Yes, it's been awhile since my last post due to work, life, etc. But I have found myself on here again ready to post a new....post.
Many times as a missionary you may feel like the whole "Follow the Spirit" thing is quite unnerving. You may even feel that the Spirit just isn't around and that everything you do is just happenstance. But, I have found that the Spirit works on it's own timetable and sometimes, not by our own understanding.
When I was in my first area, and with my third companion, Elder Eastmond, we happened to be tracking a part of our area known as La Montana. Only because to get to the top, you really had to walk straight up a very long road. And it wasn't one of those San Fransisco type hills you have seen, no this was much more steep and a basic pain in the foot to get up it. Well, we decided that we would give it a go, since no one had tracted that area before and it was probably due to the fact that many of the people who inhabited that area were very affluent and had like portones with timbres on the front...which is Slangish Spanish for a speaker on the front of a big iron/steel door or if you were lucky you got a butler.
We went up there and tracted all day, pretty unsuccessfully. But the homes up there were beautiful and the streets up there were paved and very nice. Generally a paved road meant you were in nicer areas...generally....but not always the case.
We were heading home that evening when we passed by a man who was trimming the bushes out in front of his home. My companion stopped and said something to the affect, "we aren't going home just yet. We have to talk to that man. The Spirit is telling me this." So we went back and approached the man trimming the bushes with his large lawn scissors. We introduced ourselves and began a conversation. He told his that he knew who we were and knew about the Church. We decided to ask him about what he knew.
He mentioned that his Sister lived in the States and was a member of the Church. He also mentioned, if I remember correctly that he had a daughter in the States too that was also a member. He told us that he had read the Book of Mormon and knew it wasn't coincidence that we happened to walk by him that evening as he had felt a strong impression to be outside. He began to relate to us his spiritual experiences and how he felt the need to be cleansed of his sins and follow the Savior. We were completely blown away. But he had tears standing in his eyes and apologized that he couldn't let us come inside at that moment but that he could meet with us next week. We set a appointment and followed up next week only to find out that he had left to the States.
We thought about it for awhile and kept the man in our prayers, but he didn't return at least not until after I had been transferred to my second area which was like a month later. He was baptized, he attended the little ward in our first area and did all he could to share the Gospel with his friends and family. He was so excited to be a member of the Church and excited to feel the Spirit. I found out a couple of years later that he had moved away, I think to the States, but I'll never forget that moment in time, when we followed the Spirit and found a man, after all of that tracting, a man who was searching out his soul and his salvation. A man cutting shrubs out in front of his house, a man that listened to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and found the sweetness of the Gospel that filled his soul. Follow the Spirit, heed's it's promptings and keep yourself always clean and ready to become vessels of the Lord. Never doubt Him and never doubt the Spirit.
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I found a Wonderful site on Isaiah!
http://www.isaiahexplained.com/
The site has free lessons on every chapter.
Very well done and in the author’s own voice.
Every Isaiah Chapter has the Analytical Commentary of Isaiah. Enjoy this personable verse-by-verse commentary of Isaiah by well-known Hebrew scholar Avraham Gileadi.
“Dr. Gileadi is the only LDS scholar I know of who is thoroughly competent to teach the words of Isaiah”—Professor Hugh Nibley, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. (1. 6. 2003)
“It is my testimony that this man has been brought forward and trained at this time to help those inside the Church into Isaiah, and those outside the Church, Jew and Gentile, through Isaiah into the Church” —Arthur Henry King, author, former BYU professor and London
Temple President.
“Dr. Gileadi has achieved a major breakthrough in the investigation of a book of such complexity and importance as the Book of Isaiah”—Professor David Noel Freedman, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
“Dr. Gileadi’s work will render obsolete almost all the speculations of Isaiah scholars over the last one hundred years . . . enabling scholarship to proceed along an entirely new line . . . opening new avenues of approach for others to follow”—Professor Roland K. Harrison, Wycliffe College, Toronto, Canada.
“Only one who is truly at home not only with the Hebrew but with the ancient manner of biblical thought could have produced such an insightful and ground-breaking book”—Professor S. Douglas Waterhouse, Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan.
“Avraham Gileadi’s unsealing of the Book of Isaiah will forever change people’s
understanding of Judeo-Christian religion, lifting it to heights hitherto known only to prophets and saints”—Arie Noot, corporate executive, Edmond, Oklahoma.
“Isaiah Decoded is a huge breakthrough for the seeker of truth—Jew, Christian, Moslem, and agnostic. From an ancient writing, Gileadi has brought to light eternal truths about the nature of God and our relationship to him that have lain buried for centuries in the dust of time”—Guy Wins, fifth-generation Jewish diamond dealer from Antwerp, Belgium.
“Gileadi is the only scholar I know who has been able to express the Jewish expectation of the Messiah in relation to the life and mission of Jesus of Nazareth”—Daniel Rona, Israeli tour guide, Jerusalem, Israel.
“Dr. Gileadi has clearly demonstrated his mastery of the Book of Isaiah and of the scholarly literature dealing with it”—Professor Ronald Youngblood, Bethel Theological Seminary, San Diego, California.
“Avraham Gileadi’s books and tapes take the casual observer of Isaiah’s words and transform him into an enlightened and lifelong student of the Word of God”—Allan and Nancy Pratt, LDS mission president, Toulouse, France.
“Dr. Gileadi has awakened a whole new depth of my understanding of Isaiah’s prophetic message. His books and tapes illuminate the urgent relevance of Isaiah’s writings to our own day”—Becky Douglas, supervisor and sponsor of three orphanages in India, Atlanta, Georgia.
“Dr. Gileadi’s translation [of the Book of Isaiah] is clear and smooth, allowing the reader to appreciate the power and beauty of Isaiah as conveyed in the Hebrew original”—Professor Herbert M. Wolf, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois.
“Gileadi has uncovered an amazing message written in a divine code by the prophet–poet Isaiah. This will give comfort, hope, and joy to masses of people as they cope with the perplexing events now unfolding before their eyes”—Fenton Tobler, thirty years elementary school principle, Las Vegas, Nevada.
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