An average day turned to a wonderful day…

This morning I was unsure as to what the day would be…what would we do to keep busy?  We had three Work Choice Profiles to do first thing with three Elders who had been working in Ireland and were leaving for home…and a strange meeting scheduled in the later afternoon in Alloa.

The profiles went according to plan with the Elders.  The opportunity for appointment came from a phone call I received last Saturday.  The man stated that a taxi driver had given him our phone number and told him that we could help him find work.  After an exchange of a number of phone calls we agreed to meet him in Alloa at 4:00 p.m.

As we drove to Alloa we realized that we knew nothing about these fellows other than they did have current jobs, but needed better jobs.  They were not members of the Church but they knew a taxi driver who knew of us.  Our friend from Bulgaria arrived at the Church building about 4:45 p.m. – about the same time as the missionaires from Sterling and the Stake President arrived to meet with a lady they were teaching who had many questions about the Church.

We visited with our friend and agreed that we would help him with his CV…he would email it to us, along with the CV from his two friends.  We gave him some employment material on preparing for job interviews.  We also explained about our mission and a bit about the Church and also gave him a pamphlet which gives a brief explanation about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.. 

I connected our friend with the Sterling missionaries to allow a follow up to any questions he may have about the Church.  We will work with his employment challenge through email and possibly a follow-up meeting.  He went on his way back to Sterling.  The missionaries needed to run to another appointment.  The Stake President needed to go pick up his kids from school but the investigator had one last question.  The Stake President brought her in to meet us and asked if we would continue to respond to her question. 

She had an unanswered question about our belief in the Godhead.  The investigator told us she was a “born again” Christian but didn’t agree with any one organized religion.  She was very well versed in the bible and quoted many scriptures very impressively.  She was fascinated about the idea the missionaries had taught her of a living prophet being on the earth today.  She said, “If your message is true you should be shouting it from the roof tops to the entire world”.  

Her question related to the Godhead and the difference between her belief that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost were one, and our belief that they were one in purpose but three distinct personages with the Father and the Son having a body of flesh and bones.  We read scriptures from the Bible that showed the Father and the Son as two distinct beings and bore testimony that Joseph Smith learned that truth in a vision in 1820 when he saw them both.

We talked of different examples in the bible about the Father and the Son and with each discussion point she expressed her “born again” interpretation and wasn’t understanding our interpretation.  I then talked about the apostasy and how the priesthood power of God was lost following the death of the apostles.  This made her think.   I talked about Moroni’s promise in the Book of Mormon of how the Holy Ghost will confirm “the truth of all things”.  I referenced how Peter had said that there must be a restitution of all things before Christ would return and John saw our day in vision and the restoration of the fullness of the gospel.  Again, she stopped to think. 

As we talked, I bore my testimony of Joseph Smith and the restoration of the priesthood and the translation of the Book of Mormon.  And then I said, “…the bottom line is that you must find out for yourself whether Joseph Smith saw what he said he saw.  If he did, then you will need to change your thinking about God and follow the words of a living prophet.”  She agreed and said, “If that vision really happened, it is ‘Cosmic’”.

She is a lovely lady and agreed to study and pray.  She agreed to come to church on Sunday.  All in all it turned out to be a wonderful day…three profiles completed, a positive meeting with our Bulgarian friend, and a great teaching moment to bear testimony to a sweet lady.  (And in between this all, Carolyn was able to stop at the yarn shop and buy her next knitting project)

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is true!!!  The Father and Son are two separate and distinct personages with bodies of flesh and bones – being one in purpose, which is to bring to pass the immortality of man, just like Joseph said he saw!!