Hey again y'all,
This week went by incredibly fast. I don't have a ton to report
today, but I have a couple experiences that really impacted me this
week.
The first experience came on Saturday afternoon. We met with a
widow in the ward who has been very less active for the past 8 years
or so. She became less active when her husband passed away.We had a
fantastic visit and the Spirit was very strong throughout. She has a
lot of trials in her life and a few obstacles keeping her from church,
but she is one of the sweetest people I have ever met. She's been away
so long, her knowledge of the Gospel is diminishing, so we will be
teaching her with the hopes of helping her back into activity. As she
offered the closing prayer, she thanked Heavenly Father that he had
sent her "her two new angel missionaries, to speak to her through". It
was a very humbling feeling to know that the Lord spoke through me,
exactly what she needed to hear. Such experiences have not necessarily
been rare on my mission, but each one is just sweet to me.
The next experience was also a humbling one, but in a different
way. After a long day of regularly scheduled Sunday meetings, Edler
Mitchell and I sat in the resident lounge awaiting the arrival of our
ride to, yet another meeting. As we sat waiting, a man arose from his
computer, walked over to where we were seated, and proceeded to yell
at us for reasons unknown. Neither of us could tell what he was saying
except that he was very angry with us and wanted us to stop whatever
it was he thought we were doing. Caught totally off-guard, we sat and
waited for him to finish. when he did, he turned around and huffed
back to his computer. Our ride arrived, and we quickly exited the
building, still having no idea why we had been verbally assaulted.
After our meetings were over, we were dropped off back at home, with
fresh brownies on a plate from the last of our meetings. Having told
our ride about what happened, he suggested we show love to the man who
had yelled at us. We decided to offer him the brownies and apologize
for whatever he thought we'd done. As we did so, his face showed sheer
surprise, probably expecting a confrontation of some kind. We
introduced ourselves as representatives of Jesus Christ and actually
ended up teaching him for about 45 minutes right there in the lounge.
We left him in a thoughtful state with a Book of Mormon and our
testimonies fresh on his mind. Everyone is a child of God. Apparently
sometimes it takes someone randomly screaming at you for no reason to
have that eternal principle etched in your heart. A man I hoped never
to cross paths with again, turned out to be an incredible teaching
opportunity. The next time someone lashes out in anger at any of us,
whether deserved or not, I pray that we can all do what the Savior
would do. You never know who He might touch through your outreached
hand.
I know that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God. He knows
our situations completely and circumspectly because he descended below
all things. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to serve His children
and help give them greater access to His infinite atonement.
I love each of you very much, and I continually pray for your
safety and happiness. Until next time; be good, stay safe, and keep
the faith.
Love,
Elder Michael P. Lyman
* Texas Dallas Mission*
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