SDSU YSA: Miracles fo' DAYS!

The first week in every month is always an interesting one in this area.  We spend little time in our area because we are in a lot of meetings. Today is no different.  We have a really cool opportunity to have a special mission conference with Brother Christensen who wrote the book "The
Power of the Everyday Missionary" (really good book from what I hear, you should read it sometime!)  In preparation he asked if each of us could read this case study about this ward in Boston and how it was able to see success.  It was a really interesting article and I am really excited to be able to hear what he has to teach us tonight!

Oh, and if there are any parts of the email that are missing any Ts or Os or something just know that the Keyboard isn't the best. haha Good luck!!!

This past week was really cool because, while we didn't get to spend much time in our area, we saw some of the craziest miracles I have seen yet on my mission.  Okay ready for some story time? cool.   

So, it was raining and we had just finished a lesson over on SDSU campus with one of our Recent Converts and were heading out of the Institute parking lot.  Our original plans had all fallen through so we were at the point where we start seeing someone who we feel like we need to see.  A few people were named but no strong decision was made.  Then Elder Reece says, "We could go see how the Mormon Frat is doing." (referring to a home in our ward where 5 of our YSA members live who are all active and strong members thinking we could go talk to them and see if they have anyone that we could help them work with).  We both were like "heck yeah that sounds awesome!"

So we head over, and there is a bit of construction so we go on a small detour and
eventually pull up to their house behind a white Fusion.  As we start to get out of the car we see Cameron, one of their friends, who several weeks earlier, we met with and gave him a Book of Mormon and was SUPER interested. He lives in a different mission though so we referred his information literally 5 times over a period of like a month because he kept bugging our member that no one had come to see him since we met with him.  He really waned to meet with the missionaries. Eventually, he was contacted and we were told things were going well.  

But here he was parked right in front of us and he gets out and says, "Hey! Did you get Ben's (his friend) text? I asked if he could get me your information so we could meet up tonight and it looks like he just sent you over! haha"

With surprise we said back looking through our phone, "No man... We didn't get any texts from Ben..." and showed him our phone.  

He looked back at us in shock and said, "What are you doing here then?"

"Because we felt like we needed to come here..." we replied.  

He went on to explain that he was here going to get some more military training and that Ben wasn't home but said that he could crash there for the night and that he hadn't been there 4 seconds when he saw our head lights behind him.

We went to the door with this soldier who was in full uniform and another one of our members opened the door and you could see he was very confused and his confusion only increased when he saw us follow in behind him. He was about to head out but he sat down with us as we talked with Cameron.  

We caught up on his life and found out that he was engaged to a devout Christian girl who went to church twice each Sunday because her parents were really high up in their respective programs. He had been reading the Book of Mormon, the Bible, A Marvelous Work and a Wonder, and the Doctrine and Covenants truly searching to find the truth. He talked about the Book of Mormon better than most of our members do. We talked about several points of confusion that many people have about the Church and how he came to learn of the truthfulness.  

It was funny, we were talking about how Nephi killed Laban and how people freak out about it but that they forget that God commanded David in the Old Testament to do the same thing.  He admitted that the reason he is researching so in depth is so that when he has to introduce the Gospel to his fiancee he will be able to help her learn it and be able to counter her arguments. haha

It was amazing to see his faith and strength.  We were talking to him about what was holding him back from being baptized and he said that he hasn't told his fiancee, her family or his family.  He doesn't have time to go to church because he goes with her to her church twice each Sunday.  He told us that at one point he told the missionaries that were teaching him that if they came to his church then he would go to theirs. When they accepted he decided against it fearing to have them sit next to him.  

He wants to go to church so bad that he contemplated telling his fiancee that he was going to see family and go to church but decided against lying about it. So.... he is kinda in a pickle until he talks to his future family.... He knows it won't go well and asked us, "is it okay if I believe without ever joining the church?"  We then went over the parable of the Pearl of Great Price in the New Testament and talked about that he could, but he wouldn't want to because he knows the blessings that come from the fullness of the Gospel.

Long story short, it was awesome! The Spirit was definitely leading us there.

Well, that took about all of my time... haha but it was a really cool miracle that I thought I would tell y'all about! Have a good week! Oh, and here is a picture of me and a member in our ward who looks like a dude from a show called Duck Dynasty! :)

Love,
    Elder Ethan John Rowbury