"All Things are Spiritual...." -gfh

We do have spiritual experiences. Honest! You may be thinking that our job is pretty temporal dealing with finances, supplies, passports, letters, phones, etc. etc. We know for sure that this is an important part of THE WORK! But I do want to share a couple of sweet experiences on the spiritual side of things.
Last Sunday our little branch had a baptismal service for four converts. Three of the people are family members(2 sisters and the mother) of a young man who was baptized a month ago. The young man is in my YSA class. He is awesome...obviously! His father will be joining the family shortly and that will be the beginning of a family on its way to becoming Eternal. These four baptisms make a total of thirteen convert baptisms in the seven months since we have been assigned to Ennerdale Branch. We have nothing to do with this except smiling and loving and supporting them. Our portable building that is the chapel is bursting its walls!

Yesterday about 4:30 two of the elders who had stopped in the office mentioned that they someone to go with them to teach a single sister. They asked if Elder Henrichsen and I would like to join them. Yes! This young woman has converted from Hinduism to Christianity and is now investigating the church. She decided to visit our church close by. She asked a Christian friend what women wear to church in the Christian churches and was told to wear nice slacks and a nice top. Sunday morning when she went to her closet to get dressed she said that she reached for her long skirt. (She is a police woman so you know she isn't used to wearing skirts & dresses) When she arrived at church she quickly noticed that all of the women there were wearing dresses or skirts. She said she would have been so embarrassed if she had worn the pants suggested and probably never would have returned. She knew that was God's way of preparing her to have a good experience. (of course she would have been welcome if she had worn slacks)

When walking to her home the elders asked us if we have the opportunity to teach very often. We said "never". Of course during the lesson we mostly listened and were supportive but did have the opportunity to help clarify a couple of her questions. Tears were running down her cheeks as she told the elders how grateful she was for their presence in her home and the wonderful feeling they bring when they come. Elder H helped her realize what that feeling was. It was a wonderful opportunity for us to see two of our elders "in action" and to see how they are guided and helped in their work.

And we have sweet spiritual moments here in the office as we watch the work unfold and have the opportunity to interact with the missionaries. As I have mentioned before I have some wonderful experiences when I take information for referrals. I've been asked to write up a couple of the recent ones to be included in the Transfer News which has news/changes/ etc for the mission and is given out every six weeks. I'll share them with you:

A recent Pass Along Card call in shared his story with Sister Henrichsen .. Bokkie, a 69 year old man was doing recycling and came across the card for a free DVD from The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was excited to share the rest of his story. He was raised in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) where he attended Sunday School at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As a grown man Bokkie had lost track of the church and said he had “been hunting around for it” for years. While going through the recycling he “found it again”.
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An older woman called in asking for a free DVD after having received a pass along card from two of the elders. She gave Sister Henrichsen her details so she could be assigned to missionaries and then asked if she could share something with her. She told Sister Henrichsen “your elders are doing a great work. I would like them to come around more often. There are some naughty children who live next door and the missionaries sat and talked with them for about an hour. If the elders didn’t have something good to tell them, those naughty children would never have sat still and listened.”