, your literal brother or sister of spirit, then ask yourself would that change the way you treat them if you could see them like that constantly. Furthermore that perspective helps us view more accurately the trials of this life. They are not hardships inflicted upon us by a cold and uncaring universe, rather every struggle we go through was specifically laid out and planned for us by the Master Refiner to help us best grow into who we are meant to become throughout the eternities.
So in short, God loves us, He loves every person reading this, He loves every person we pass on the street, He loved us so much that He sent His Only Begotten Son down to earth to suffer and atone for our sins, so that each of us could return to have the fullness of joy that He has. Our Savior loves every one of us so much that He endured every pain and hurt we ever have or ever will endure, he also has endured every sickness and infirmity, every broken heart, every ounce of guilt we have felt from sin, because He loves us. He will never leave us alone, abandoned, or forgotten, He knows each one of us by name and personally, all of our fears and desires, all of our favorite foods, and least favorite colors, He knows that, and whenever we want to feel His unbounded love, or feel His comforting Spirit the only thing we must do, is kneel down and pour out our whole soul to Him, speak with Him honestly and earnestly, and He will answer He will let us know that we are loved that we are valuable and that He is there.
The Report of Elder Hunter D. Poe
No comments:
Post a Comment