We knocked on the door of Carole Strickland. She is a woman in her late sixties. She welcomed us into her home right away. It was evident that she has poor health by the presence of an oxygen machine and other things. She began by telling us her son had just passed away and she buried him on November 15th. That was the day we entered the MTC. She was quite teary, of course, as she spoke of him. He had been her care giver for about 15 years and now she was alone and missed him terribly. She was baptized about 12 years ago. She has been endowed in the temple. About 4 years ago she quit coming to church. Her health has been part of her problem but there are others obstacles too. Her Home Teachers visit with her by phone so she has some contact with the church. The Bishop has also visited with her recently, when her son died. The Ward Mission Leader, her Home Teacher, officiated at the service for her son but at the funeral home instead of in the church. We had a very nice visit with her as she told us about her son and other things. She said that she was going to get a blessing one day from someone in the church. When she said that I told her that Elder Draper could give her a blessing. She lit up and asked, "You can?" He said that he could and she asked him if he could give her one at that time. She was trying to quit smoking again and wanted help with that as well as all her health concerns. She has some tests and surgeries coming up that were worrying her too. Elder Draper gave her a beautiful blessing. She was so grateful! After the blessing she asked if we felt "that". She sat in her chair trying to take in the spirit that she was feeling so strongly. We felt it too. She seemed so pleased and amazed at the same time. She said she wanted us to come for dinner and we made an appointment for the following Sunday. We are taking the sacrament to her today with the Bishop's approval. She also asked us to deliver some tithing slips to her. Elder Draper asked if we could help by getting some groceries for her or taking her places she needed to be. She has no way to get around to all her appointments except for the help of her neighbours there. We visited a while longer and then left forgetting to leave our phone number with her. So we returned yesterday to leave our number.
She had been for some tests that day to check her pace maker and she was so tired as a result. She seem quite down when we arrived but as we visited with her her spirits lifted and she was very happy when we left.
We will take the sacrament to her today in about an hour. She is so open and told us the first evening that we were an answer to her prayers. She had prayed for help and then we came. I'm glad we were here to help her and hope to be able to continue to become good friends and help her return to activity in the ward as her health permits.
We also visited with another woman in her late forties yesterday. She seemed so happy to see us and welcomed us into her home. Her name is Lacy. She had a friend there visiting her. They had been playing cards which is a common past time for them. Her friend, Sherry, stayed while we visited and soon Sherry's sister, Kim, came in and joined our discussion.
None of these women are in good health. Lacy was born with pancreatitis and now has Non Hodgins Lymphoma. Sherry had a stroke and also had an emergency surgery for a brain aneurism. She had to learn to walk and talk all over and has some lasting effects from the stroke and probably needs another surgery after Christmas in connection with the aneurism. Kim is receiving Chemotherapy. These three women are such supports to each other. Lacy was raised a member of the church although in a home where she was taken from her mother several times growing up. Sherry and Kim never had any religion as children. Sherry told us that Lacy taught her how to pray because she had never known how. Kim said that Lacy has her calling God Heavenly Father. It gave us opportunity to give a portion of the first discussion in talking about God being our Father and how much he loves us. They all bore witness that God had always helped them. We invited them to come to church and Lacy said she would come. She and Kim will also come to the First Presidency Devotional tonight. When we called Lacy this morning to check on her (We were going to pick her up.), she said she wasn't feeling well and couldn't come but that they still wanted to come tonight. We are hoping that they will follow through with that. We'll call them later to check on them. Lacey also told us that we came in answer to her prayers. She had prayed the day before that she could receive some help with her life and getting things on track. She is sure we came in answer to her prayers.
The Bishop is helping us by giving us the names of people he would like us to try to see. If we all work together I know we will have success. One of the things they kept telling us at the MTC is that the Lord didn't call us on this mission to fail but to succeed. And we will!!
1 comment:
We sure take for granted the HUGE blessing of having the priesthood in our very own homes!!!!
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