Hualien - Week 34 - Dogs and Prayers

Dogs and Prayers

First off, HAPPY FATHER'S DAY. Holy crow, I forgot it was fathers day because they don't super celebrate it here in Taiwan. They don't celebrate it at all, actually. I think they celebrate in on August 8 because it's 8/8 which, in Chinese, sounds like "baba" which means "dad." So there's that tidbit for ya.

I wanted to take a moment and give a shout out to my father. I am beyond grateful to him for all the things he taught me growing up, all the things he still teaches me via email now. Literally his emails bring the Spirit and tears to my eyes every time. As a missionary, we want to teach our investigators how to find help and answers for themselves through the Book of Mormon and other scriptures, so we try to help them delve into the scriptures and learn to love them. That's what my dad did and does for me and my siblings. He told us and read to us scripture stories starting when we were young. I can recall times where I had a struggle or fear or problem, and he'd create a great teaching moment by whipping out the scriptures and sharing something that would hit the spot every single time. I felt peace and found direction and hope from the scriptures he shared, and over time I developed my own love for the scriptures. I'd turn to them on my own to find help because of how my dad taught me. This is a priceless gift, among many others, that my father gave me. I will be forever grateful to him for that.

Also, I heard the song "Rock with You" by my Jam, Michael Jackson, in Starbucks last week. It was awesome and reminded me of my mom and my great aunt and uncle Karen and Denny. Then another day we were in a 7-11 and I heard the song playing "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" and it reminded me of my grandma Alice Ann. The best!!

We were riding our bikes home from the house of three of our investigators last Tuesday night, and part of the very long pathway home includes  a stretch of dark rode, dimly lit by overhead streetlamps. Despite the eeriness of the street, we were super pumped because our investigator had just agreed to set a date for baptism! We're riding along and Sister Jensen begins to sing from behind me if you're happy and you know it ring your bell! She was referring to the cute little bells on our bikes. The second we both gleefully ring our bells, we hear the sound of dogs barking in the near distance. Oh no. All of a sudden five dogs emerge from the dark, yapping and barking away, rapidly pursuing their frightened, bike-riding targets.

Immediately I began to pray aloud and ride as fast as I could while a dog chased after me and nipped at my heals. My prayer was something along the lines of please protect us, please protect us please protect us, I'm so scared, I'm so scared, I'm so scared, repeated several times really fast. Not long after, the dogs must have gotten bored or tired or who knows what, but they stopped racing after us and we made it home in once piece.

I don't mean to make this sound like the most intense story ever. I was actually laughing aloud as I remembered how perfect the timing was...the ring of a bell and then the immediate yowling of dogs in the distance and seeing them come after us like the stampede in the Lion King (at least that's what it looked like in the moment.) But I learned something from that experience. In a moment of feeling utterly terrified for my life, I said what was one of the most fervent, sincere, and specific prayers of my life. It wasn't long and flowery, it wasn't really thought out, but it felt faithful, like I was reaching up my hand expecting God to grab it and save me.

And it got me thinking, what if alllllll of my prayers were that sincere? That earnest? That trusting? We are so lucky to have the blessing of prayer, the ability to truly speak with our Father in Heaven. He will hear and listen to what we say. He cares and he will answer us. There are powerful examples of this in history and in the lives of many today. Because Alma prayed in faith for his son to come to the knowledge of the truth, an angel appeared to Alma the Younger (see Mosiah 27: 14). What if we were completely serious and heartfelt every time we prayed? And what if we really sought to listen to and accept the answers that come? What miracles would we see and what kind of direction would we receive? How would we change? I think we might find that over time, our relationship with God would seriously strengthen and our will would become more aligned with His. The idea of that is exciting. I have been working to make my morning and nightly prayers more meaningful and as I've done so, I have learned a lot. I want to continue to improve.

I invite you all this week to say a really sincere prayer. And then listen for the answers.

The last thing I learned this week was when I read a letter called The Ricciardi Letter. I learned that whenever we feel the Spirit in a lesson as we teach, it means the other person feels it too because the Spirit is really there. (D&C 50: 17-22). That person might choose to ignore or deny the feeling, assign the feelings they are experiencing to something else, or maybe they simply just don't recognize the feeling yet. But if we feel the influence of the Holy Ghost as we teach, it is there. And that is what we want every time, because the Holy Ghost testifies of truth, the Holy Ghost is the converter. On Sunday we were in a lesson with a less active member who we randomly ran into on the street, hasn't been to church in years, and set up to meet with us! We watched the video "Because of Him" and he said he was really touched by it. As soon as the video was over, I testified that Jesus is our Savior and he loves him. I felt a very powerful warmth in my chest and I got a little choked up as I spoke. It was cool to know that the Spirit was in the room, teaching us and edifying each of us. 

The church is true-e-e-e-e-e and I love you all. See ya in a week.

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