Holy Cow Guys!
I have so much to tell you, I don't even know where to start. This week is seriously the week of all weeks, and I will never forget the events that took place this week!
It has still been super duper hot and humid. And when its not super duper hot and humid, its pouring rain. And sometimes its both! There was one day this week when we were walking down the street, dying of heat, the sun was scorching and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. And then all of the sudden it just starts pouring rain!! We took cover under a tree but not before we were drenched from head to foot. (Funny side-story: there is a returned missionary in our ward and we are teaching his non-member brother. We biked over there one day this week and it was so hot! We walked into their house and they asked us if it was raining outside. Nope, just sweat. Just sweat.) We were talking about it though, and we realized how much strength we really do receive from God every day. We are told by people daily that we shouldn't be out in this heat. But we are and we are walking and biking between 10-20 miles per day. If we were normal human beings, we would be dead by now. But Heavenly Father gives us strength.
Okay, so I have to share with you guys the incredible miracle that happened to us yesterday. Prepare to have your minds blown and your testimonies solidified :)
SO yesterday, we had NOTHING to do all day. We literally were just tracting ALL DAY LONG after church. And we were less than excited to go out in the heat for nine hours. But God had different plans for us.
So headed out after lunch and started walking to stop by an investigators house. While we were walking we noticed two young boys across the street playing basketball. Normally we don't really talk to little kids, but something told us we needed to talk to them. So we went over and invited them to come play Tuesday Night Basketball at the church. They said they would ask their mom and so forth... so we head back to the other side of the street and there was a lady walking the same direction we were. She complimented our clothes and asked if the blouse-belt-skirt combination was a new style. We explained that it was a style in Utah where we were from. (No one in Florida wears belts with their skirts...) And it opened up the conversation for us to tell her why we left Utah and what we did as missionaries. As we shared with her she expressed how she had been wanting to be baptized forever but she had not been able to find a church that felt right. We invited her to take the lessons and prepare to be baptized and become a member of our church and she accepted! We set a baptism date with her right then and there!
Then we said our goodbyes and parted ways.
Not two minutes later, as we are walking down the street, two women roll down their car windows and yell across three lanes of traffic, "Are you missionaries?" We yelled back that we were and they told us to stay right there. So we did, as they proceeded to make a couple U-turns to get to where we were. I jokingly said to Sister Day, "Looks like someone else wants to get baptized too!" We laughed. We had just been talking the day before about how cool it would be if someone pulled their car over and asked us to be baptized.
So the car pulls up to us and the lady in the drivers seat introduces herself as a member from California. She was here visiting her mother who is very sick. The woman in the passenger seat said to us, "Maybe you can help me, are you on duty?" We realized from that comment that she must not be a member and we explained to her that we were always on duty and would love to help her! They pulled off into a nearby parking lot and we started talking.
The woman who was not a member is a sister to the woman from California. She lives here in our area and we were right, she's not a member. But she explained to us how she knows that the church is good and she has seen the blessings of it in her sisters life and that she is ready to join the church and become a Mormon. They had just been by the church to see if anyone was there that could help them, but no one was. They had given up and were out of ideas and headed home when they saw us walking down the street.
We actually had someone pull over their car and ask us to be baptized. THAT NEVER HAPPENS. Every missionary always jokes about that happening, and dreams of it happening. But it never does.
This experience left my companion and I speechless and tearful. The gratitude that we felt towards our Father in Heaven for allowing us to be a part of this special miracle was overflowing. We literally had nothing to say for a while as we walked to our next destination.
As we were walking, I was pondering and trying to figure out what we had done to deserve such a miracle. Then it hit me how prideful that thought was... we hadn't done anything to deserve it. We didn't deserve it. Heavenly Father taught me something very important:
Sometimes we talk about how exact obedience brings miracles. But that isn't exactly true, at least not the way we think of it. I used to think that if I was obedient then God would bless me for that obedience with a miracle. But it doesn't work that way. We don't, through our own efforts EARN miracles. That is a selfish and prideful thought. In reality what is happening is that Heavenly Father is constantly working miracles in our lives and in the lives of others around us. Every single event that takes place is a miracle and he miraculously moves us and places us in just the situations we need to have the opportunity to make to choice to return to Him. As we are obedient and do what we are supposed to we keep our covenants and with that we are promised the spirit to be with us. And that spirit leads and guides us to the places where those miracles are taking place, thus allowing us to be witness of and sometimes a part of those miracles.
But we do not earn miracles through our obedience.
The miracles didn't end there. After a lot of walking and knocking, we were running low on water and decided to stop by a members home that was close by to fill up. Her non-member husband opened the door and allowed us to come in and fill up. Her son spoke up and asked us what we were doing at 6. We said that we would be tracting probably, and he told us to come back around six and they would feed us a nice homemade Italian meal. This was a miracle for many reasons: it gave us something to do at 6 out of the sun, and it also gave us a meal because we were out of food for the week and not sure what we were going to eat for dinner!
I know that God truly is a God of miracles and that if we are living the way we should, we will be able to witness those miracles daily. I am so grateful for a little black name-tag that allows me to see such grand miracles so often.
The mission is glorious.
I love you all and hope you have an incredible week and see tons of miracles!
Love always, Sister Rowland
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