I made a lameshmame attempt to post something "happy" every Sunday.
Lasted one week.
So here goes my newest Sunday post.
I felt like I should invite this awesome girl (who's my age) and her little boy,
to church with us.
(I know he looks a lot like her, but this is not her little boy. Unfortunate;y I didn't get a picture the day they came.)I met her while staying at our hotel and felt from the first minute we met, that something was so special about her. She is from Ghana and has had a difficult life but she still has a light in her eyes that says she hasn't given up.
So you know when you keep getting "those thoughts" ?
The ones that pop in your head randomly...while you're making the bed, or singing a song, or even reading one of those celebrity gosspy mags that you shoudn't be reading. Doing everything that would normally not lead to such thoughts.
THAT'S when you think "hmmm, maybe I should listen."
All week, after the idea to invite her popped in my head, other things kept popping into my head like D&C18:16 which reads:
"And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!"
And then President Eyering's talk when I was making the bed:
"It’s easy to say, 'The time isn’t right.' But there is danger in procrastination. Years ago I worked for a man in California. He hired me, he was kind to me, he seemed to regard me highly. I may have been the only Latter-day Saint he ever knew well. I don’t know all the reasons I found to wait for a better moment to talk with him about the gospel. I just remember my feeling of sorrow when I learned, after he had retired and I lived far away, that he and his wife had been killed in a late night drive to their home in Carmel, California. He loved his wife. He loved his children. He had loved his parents. He loved his grandchildren, and he will love their children and will want to be with them forever.
Now, I don’t know how the crowds will be handled in the world to come. But I suppose that I will meet him, that he will look into my eyes, and that I will see in them the question: “Hal, you knew. Why didn’t you tell me?”
Among other things.
So I prayed for courage because, as most of you know, this sort of thing is SO outside of my comfort zone :)
Nah, say what?!?
I know, I hide it well. thx.
Anywho, so I invited her and she seemed genuinely excited. She had no pre-conceived notions as she had never heard about our church. So
that was nice!
Sunday morning rolled around and they were 20mn late.
That was fine.
But then she said her husband was waiting for us.
We had to go meet him and tell him exactly where we were going.
He ended up following us to church...
fiasco in itself because he took the lead.
And then he started throwing his arms at me where I should park, and when I went to our church lot instead, he started whistling at me.
Like I was a dog.
I felt so much for Salo-Mey (pronounced "Sarah-May")and Benjamin.
I saw her spirits sink, as did mine.
When we piled out of my car, he yelled at her to come over to him.
Then she came back and she went into church with us.
With 15mn of Sacrament Meeting remaining.
Then, she did everything but run out after the meeting.
I wanted to cry.
But didn't...
not much anyway.I have faith.
I KNOW the Lord will prepare them to receive the Gospel.
But it's on His time.And
not mine!
That is why I was bummed.
I had the whole thing planned out.
She would feel the Spirit the first time visiting, the congregation would sound like the Mormon Tab when singing, and she would have the desire to come back, and her husband would let her. Then she would be baptized and have a burning testimony of the Lord's love for her and her family, and joy in knowing Heavenly Father's plan for her.
(sigh)
I just have to know that everything happened the way it did today, because it was in His plan.
I may not understand it or want it that way, but I have to have faith.
Keep her in your prayers.
