Wheelchair Miracles

Family!

Hello! I really hope that everyone out there who is reading these are appreciating my dumb jokes, because I always try to include at least one or two of them. I try really hard, but I can't physically hear anyone laughing, so we'll just assume I'm funny and keep going:)

This week was another week. Tammy is off the radar. She dropped us because of a family crisis. At least she didn't get antied!:) We stopped by and asked her about everything and she said that she just cannot devote all her time to her ailing son with her constantly having us over. We'll go back there in a few weeks to check up.

But! In other news, we've been working with this SWEET handicapped guy in a little town near Quincy. He is in a wheelchair because of a car accident he got into a few years back. I've got to tell you the story of how we found him because it is miraculous. I'm going to disguise the names for privacy's sake. 

So there is this little town called Canton where a bunch of less active members live. One of those less active members has a bunch of kids who were never baptized, but are all in their 20's. His name is Steven Gardner, and his children on our list were Jade and Joshua Gardner. Both Elder Kay and I had looked over the ward list in the very first months we were together and felt prompted to go and visit Canton, so the next time we were in the area, we scheduled some time to go and visit the less actives in that area. 

We arrived and got out of the car, walking toward the first Less Active on the list. There was nobody home, so we trekked toward the next one, about a 5 minute walk away. All the while, I just kept having the Gardner family pop into my head, and I thought, "We for sure need to visit there before we leave today." The next less active on the list was at a fake address. There was an empty lot there, but no house! So we moved on. 

All along the way, we had been prompted to knock on one or two doors, but nothing serious had happened, so we continued to search for doors we felt prompted to approach. I saw one out of the corner of my eye with a drum set in the window. I can kinda play the drums, so I was excited to talk to whoever lived there. We knocked on the door, and I could hear someone inside, but no one came to the door. We knocked again, but whoever it was was taking a long time, if they were even coming at all. Just as we were walking away, a young man in a wheelchair opened the door. As we began talking, he introduced himself as Joshua Gardner. Both Elder Kay an I almost fell off the porch because we recognized the name. He was at a COMPLETELY different address than the one on the list(one that we later discovered wasn't even correct). 

We have now been teaching him for 4 weeks, and he has felt the spirit a lot! He has a lot of issues to overcome, but his grandma is an active member in Trenton, MO, so hopefully that will help out a lot!

I love you all, and I'm grateful for your prayers!

20 October 2014

Family!

This week was GREAT! We had a really neat week. Nearly every lesson we had set up went through. I'm pretty sure we had only 2 cancellations the entire week. When we weren't driving, we were teaching, and the great thing was, the members were all over it too! This ward is so willing to interact with us and our investigators. I really love the members.

Two main experiences that I had this week with members:

1. We have been teaching Tammy for a while now, and she is really our only solid investigator. She is a member of another church, but she likes us a lot, and she has a lot of good questions. She has been reading the Book of Mormon a bit, and she hasn't really been understanding the purpose behind it, so we have been focusing mainly on that, but early this week, she told us that one of her problems was that when we had talked about the Plan of Salvation, she had a TON of questions about it, and she never felt like she received any answers. Well, Sister Stillwell, her main fellowshipper, and really someone that has become her friend, talked to her with so much love and care and described how she had come to know of it's truthfulness. When we came back later in the week, Tammy had re read the pamphlet but still felt uneasy about the questions she had, so we looked up some scriptures with her and coached her through them. There was a sweet spirit as we read about how we lived with Father in Heaven before this life. I felt my own testimony confirmed on this point. At the end, Tammy said, "Well, turns out we DID live before this. Now I just have to ask my Pastor why he hasn't been talking about this all along!" 

  Sister Stillwell responded, "Well, he's not a prophet, so he probably won't know!" She is so funny and great. Tammy got a kick out of that.:)

2. We had Stake Conference in Nauvoo, and I got to see a ton of members from Kirksville, Fort Madison, and Quincy all together. I am and continue to be very grateful that I've served in the same stake for 10 months now. It was such a neat reunion to see these wonderful people that I love so much! I got to see Sister Speir, who was Rhonda's fellowshipper and neighbor back in Fort Madison, Brother Mogenhan, who fed us all the time, and is now PRESIDENT Mogenhan(Branch President), and Karen, who was the lady baptized just after I left Fort Madison who we had helped to quit smoking. She is doing great! She has been a member almost a year and has been called as Assistant Librarian. She talked my ear off, just like the good ol' days!:)

I just love the members. You learn so much from them out here.

I know that this is the work of the Lord. Just look at the active members of the church all around you. That is a fruit of the Gospel. They live powerful lives and contribute so much. I feel like you can't leave their presence without feeling a little bit more resolved to live like Christ. That's what being a part of His church is really like. I love it:)

I love you all! 

Elder Brown

Pics: Me fighting "Zombie Joey" after the YSA Family Home Evening. They dressed up as zombies and delivered candy as a finding tool. Kinda unique.