Chapter 27: Lead, Guide, Walk Beside

"...be of good cheer, for I will lead you along."

Doctrine and Covenants 78:18

This past week was really special. I hit seven months for my mission—the time just flies. Don't let a day pass any of you by!

I learned a bit more this week about the leadership of Christ. Recently we have been given a lot of really cool invitations and promises from our Mission President that apply to our work here in the Medford area. Elder Bunting and I have really strove to do all we can to follow the counsel we've received and have faith that the promises would be fulfilled. It hasn't been easy, but this week we saw miracles as, sure enough, the promises have begun to be fulfilled.

It has unfolded differently than I thought it would.

You see, I thought that if we did our best to do what we were invited to do, then the blessings would just, happen. Well, not quite. As we did our best to do all we could, we found that we were closer to the Spirit. This allowed us to be led by the Spirit in our efforts in a fuller way, leading us to the blessings of the promises.

Christ and Heavenly Father lead us through the Spirit. He is their messenger, communicating to us direction, comfort, counsel, and love. Much more than that actually, but I don't have space to include all of what the Spirit does in his divine role. The point is that we must strive to remain close to the Spirit in order to be led by God.

It's true! It quite literally happened to me this week. We heard the voice of God through the feelings of the Spirit and it resulted in a miraculous turn of events—one that only could've been orchestrated by Him who is over all.

If you want to know what happened, here's the short version: we felt inspired to go and see a woman who we hadn't been able to get in touch with for a couple weeks. We were really worried about her, and had been praying for weeks to know what to do to help her. When we got to her house, no one answered the door, so we left. We felt the Spirit again telling us to try again. We did so but still, no answer, although we noticed that she was home with her grandchildren. We went home, and I was confused. Why? Why had the Spirit led us to do something that didn't result in anything?

The next day, she texted us for the first time in weeks. She explained how she was losing loved ones left and right to the pandemic and had been overwhelmed and closing off.

But we had come to her and knocked that night.

Over the phone, she said something along these lines, "I have lived here for so many years, and not once has anyone come by to check in on me. No one from my local church. You two have been calling me every night, and now you have come to my door, just to make sure I was alright. I know that you are servants of God, and I am excited to be baptized."

Strive to remain close to the Spirit, and you will be led.

Life is good.

God is wise.

Don't give up.

Elder Childers

Cool pic of my tag with the Scotland flag and the Philadelphia temple in the background

Me and the Scotland and Ireland flags

Me and the Scotland and Ireland flags

Max's Cheeseteaks (Doc's Deli is better but these ones were great too!)

Love Park

City Hall

Mirror pic with Elder Rich and Bird

Classic exchanges pic; life is as good as the people you share it with.

Selfie in front of the Haddonfield Masonic Temple, kinda cool!