MIRACLES

The theme for this week is faith + works = miracles. We had a leadership training meeting on Wednesday and the instruction was inspiring. President talked about how faith and works bring miracles. We talked about the many examples of this from the scriptures and how we can apply it to our missionary work. We also talked about the doctrine of high love and high expectations which applies to everything!!!!! Heavenly Father has high love and high expectations for us as His children. We should have high love and high expectations for those under our stewardship, our companion, and ourselves. When we do, miracles happen. This week I've tried to apply those two principles especially and it's been so cool to see God doing work. On Friday we went on an exchange with some sisters and the sister I was with is a brand new missionary. Once I got to her area I felt so strongly that the things they had planned to do for that day wasn't what God needed us to do. I told her that I felt like we needed to do some finding so we started to adjust the plans. Just as we did, a young boy rode up on his bike and asked if we were Christians. He asked us to meet his mom and teach them about Jesus. We taught their whole family about the Restoration, invited them to read the Book of Mormon, and invited them to be baptized. As we were leaving the new sister said, "does that happen often?". I said, "it can, but only when we are in line with God's plans". So cool. That night I invited the sister to pray over the map of her area and pick a street to knock every door on. The street she picked ended up being the wealthiest in the area; she was terrified. We covenanted with the Lord to knock each door on the street and prayed about how many people we needed to invite to be taught. The spirit told us three, and we set out. Guess how many people on the street answered their doors? Three. One of them was the sweetest lady who had friends who were members of the church. They had invited her to church before. She invited us to come back and teach her next week and even said she'd order some pizza. Miracle. Sad that it's not my area, because pizza but it's ok. Another miracle wrought by faith and works happened in the eleventh hour of our week. On Sunday things weren't lookin' so good for getting someone to church. We had a pretty tough week of dropping investigators who weren't willing to keep their commitments, but we still had faith and were confident that we worked hard throughout the week. So, we were in Sacrament meeting and two men in suits walk in during the announcements. We walked into gospel principles class after the meeting and there they were, so we sat in front of them and introduced ourselves. Keith is from Houston and Rob lives in Little Rock. When talking, they used terms like "ward boundary" and "your area" so we assumed they were both members and told them it was good to have them there. Rookie mistake. We didn't really think much of it until we got home after church and got a phone call from Keith saying that his buddy Rob would love to take the discussions... ohhhh my goodness! Miracle. We asked when we could come by and they said "Would this afternoon work?" YUP. So we got a member and headed over about a half hour later and had a lesson with them. Turns out, Rob does this thing where he lets people stay with him while they're passing through town and Keith had business he was doing in Little Rock and ended up staying with him. Keith's a member and has a wife and three kids. He had been talking to Rob about the gospel and found out that Rob is a real spiritual guy and strives to live a Christlike life. They read some of the Book of Mormon together and began talking about the plan of salvation. So we go and we have a great lesson with them focused on the plan of salvation. Then that night we got a text from Keith saying, "Great job today Sisters! Keep after Rob, he's totally ready! Commit him!". We're meeting with Rob again on Wednesday. It's so undeniable that that was a miracle from the Lord. He knows exactly what He's doing all the time. Sometimes we don't have to know it all, we just have to have faith and move forward. "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also" (James 2:26). Jesus is the Christ. I'll never doubt, I'll never question it. 

Sister Bailey Guthrie

905 Kierre Dr. 

North Little Rock, AR 72116