At any rate, this last week has been great. We had a number of crazy going
on's. First off, the District Meeting of District Meetings was PERFECT. Elder
Johnson's idea was rock solid and heavily inspired. Some of the Elders, rather
shocked by what we'd done, said that the scriptures and potential we presented
for them was actually something in their Patriarchal Blessing, or something
they'd been struggling with. I know that I was blessed to be able to draw them
all accurately and awesomely; because I'm not really that great at it. The Zone
Leaders were even inspired by what we talked about. The basic idea we wanted to
get across was "What's some miracles that missionaries of olden times have
wrought? Like Aaron, Ammon, Alma, Nephi and Lehi? What about Dan Jones, who
converted Thousands in Wales?" after we talked about that, and I'd brought up
Dan Jones, I asked "Well, what's the difference between them and us?" And then
Elder Johnson taught them, there isn't one. We are given the same commission
to do the same work, by the same God. The miracles they wrought, from calling
down fire, to raising the dead, to baptizing thousands, are possible unto us, if
we have faith that it can happen. We all left feeling hyper pumped and ready to
work.
So then we had a number of miracles ourselves. Holly and Carlos,
two of the strongest members in the ward had a really tough trial Friday (I
think). Their little baby girl has been very sick the past two months, and
she'd been running a fever. Well, all of a sudden, she had a seizure, and then
stopped breathing, so Holly screamed for Carlos and her father to give her a
blessing, and then her mom started mouth to mouth. Fortunately, though she'd
been "not breathing" for almost 15 minutes, she'd actually entered a
"coma-state" so she's recovered and there's no lasting effects. Matter of fact,
when we saw her yesterday, she was smiling and laughing up a storm (which is
very unusual for her. I've usually seen her screaming or grumpy. So it was
actually a huge blessing, because as we sat in Church this Sunday, Sherry walked
in OUT OF NOWHERE! I don't really know how to describe how much of a miracle
this really was. We were both sitting in the pew praying
very hard that it would go good. As it turned out, Holly got up and gave a very
powerful testimony about the experience, and it hit us all, but ESPECIALLY
Sherry very hard. So, hopefully she'll continue to progress, and come to
Church.
The second miracle of miracles we saw this week is in regards to the
Morrows family. They are a great family that four out of five of them joined
the Church two years ago, and the parents got sealed just recently. Cami,
however, has been an exceedingly tough cookie. She's about 20 years old, and
while she comes to Church every week, she doesn't keep the commandments or do
what she knows she should to progress. As a matter of fact, when we asked
Sister Morrows and Sam (Cami's sister) how can we help Cami; they laughed in a
kind of depressed way and said that every missionary that's come to Taft has
asked them that, and they don't know, so good luck. Every time missionaries
have tried to push her before, she just clams up and stops coming to Church and
stuff. However, She and Josh have asked us to start working with Josh's mom,
(who has her own list of problems) and we asked her to read a chapter in the
Book of Mormon in order to prepare for the lesson. Guess what? Cami read. And
it was the first time in the 3-4 years that she's met with the missionaries that
she's even cracked the book open. Then, in the middle of a GREAT restoration
lesson, Cami bore her testimony to Josh's mom about how much the gospel has
blessed her family's lives since they've started, how much better it's gotten
since her parents were sealed in the temple, and the peace and love she feels at
Church. Everyone in the room was absolutely floored. She's never told anyone,
even her parents about this. For the second time, yesterday, we were astounded.
So, we've got our transfer orders. Elder Johnson is going to
Oxnard tomorrow, to be a Zone Leader with Elder Ipsin! This transfer has gone
by way too fast! I can't hardly believe it's been six weeks again ALREADY. I'm
going to remain here in good old Taft (thank goodness, I've got some unfinished
business here) and Elder Buckmiller is going to be my new companion, though I'm
not sure if he's going to be the District Leader or not (no-one knows who it is
for some reason.) Everyone else in the District (Elder Foote and Mancuso and
Elder Shurtz and Marquez) are staying. It'll be exciting to see where we go
from here!
I love you guys; keep your heads up and your hearts strong!
Love,
Elder Matthew David Clough
