April 11, 2011

Hey Everyone,

I really don't have a lot to report on this week. We are going through a pretty tough spell of finding solid investigators. We basically had to drop our whole teaching pool this last week for one reason or the other. We definitely have room for improvement and we are willing to work ourselves dead tired until we can get our area running on a higher level.

I had a very interesting but powerful experience this week that I wanted to share. It will take up most of my post for this week. It was a testimony to me of the power of staying worthy to listen to the spirit and acting when a prompting is received. Here is what happened:

I was on exchanges in my area on Tuesday with one of the Zone Leaders in the mission. We were trying to contact some former and future investigators we had found in our area book the night before. For some reason NOBODY we put down in our plans was home. We were down to our last two options when, sitting at a stop light, I saw a neighborhood across the street where we were at and I felt "I wonder if there are any gente in there" (Gente is "People" in English). When the light turned green I drove across and started driving down the street and told my companion "Look for things that look hispanic (mops outside houses, aloe vera plants, red curtains, toys in the yard, the list goes on). We drove for about 2-3 minutes when I pulled up to another stop sign. I was looking to turn back onto the main road when the spirit told me "Don't turn left!" (which was the way I was wanting to go) and I couldn't go straight so, I started turning right. As I completed the turn the spirit said again "Stop! Get out and tract here." We pulled the truck over, said a small prayer confirming the prompting I had felt, and started tracting the street. The first house we knocked on was a high school kid from Croatia. He was Christian, a football star, and a pretty smart kid. As we asked him if he had visited one of our churches before he began telling us of the various times he had gone with his friend to mutual and once to Sunday meetings. I thought it was a good contact until he said, "Actually my friend said that he was going to send the missionaries over to talk. That's why you are here right?" I was shocked to hear that and simply said, "No, he didn't but we are glad to find you!" He told us a time to come by later on the week and we left on our way. Nobody else opened their door, just him.

I am so grateful for the chance that I had to be an instrument in Heavenly Father's hands. My testimony of patience has grown significantly this last week. I know that there are times when the work is a little rougher and we need to pass through a bit of the refiners fire. BUT, the Lord always compensates us for the trials we go through. I know that, if not for anything else but to strengthen my own testimony, we were supposed to find that joven. 

That is my message for the week. No matter what happens, white knuckle the iron rod and keep pressing forward. The future is as bright as your faith (Monson). I hope that everyone has a great week and until next time ! Que Dios les bendiga en su camino!

Sincerely,

Elder Klemme