When I was serving with the language, missionaries, I was helping out In an Orem ward. I was helping them do more than just write a ward mission plan. I was showing them how to implement one.
I have always believed that you can’t implement a ward mission plan without receiving revelation about those you will teach. This is mostly due to the fact that it is Heavenly Father who prepares them and knows when they’re ready. The problem is that if we don’t do our part to personally know the people and pray over them by name it gets less likely the Lord will give us revelation regarding those people. It’s very important that you get to know them and invest in them so that you are receptive to the spirit when the Lord need you to step in and do your part to get them ready.
I was helping them out by visiting every home in the ward. I was identifying the people so that we could pray over them and receive revelation about them.
There were a group of homes on one of the streets in their ward that was a mystery. They really didn’t have any idea who lived in those houses and so I decided that’s where I would start. I just went over and started knocking doors.
One of the houses didn’t have anyone home or at least they didn’t have anyone answering the door. After a minute waiting at the door without an answer, I started walking away and marking that house on the map with a question mark. I had a strong prompting to go through the gate of the fence at the side of the house and go to the backyard.
I want to be clear that trespassing was not something I normally did but I felt a spiritual compulsion to do it. I unlatched the gate and looked in the backyard. On the back side of the house was basement entrance with a door to an apartment. I hadn’t seen this from the front yard and as far as I knew, no one in the ward knew these people were here.
I knocked and a lady came to the door. She was really nice. I told her I was from the ward and that we were trying to find all of the people we didn’t know and get their information so we could invite them to activities. I asked the lady if she had ever heard of the church. She didn’t answer right away. She expression was a mixture of shocked, and thoughtful. She was speechless
Finally, she spoke. She asked, how did you find me here? Did someone tell you I was here? Did my dad call you and tell you to come after me? All of a sudden she was asking all of the questions. I looked her right in the eye and said, no one called me. No one told me you were here except the spirit. The spirit told me to come back here and talk to you. The spirit also tells me that you have a story to tell.
It turns out that she was returned sister missionary and had grown up in the church. She had left the church some years back because as she said, she just didn’t feel it anymore. Nowadays she never talked about the church or lived it in any meaningful sense. She said that she thought that her boyfriend thinks she is Catholic.
I was a little shocked. I got a strong prompting to ask her to tell me her favorite three stories from her mission. Once she started her countenance began to change. I could tell that this exercise weakened her resolve to turn her back on the church. She was smiling and the temperature changed in the room. The spirit was there and I learned that we had something there to work with.
I later found out that her grandfather had been a stake president back in California and her father was a patriarch. I felt the distinct impression that Heavenly Father needed this woman and her gifts, along with those of her boyfriend that she lived with, to build up the kingdom. I told her this and she said that her boyfriend wasn’t a member of the church. I did not understand how you get to this depth of separation from what you know to be right. I told her about how I did not understand why the church was not something they never talked about in their home. Satan sure finds ways to blind us and sell us a lie, doesn’t he?
They had an 18 month old daughter and she had decided to live her life without the gospel. I asked her if it would be OK if we got Relief Society, ministers for her. She said that she had a couple of friends in the ward who were sworn to secrecy. She asked me if we could just count them. I laughed and made a mental note of that.
I went back and reported to the ward mission leader to let him know what I had found. He was shocked that he didn’t know about her. I told him about her friends in the ward and he immediately called the bishop and the Relief Society president to get them assigned as her ministering sisters. I also started praying for this woman because I felt very sure that her father and her grandfather were hoping the Lord would intervene in her life and bring the gospel back. I was hoping I could be part of that.
One Sunday at church, the ministering sisters told me that her child was really sick. I decided to go over with the ward mission leader instead of going to sunday school and ask them if we could give the baby a blessing. We went over and the ward mission leader anointed and I sealed the blessing.
While I was giving the blessing, I felt very strongly that I should have a conversation to challenge this father about why he didn’t want to get baptized and have the priesthood so that he would be able to bless his own family and not need other men to do it..
As soon as I was done with the blessing, we sat down in the living room. I looked at him and I said, “how did it make you feel to call on some strange guy to come over to your house and bless your child when you should have been doing it yourself?” He looked shocked at me and his girlfriend looked terrified.
I didn’t know until later that she had told everyone she knew not to push religion on him. She told them that he wasn’t interested or ready. Even though he had a shocked look on his face, the power of the spirit was very strong in the room and could not be denied. He looked at me and asked, “would it be possible for me to be able to do this?” I said, yes. Once you become a member of the church and get the priesthood, you will be able to do this. We will help you.
He said that he would love to do that but he just didn’t see how it could work out. I asked him why. He told me it was because he could never go to church. I asked him if he worked on Sundays. He said no. I asked him what could possibly be the problem then.
He kind of mumble that he couldn’t ever go to church because he had a scheduling conflict. I asked him what kind of a scheduling conflict it was. He said that there was a soccer game he played in each week. It was a group of people that got together at the soccer field with their teams. The games went on all morning exactly during the time they were supposed to be at church I told him that I believed that God would make it possible for him to attend church. I told him that things would change for him because he knew he was supposed to.
Keep in mind that he wasn’t a professional player or anything. This was recreational soccer. It was an excuse and not a very good one at that. I believe that he mumbled because he knew that it wasn’t a good excuse. I had the impression that the Lord was going to take care of it so I didn’t push anymore.
The spirit was really strong when we left that day and we scheduled another appointment for the following Sunday after church. We went to church and looked for him. I had hoped he would have a change of heart and decide to come but he wasn’t there. After church we went over to his house. There he was with his leg up on a chair, his foot and knee packed with ice. He hurt his knee pretty bad and as it turned out, he wouldn’t be able to play soccer for about 2 1/2 months.
Due to the expected extended absence, his team found someone else for his spot and he no longer had a soccer game on Sundays! I remembered having the impression that Heavenly Father would free up his Sundays so he could go to church and I smiled. We started going over frequently and hanging out with them, teaching them the gospel and preparing them. After about two months he was ready to be baptized. The only thing holding him back was the fact that they were not married.
I helped them get the identifications necessary and then I took them down to the county building so they could get a marriage license. They were married by the bishop in the primary room really close to the baptismal font. I loved the location! We baptized him the week before Thanksgiving.
The return sister missionary who was now his wife went home to California with her newly baptized husband to see her parents and give them the news. Her father, the patriarch, had been praying for years that the Lord would intervene in his daughter’s life. It was great to see his prayers answered and their lives blessed. Now when the baby is sick, dad can give the blessings.
I believe that through other people listening to the spirit, the Lord will open doors not available to us if our children stray. I saw that with this family. I believe that God keeps the promises he makes to us. When it’s time to put someone in the place they would never go, to say the word that parents can’t say God will do just that. He has a plan for all of his children whether they are ready in this life or the next, he will send his messengers to them. Keep praying and loving.
Sometimes God sends you a lift 