October 14, 2013

The Elder Poe Report

This week was my first full week in New Castle and it has been an ever so interesting experience. 

 Monday we had the opportunity to eat with the Bishop and his family, it was a wonderful way to be initiated into a new area. As we were discussing the Work of Salvation in the New Castle Ward, and he shared how he feels that the New Castle Ward is ready to experience a large amount of real growth. 

As we progressed through the week we had many of our appointments either cancel on us or flame us which was rather disheartening. But that freed up quite a bit of time for finding activities, and we saw several miracles on that front this week. We had three different people who we knocked on their door and they answered the door and as they answered you could tell they were quite ready to shut the door and had no desire to talk, however as my wonderful companion Elder Tollefsen and I began to talk to them and listen to the whisperings of the Spirit their hearts were softened, and although they still weren't particularly interested in learning about the Gospel but they did accept a copy of the Book of Mormon and said we could stop back by in a week or two to see what they thought of it and what they had read. If they really do read it prayerfully seeking to honsetly know if it is true I know that they will have a desire to learn more and to become baptized because as Preach My Gospel says "The Book of Mormon along with the Spirit is your most powerful tool in conversion". So I am really banking on that promise. 

We had an opportunity to meet with the first investigator I have met with so far her name is Mercedes a middle aged black lady with a very sweet heart and a great desire to come closer to Christ. She reads the Book of Mormon and the Bible everyday and she really wants to get baptized and is very accepting of everything we have been teaching her. She just has a problem coming to Church and is trying to quit smoking. To me it is a powerful lesson about how the Gospel of Jesus Christ can help us but only insofar as we are willing to act upon it. We must be willing to not only believe and accept the Gospel but also be willing to live it if we want the blessings to happen in our life. 

One last event I wanted to mention this week is we had an opportunity to have dinner this week with Brother Gould a member of the ward, who is really a remarkable guy. Brother Gould was the first priesthood holder I met in this ward actually, and I told him my goal was to fill the New Castle chapel before the end of the year, and he said that he believed it could be done and that he was anxiously looking forward to when they get a bigger building. As we had dinner with Brother Gould on Friday evening he told us a little bit about how the ward had grown from a tiny branch that met in someones basement to having their own building, and that he was confident it would continue to grow to become a stake. It is really inspiring to see that it isn't just me being a crazy missionary thinking that we could grow this small ward into two large wards but that with faith, works, and miracles, we will see this ward grow.

I know that Jesus Christ is the Saviour and Redeemer of the World and that President Thomas S. Monson is the head of this church, and that in this most recent general conference he called and commissioned each of us to go forth and spread this Gospel for it truly is "The gospel of salvation to everyone that believeth", I know there are millions of people in this world that are spiritually starving and need the nourishing words of the Lord that we have in our lives and as we seek to spread the Gospel others we will see miracles occcur daily.

The Report of Elder Hunter D. Poe