Preach the Acceptable Year of the Lord

Marko June 17, 2013 0 Comments

Dear Family and Friends,

I want to share with y’all an experience that Elder Fryer and I had this morning that I really do believe has changed my life.

Last night, we came back to our lovely apartment and my heart was weighed down with the frustrations, disappointments, and heartache that is common in missionary work. I just didn’t feel like we were doing enough, like our investigators were progressing well enough. I asked myself, “what more can we do? We talk to everyone. All this week we rode around on our bikes from morning till night, in the heat and humidity, with not much to show for it.” I was a  little bit discouraged.

In my prayer before bed, I remember asking God to let me know He is there. To let me know that what I am doing is enough. I wanted to know if He was proud of me or not.

Well, morning comes around and about 7:30, we need to do our laundry and Elder Fryer and I realize we have no change to do our laundry with. So, we rode over as fast as we could to the English elders’ apartments to borrow $3 of change for our laundry. Our plan was to ride over, get the change, and put our laundry in the machines as fast as we could so that we could be obedient and still be at our desks for studies at 8. It was going to be close, but I thought we could make it.

Well, as we are leaving the English elders’ apartment complex, we see this white lady coming up to us. We had met her a few days ago, and she wasn’t super interested in listening to us. She had a lot of crazy kids and was too busy trying to take care of them. She was a little… different. She seemed really poor though. She started crying and asked us to pray with her because she didn’t have any money to buy food, and had a premature baby who needed special formula and diapers. She said she wouldn’t get food stamps until the beginning of next month. All she wanted was for us to pray with her. But holy cow, I felt the spirit so strongly telling me that somehow, we had to help this lady. We told her to wait where she was and we would go buy her some premature baby formula and some diapers.

As we rode from store to store, all I could think about was how frantic and how desperate I would be if that was my baby that didn’t have any food. I was willing to do whatever it took to help this lady. We went to several stores nearby, and none of them had the right formula. Then, we realized that we didn’t even have any money. The $3 in cash was all the money we had to our names. Suddenly, I remembered that in my last area, a family friend had given my companion and I a gift card. He said that he felt prompted by the Spirit to give it to us. My companion and I were very grateful, and we decided to ask the Lord how we should use the money. We didn’t ever feel a specific answer, but we wanted to help someone with it. So, when we got split up, we also divided the money and promised each other that we would
use it for someone else. I remembered that money that I had back at my apartment. So, we rode all the way back to our apartment to get it.

Along the way, scripture after scripture crossed my mind. The Savior’s words to His apostles, “give to every man that asketh of thee…and as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also  to them likewise” ^{[Luke 6:30-31]} “freely ye have received, freely give…” ^{[Matthew 10:8]} “And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain… give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.” ^{[Matthew 5:41-42]}

Also, I thought of the words of Jacob, “think of your brethren like unto yourselves, and be  familiar with all and free with your substance, that they may be rich like unto you.” ^{[Jacob 2:17]} and also of King Benjamin, “And also, ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish… for behold, ARE WE NOT ALL BEGGARS? Do we not alld epened upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have…?” ^{[Mosiah 4:16,19]}

And finally, the words of Isaiah, quoted by the Savior, “the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of  the Lord.” ^{[Luke 4:18-1]}

Finally, we got back to our apartment, grabbed the money, went back to the stores. We finally found one with formula for premature babies. It was in “Mi Tienda” it’s like a Mexican version of Walmart and it is AWESOME. Everything is there. Anyway, we went back to find the lady and she wasn’t there anymore. It was about 10 AM by this time. We went to her apartment and there she was on the balcony, waiting for us. She clapped her hands for joy when she  saw the bottles of formula and packages of diapers we had for her. She was very grateful. She then also asked for any spare change we had, because she needed to buy some soup for her kids. She said her cupboards were bare. I reached into my pockets and gave her my $3 worth of coins. All the money I had. I almost choked as I gave her the money and said, “go feed your kids.” She was really grateful and said “God bless you!” as she ran to the store.

Rarely has my heart and spirit felt more full than it did while riding back home all sweaty and dirty, with empty pockets and a flat tire (typical) this morning. I felt God’s love just as powerfully as I ever have. I knew that He was there, that He was mindful of me, and for even just that small moment of time, I knew that He was proud of me. I don’t share this story to boast. But to testify that I know that if we just forget ourselves and help those around us, as disciples of Jesus Christ, he will, in turn, bind up our broken hearts, and preach us deliverance, and recover our sight, and set us at liberty. He will heal us and bear us up.

And I am finally realizing that, that is what missionary work is. To do as Christ would do. If the only reason God ever sent me to South Houston/Pasadena was to help that lady, then isn’t that reason enough?

I hope that you all find a way to help someone around you and “preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”

Julianna

As a side note, Julianna Saldivar is doing great. She is so excited about her baptism. This week, she is going to tell her parents that she is going to be baptized, and she is going to invite us over to have sort of a Q and A with her parents. She said she thinks her mom will be interested.

Well, I’m gonna keep doing what I’m doing here and pray it’s enough. I will go home with peace and know that I did what I was supposed to.
Love y’all.

Elder Viitanen

p.s. Happy birthday to my little brother, Alejandro! #loveyoubro

 

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