Tender Mercies

Tender Mercies

I am finding God works in a series of small miracles.  I can’t tell you how many times we have been lost (literally in the streets) and suddenly find our way.  We were supposed to pick up one of Presidente’s counselor’s on the side of a busy highway and we accidentally exited the highway.  When we finally returned we looked up and there he was.  We were driving in the dark one night looking for a hotel and suddenly I looked up from my phone, where I was trying to make the GPS work, and the first thing I saw was this tiny sign for the hotel.  This work is hard enough, I think The Lord knows we don’t need additional complications like getting lost.

Powerful Insights

I have already felt the guidance of the Lord in the things I say and teach.  We just finished three days of zone conferences.  I had prepared several talks for this occasion.  The first one was on miracles.  The second one was about the Spirit.  They were darn good talks.  However, I woke up early one morning and felt prompted to give an entirely different talk and the outline was right in front of my eyes.  I ended up speaking about The Faith to be obedient even though we don’t always know the why.  For some reason this was the message The Lord wanted the missionaries to hear.

I learned something as I was preparing the talk.  I was gathering stories from the scriptures where people had acted on faith, without knowing why they were obedient:  Adam, Naaman, the Israelites and the Serpent on a stick.  As I was studying I realized that the greatest act of faith ever, was exercised by Our Savior in the Garden of Gesthsamne.  I believe Christ asked, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from me,” because he didn’t fully understand the incredible power of what he was doing.  He may not have known that without his sacrifice all mankind was doomed.  Christ completed the Atonement because he was obedient to the Father.  He trusted that the Father understood completely the reason he must complete this agonizing task.  The most important event in the history of the world was an act of faith performed by a loving son who was being obedient to his father.

Inviting the Sprit

The first day of zone conferences I was sitting on the stand, but I wasn’t really feeling the Spirit, and it concerned me.  I knew I could not teach a word without the Spirit so I paused, and pondered and prayed and a thought came to me:

You need to bear your testimony before you jump into your address.  “Of course” I thought to myself, and I pondered what I would say and the Spirit filled my soul and I felt confident.

The next thing I know Presidente is teaching the missionaries how to invite the Spirit when they work with members and he tells them, “Before you begin a discussion, bear you testimony,” he said.  “Don’t wait until the end, like we usually do.  Do it at the beginning so the Spirit will be there throughout the discussion.”

“Hey, that was my thought first,” I thought to myself.  But in reality, we must have both received the same inspiration at the same time, and he was the first one on the agenda.  When I got up and bore my testimony, the missionaries may have thought I was doing it because Presidente had just instructed us to do.  But in reality, I was already going to do it because the Spirit had instructed me to do so.