This last week was fantastic. Several things changed around. Elder Walker was emergency transferred to Show Low, a city in the mountains and Elder Riggs came down from the mountains to replace Elder Walker.
Now the exciting stuff. Late one afternoon, one of our less active members texted us and said that her daughter, who was also less active, was not doing too well, both physically and emotionally. She's been having a lot of stress and wanted us to come over and give her a blessing. She lived quite a ways away and it was already getting late, and strangely enough, our appointment for that evening was cancelled. Probably not a coincidence!
When we arrived there, Elder Riggs shared a seminary video about
accountability as the dad finished watching his basketball game. Elder
Riggs is wonderful, by the way. He's extremely happy, very positive,
complimentary, and effective at missionary work. Anyways, not only did
that invite the spirit, but it also engaged the children, and the mother
of the children was very touched by the video and said afterwards,
"That was the message I needed to hear."
Then when the dad finally joined us (I didn't know deaf people were into basketball as much as hearing people), we gave a blessing to the mother and her grandmother. The mother asked me to give the blessing, which I was so honored to do. I've given blessings before, but the mother and I were close friends and I could feel the words just flowing through me as I gave that blessing by the power of the Holy Spirit. Then through many tears, she graciously thanked us. I was so happy for her and really felt a true Godly love for her. I've never really quite felt like that before, and I’m curtain that it's just a fraction of what our Heavenly Father feels for each of us. I never want to forget that experience.
Elder Sands
Then when the dad finally joined us (I didn't know deaf people were into basketball as much as hearing people), we gave a blessing to the mother and her grandmother. The mother asked me to give the blessing, which I was so honored to do. I've given blessings before, but the mother and I were close friends and I could feel the words just flowing through me as I gave that blessing by the power of the Holy Spirit. Then through many tears, she graciously thanked us. I was so happy for her and really felt a true Godly love for her. I've never really quite felt like that before, and I’m curtain that it's just a fraction of what our Heavenly Father feels for each of us. I never want to forget that experience.
Elder Sands