Serving in Florida: A Great Experience

1-6-13

My ankle is doing great (he spranged it a couple weeks ago playing p-day basketball). It's just a little stiff from healing. Last night was a really great experience. We had a member come out with us to a lesson with the Parker family. The member is actually from Logan, UT. He served in your mission, Dad. (St. Louis, Missouri) His name is Bro. Rasmussen. He came out with us to the lesson and it went pretty good for the most part. We taught about the Plan of Salvation and we had a really good discussion. I think that I've told you a little bit about the Parkers. Elder Lott and I found them a few months ago and they were just moving in. We offered them the Savior's Peace and Blessing and it went really well, but for some reason they ended up going back to the Methodist Church. But, at the end of the lesson, we were talking about the Prophet and priesthood authority and how through modern revelation the Plan of Salvation was revealed to us. At that point, the wife said, "You know, I don't think that this whole authority thing really matters, to be honest. I mean, as long as you have faith in Christ and you're going to church , it doesn't matter if you have a prophet and authority or not, and it doesn't matter what church you join." After she said that, in my mind I was just thinking, "What?! How is that not important? Of course it's important. You're not understanding this right!" After that we all just testified of the importance of why we need a modern day prophet and how Christ's Gospel has been restored. We talked about how in order for them to find out if what we are telling them it true that they need to pray and find out for themselves. Luckily, they agreed to do that, but for the most part they pretty much told us that they were good with their church. When we left, I was pretty sad and confused. They are such a great family and I just didn't understand how they couldn't see that this is what they are really looking for. On the way home, Bro. Rasmussen started talking to us about the whole situation. He said, "Elders, I know it's hard for you to be working with this family and them to not really see it the way that you see it for them. I know that it probably wasn't that great to know that you somehow inspired them to go to the Methodist church, but I believe that the Lord uses other churches to prepare people to receive the Gospel." I was kind of confused at this point, but it started to make sense. He continued to say, "The Parkers are not ready at this time to accept the entirety of the Gospel, so God has led them to a church that has certain truths that they are ready to accept for now, until some point in the future when it won't be enough to satisfy their ideas or questions that they may have about life. At that point, they will be ready to accept the Gospel and will be converted. What you need to do now is get them to read from the Book of Mormon and to really question it, because it is not something that can easily be explained away once someone has a knowledge of it. There are too many things pointing to the fact that it is true and that it is from God and not man. So just continue to work with them, and don't worry." When he shared that with us, mainly for me, it settled all of the questions and concerns that I had about the Parkers. I had never thought about the whole situation like that before, but it made perfect sense. It was such a great thing to think about.

Love,
Elder A. Whaley