A FIT VESSEL

I enjoyed the following stories told to me by friends:

I was six months into my mission in France and having some problems with the language. What gnawed on me even worse were homesickness and the rejection I felt as I struggled to share our message with a people and culture to which I was largely unfamiliar.

On one occasion we knocked on a door of an inactive member and were rudely met by an angry man who spoke to us roughly and then shut the door in our face. This was not unusual, but as we proceeded to the next door, I suddenly felt impressed to go back to that door. My companion disagreed but I recognized the prompting of the Spirit and returned anyway.

The same man met us and began a serious tirade of scolding for our return. It was then that I noticed a woman inside sitting at a chair. I began addressing her and ignoring the rude man. She looked up rather startled but instead of moving away, she approached the door. I began speaking to her in French that I did not understand myself. This went on for several minutes despite the shouts of the man.

The woman listened intently to me and this surprised my companion as well as me. I finally finished and by then the woman was silently weeping and we left. Days later we saw this woman at the small branch meeting on Sunday and I asked her what made her come back to Church.

She said, “You mean you don’t know?”

She then went on to explain seven different questions that had bothered her about her membership and said that I had answered all seven. She felt no more reason to stay away from attending.

It was then that I learned again that the Spirit speaks thru us when we are fit vessels and comes to the aid of members regardless of their situations.

HEAVENLY FATHER’S WAY

The second story goes like this:

I paint murals for a living and was in the middle of a project when I was prompted to buy a dozen yellow roses and deliver them to a certain address. I did not hear a voice or see a vision; it was simply a feeling I had and I followed it. I rang the doorbell and a woman answered whom I did not know. I handed her the roses and left without a word and returned to my mural.

I few days later, I discovered that the woman at the door was a friend of my wife. She had been praying that God would show His love for her by delivering yellow roses. These had a special symbolic significance in her life. We are messengers and agency is the opportunity to choose Heavenly Father’s way.