Area: Dallas Texas
Companion: Elder Riley Layton from Glendale AZ
Hello Everyone,
I cannot believe how fast time continues to go by. I am so grateful to be
a representative of Jesus Christ and share the gospel with others. Many tender
mercies occur each day in my life, but few times have I had a night full of
miracles that happen one right after the other. This last Tuesday night became
one of the most memorable nights of my mission.
After eating dinner with great members, Elder Layton and I chose to knock
on doors for about an hour and then contact a few families on our ward list we
did not know. After knocking a few doors, we came to a woman's home that was not
interested in hearing our message. She did however engage a conversation with us
about the church and family history. This topic led into a 20 or 30 minute
conversation about her involvement with family history and thrills of working
with church members for her own family. She expressed her love for Salt Lake
City and the services provided there. She also expressed her desire to
accomplish her goal of indexing 5,000 name off of the 1940 census (she had
already completed 3,000). Her greatest accomplishment however, had been
completed a few days earlier. She spent about 20 years gathering information and
stories about her family that dated back to the 1600's. This family history work
had been bound in a nice book, so she took us out to her car to share it with
us. We were impressed by her work and complimented her efforts. Her heart was
overwhelmed with joy and allowed us into her home to meet her husband as Elder
Layton took care of some business. Their willingness to listen to our message
didn't change, but we are confident we made an impact on that couple. Often
times after contacting older individuals I will say, "They will accept the
gospel in the spirit world!" After leaving their home, I truly felt this couple
will accept the gospel in the spirit world. Those who are ready now will make
steps towards having the blessings of the gospel in their mortal existence, but
for others, they need positive experiences with members of the church so they
can accept it at a later time. I am thankful to have met the Sherwood's. We
continued down the street and stopped a man riding his bike with his son. I
instantly felt a connection with this man and felt comfortable in sharing our
purpose of knocking doors and contacting people. He openly shared his beliefs
about religion and thanked us for the work we were doing. After talking a bit
more, we left him with a pass-along card and walked back to our car. I felt we
needed to talk to that man and leave him with a positive experience with the
church for some future event. We then drove to an apartment complex to visit an
inactive member. After taking some time to find visitor's parking we began to
walk to a gate we hoped would be open. A man was walking on the side walk, so
we gave him a card and invited him to visit mormon.org. About ten seconds after walking in the
opposite direction, he turned around and shouted, "I hope Romney wins." With
Mitt Romney as the republican candidate for the presidency, many doors have been
opened for missionaries to explain more about our beliefs. It was a funny
experience. The gate was closed, so we started to walk back to the car, just
as a car pulled through another one giving us the perfect timing to enter into
the complex. We knocked on the door we were trying to find, but nobody was home.
We said hello to a woman walking by and began to walk her way to talk with her.
She knew who we were and was less than amused to talk to us. She continued on
her way and surprisingly turned around to praise the missionary program of the
church. She shared a bit about her occupation and expressed she has recruited
quite a few returned missionaries to help in her business. Each of the returned
missionaries have left a great impact on her and has softened her heart towards
the church. We exited the gate we had tried to enter in and walked back on the
sidewalk to our car. As we walked to the nearby parking lot, a woman passed us,
turned in the parking lot, parked, and got out of the car to get her kids just
as we were walking by. We stopped to talk to her and found out she was from
Brazil and had in-laws that were members. We asked if we could come back and
teach her family. She willingly accepted, so we hope to start teaching a family
in the near future. We drove to another inactive members home to visit with
them, but they were not home, so we walked back to the car. A less active man
happened to drive by and pull over to talk to us. He shared a few of the
struggles he has been having and expressed his desire to come back to church. He
wants to meet with us to help him come back to church. We were amazed at how
many good conversations we had had that day. We drove to another member's home
to visit with them but were surprised to meet the new occupants of the home. We
asked the woman if she would like to learn more about our church, so without
hesitation she invited us to sit on her porch and share a lesson with us. We
began with a prayer and taught the message of the restoration. She agreed with
all that we said and expressed her interest in attending church. We set up
another time to to meet with her and started on our way off the porch. Her
husband rolled up on his bike. These moments either lead to good or bad
experiences. He was friendly and learned about who we were from his wife and
told him they were coming to church on Sunday. He was excited and looked forward
to future visits.
I was so thankful the Lord had placed so many people in our path that
evening. My heart was full of joy. It is hard to convey all of the events that
happened in a relatively short amount of time, but one miracle after another
kept happening. I am so thankful to have been blessed with that night. It was
humbling to know the Lord is in control and knows where we need to be in order
to impact the lives of others.
Two more zone conferences happened this last week. They both went well. I
was also able to spend some time with Elder Monkres in the hospital the evenings
and nights from Thursday to Saturday. He has had a few health challenges with
his digestion, so a few tests were done to figure out what is wrong with him.
They couldn't find anything, so please keep him in your prayers. There will be
a few follow up appointments in the coming weeks, so we hope to find what is
wrong with him. That is another story for another day.
I love this work. I know God lives, and He loves us. We live in such a
great time to share the gospel with others. My hope is that we are all prepared
to answer the questions others have and invite them to learn more about
the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Thank you for your letters and
prayers. They strenghten me and motivate me to work hard and accomplish what the
Lord has prepared for me.
With love,
Elder Seager
