What. A. Week. I don't think I've told you all about our investigator named Adam. He moved here from Oregon a few months ago after getting his degree in nuclear engineering. Being in a dominantly-LDS town, he asked his friend to contact us to come teach him so that he can give the religion an "honest try" - oh, and he's atheist. So, we met with him and taught the restoration. He's very intelligent and asked some very thought-provoking questions. We did our best to talk it out with him and address his concerns and we gave him a Book of Mormon to start reading. By our next appointment, which was 4 days later, he'd already gotten through a third of it. He was in Mosiah. Basically he progressed MEGA fast after that. Talking with him about the Plan of Salvation and about the Gospel of Jesus Christ was interesting. He told us that praying, reading the Book of Mormon, and especially repenting every day has made him more grateful that there actually IS a God. It was all wonderful! Then, one weekend, he went down to Utah to visit some friends there. We were trying to get ahold of him so we could set up an appointment when he got back, but he RARELY responded. THEN, on Sunday night we get a text from him that said "Hey, Sisters. Sorry I've been bad about getting back with you, I've been meeting with the missionaries here in Utah every night to finish up the lessons and I got baptized on Saturday! My confirmation was this morning." WHOA. Whoa. He got baptized!! I wish I could have been there, but am still VERY happy that he was so willing to move forward and develop that belief in God and faith in Christ.
Remember that one time that everything worked out perfectly the way you planned it to?
Me neither.
Plans rarely go as envisioned. And missionaries spend a LOT of time planning. A lot. Frequently, things get crazy, and every appointment cancels on you in a day, or you end up not eating for an uncomfortable period of time. Other times, we'll double-book ourselves with appointments, or we'll have 2 lunch and 2 dinner appointments. How does that happen? I'm not entirely sure, but I am sure about one thing: D&C 38:30 - "..if ye are prepared ye shall not fear." This is a phrase that my dear mother would say often - and it stuck, mom!! God will provide people, situations, experiences, and miracles in your life that will help you, even though our plan may not work out how we hoped it would. When we put our faith in God's plan for us, our plan will begin to align with His.
Making decisions about our standards now, planning what we want for eternity now, no matter how far into our life we are, is critical in coming closer to Christ.
It shows God that we are mindful of what we need to do to improve. It shows that we're willing to give our will to Him. It's a tricky thing to learn to do, sometimes, but (another mom-ism:) when we fail to plan, we plan to fail.
Thank you all so much for you support, example, and love!
Faithfully,
Sister McIntosh
i'm thrilled to find this dear sister's blog!! i'm searching for a way to reach sister kolo today as she travels through our world on her way home and here is the sister my daughter, sister crandall, talked about just last week...and I CAN'T STOP READING! no wonder my daughter hopes to have sister mcintosh as a comp. what a love!! xx
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