Walker Fam Missionary Experience

We've had the marvelous experience of sharing the missionary discussions with one of our neighbors and friends. The following is a segment from a letter that I wrote to Chelsee about our discussion Wednesday evening:

Last night the lesson was on prayer and asking to know the truth. This was our fourth lesson with her. Elder Bagley derived a lot of his lesson from 3 Ne 11 where the Savior speaks to the people in Bountiful and that the first thing He teaches is that He is the Savior that the scriptures speak of. The first lesson the Savior wants us to know is that He is Jesus Christ.

Then we went on to talk about prophets, and the BOM. Susan admitted that she has let anger get in her way... anger about being ill, about having a hard life, etc... She's searching for truth and is trying to find answers. She also has questions about why she should be baptized again since she was already baptized by immersion.

Bro. Richey told Susan that when he first looked at the Church, it was a casual thing - just sorta wanting to know. But it wasn't until the trial of his faith and his desire to really want to know that he received his answer! Elder Bagley bore testimony that he believes that working through Susan's problems is a trial of her faith as well. Then, Elder Bagley promised Susan that if she would just pray and ask Heavenly Father if He did restore his gospel that she would get an answer. He promised that all she had to do was ask, "is it real?" and that the Spirit would bear witness to her. The Spirit in the room was sooooo strong! It was tangible! I was so glad that Tyson was there. It was one of the sweetest feelings, very peaceful and amazing.

Elder Bagley said, "Susan, we'd like to ask you to pray. And you can use this opportunity to simply ask." Susan whispered, "I'm not ready." And that was that!

Elder Bagley told me that usually he would have persuaded her to go ahead, but that the Spirit told him not to push. After she left, I spoke quite a bit with the Elders. Elder Bagley was tearful as he said, "You know, I can handle the discouragement and disappointment of knocking doors all day and getting no where. I can handle the disappointment of doors slamming and rejection. But my heart just breaks with things like this. I can't force her to make the choice, but I feel like I just want to plead with her!"

I told the Elders that we do need to be patient because Susan has a lot on her plate right now. She is a single mom, fighting cancer, trying to deal with enormous finances because of medical bills, trying to be the best mom she can to a 6 year old who doesn't understand, etc... She's doing it all alone.

Then Elder Bagley spoke up and said, "Sis. Walker what you just said is profound! She's not alone! We need to teach her that! She's not alone! If she were to get baptized she'd have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost as well as a whole ward family! She's not alone!"

Wow! What an experience this has been.