Saturday, April 18

This has been such a week of blessings. I keep remembering things I need to record so that we can recognize the Lord's goodness to us.

As a missionary committee in the Sherman 2nd Ward, we had a list of people to invite to our potluck. Many of them were either not members or less active. The Stack family was one of them. They have two teenagers who are to be baptized on April 26. Their dad is an Er physician and their mother manages a clinic up by the hospital. We have had a difficult time getting with their mom to plan the baptism and wanted to invite their family to our potluck.

On Tuesday we just headed up to the Sherman Hospital to see if we could find the clinic. We did not know where it was or the name of it. All we knew was that you had to go up a hill to find it. Well the whole hospital campus is build on a hill. So as you go up, there is a multitude of clinics and different buildings. It was amazing. Elder Whiting drove all over the complete campus and had no idea where it was. Finally after driving around for five to ten minutes we saw a building that Elder Whiting pulled into so we could see if they had heard of this clinic with Dr. Stacks. I hopped out and went in to ask the questions. Lo and Behold, this was the building!!! We were able to talk to Lisa, and get things settled with her about the baptism. Not only that, but she and the kids came to the potluck. It really opened a lot of doors. because people in the ward reached out to them and she was so open with everyone. We were so grateful to Heavenly Father for his kindness to us.

Another thing that happened yesterday is that we taught Mark!! Mark is 30 years old and looks to be about 14. He had cancer when he was 10 and had a lot of treatments which affected his whole body. His hair grew back in funny, and it also changed the direction of one eye. But Mark is a giant spiritually. He knows far more than most people about God and how he works.

He came to the potluck and had many questions. Before it started, he was sitting by me and telling me how good every church was and that they all pretty much believed the same thing. The differences were just minor, but, it really didn't matter which church he attended. I said to him, "Mark, we don't feel that way. When Jesus Christ was on the earth, he organized his church with a Prophet and Apostles and he has told us how to organize his church, our church is organized in the same way. We believe that we have the only true church on the earth." After that he was quiet for a while.

During the question and answer period he had tons of questions which indicated that he didn't understand a lot of things. We finally had to tell him we would meet with him and answer all of his questions. He was so excited about the Temples, which was the theme we used for the potluck, that he went home and got on his computer and read all about temples. He came yesterday very excited about the idea of temples and what they were. He is like a child in so many ways. He told us how much he liked the feeling that he had during the program of Temples.

After we taught him about Joseph Smith and the restoration and the Book of Mormon. We asked him how he felt about it and if he would read the Book of Mormon to know if it is true. He said, "I already know it's true. I can tell by looking in your eyes that it is true. I know I can trust both of you." He was so excited to have the Book of Mormon. We know he will read it.

Today is Boyd's baptism at 3 p.m. Elder Whiting is baptizing and confirming him. Boyd knows the Gospel is true and is excited to be baptized. He still has a lot of learn, but his spirit is strong and true.