Something Beyond All of Us

I'm floored.

Speechless.

Nan's married.

I am beyond happy for her and for you, too, Art. The pictures and the stories were good to see and read, and I felt the Spirit this weekend and throughout the week as the Lord showed me that I hadn't been forgotten and that while I am here taking care of His, He is home taking care of mine.  And I wouldn't have it any other way. If I have learned anything this past year, it is that the Lord's hands are the best ones to trust in.

I have 3 quick stories to share from this week that I felt demonstrated our nearness; namely those of you at home and partaking in God's work via the sealing of Hannah and Arthur, especially my Hannah, and myself. (that sentence doesn't feel grammatically correct. Help?)

1) This week saw that the Lord's hand is evident even amidst the flooding and disasters.  We saw that concerns and disasters and problems are just opportunities in work clothes, and the Lord loves to work.  We worked alongside Him this week as we volunteered at the Red Cross.

We were in one of the centers here in Beograd to where many of the refugees, or those displaced, would come for food, hygiene essentials, and clothing. We would help prepare the things they needed for them, and at times would take the large shipments on our backs around the city.  The service itself was fun and obviously uplifting, but there was more work still to be done. On the first day, another missionary and myself found that very quickly we had become the "Ammon's" of the center, as we were in a position (unlike the other missionaries) where we only answered to the man in charge. It was funny to us at first, but then we realized the opportunity it provided. So we worked hard, sweated a lot (summer is back) and tried our best to become friends with all of the volunteers as were oversaw and served alongside them in their various activities. They loved us (no surprise). 

On the first day the man in charge and 2 others were asking us the obvious questions, wondering why we were in Serbia and what our church was. We began to teach them when time would permit in between the busier parts of our service throughout the day. Bonds formed, and we became this super team, including the other missionaries and most of our crew of volunteers. By the last day, we had time to pull them all aside into a big circle and teach from the beginning and expound on the Restoration of the Gospel, get all their phone numbers and give out 6 Book of Mormons. The Spirit was powerful. These people had seen our sincerity in laboring alongside them, and they too were in a position of selfless service and charity that made their spirits maleable and soft to change. There was one there, my favorite, named Katarina (we call her Kaća). She is 19, speaks English with a British accent because she lived in England, and is totally going to marry Vladan if I have my way.

But the best part about her, (and the others, but she gets to be the example), was her light. As we taught her about the truth, she began lighting up. She would smile a lot, and ask questions that were sincerely curious. At the Great Apostasy portion of the discussion, she asked with some concern, "Well if it was lost, then what do we do? What happens?" And she accepted the invitation to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and continue meeting up, among others of our new friends there. It was incredible, and this is only the beginning of the miracles that came because the Lord cares enough about these people to send a cyclone to them. 

2) We received a phone call this Saturday when I was on exchange here in Beograd with Elder Radaković.  Everything we did on that exchange we would do in honor of Nan, everything "za Hanu."  We got burgers and shakes, and at about the same time as the sealing, we dunked cookies in milk and went to bed. But, back to the phone call. A man from America wanted to meet up with us because he was in contact with a newspaper reporter who wants to meet us and do an article on us here in Serbia. So we met with the initial man, and check this out. He is a professor of journalism at ASU, and lives in Gilbert. He is in the Islands Ward (Shani?) and it was too much to be a coincidence. On the biggest day of our lives in little Gilbert, Arizona, the Lord sent us somebody to let us know we were not separated on that day. Needless to say the meeting went well, and we got contact with 3 new potentials and their families to teach, and maybe even get in the newspaper ;)

3) While on that exchange with Elder Radaković, I learned more about his conversion story and I think it is important for everyone. He told me that he was sitting on a bench thinking to himself and in some sort of prayer asking God what he was supposed to do. "Why am I here?" he was asking, "and where am I even going in life?" There this 21ish year old man was, smoking a cigarette, and unknown to the world, asking his Heavenly Father for help.  Look like a future leader and pioneer of the church and a good friend? Well, Rado then told me he looked up and he sees two guys in white shirts and ties, holding a pamphlet with a picture of Jesus and a lamb on it, standing in front of him. They asked him some questions and talked with him, and he told me the only thing he remembers is when they said, "Do you know that God has a plan for you?" And he told me that He thought/prayed back to God and, a little sarcastically, "That's the fastest answer you've ever given me..."

He told me that it took him some time, about a month, to be baptized, but that from that first question, he knew the Church was true. It struck him. He asked one of the missionaries what led them to talk to him. They told him that there was no special prompting, that they just did what they do as missionaries.

I believe that the Lord loves and send angels to attend to those who will always just go about doing good, prompting or no prompting, and try their best because IT'S THE RIGHT THING TO DO. No reward, even the reward of confirmation spiritually that your message was received, or that the good you did was noticed. Those profitable servants please their Father, and the rewards are innumerable for that.

Elder Radaković is not the only guy on a bench asking Heavenly Father for help.  Our gang at the Red Cross are not the only people whose hearts are ready to receive the Gospel of Doing Good in His Name.  And Bill Silcock from Gilbert is not the only messenger that the Lord would send across the ocean to strengthen His sons and daughters. 

Go forth boldly, we're in the middle of something beyond all of us.

Love and miss you all,

  

-Старешина Јаков Хиксон

Jake