Chapter 89: I Am Here

"And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord."Acts 9:10 A week with particularly incredible experiences and feelings which I hope to adequately share and record here. We finished up our short stay in Thurso, making our way down through Scotland for all of our Zone Conferences, beginning in Aberdeen for Tuesday and then Edinburgh for Thursday. The conferences went great as always—it's always a pleasure to gather the missionaries together and learn together from the Spirit. I truly am surrounded by good friends here. As we carried out the conferences, it became quite apparent that I was exhausted. It's definitely not easy to be always on the road and since I am the most senior assistant, by default I'm in charge of making sure every single detail is in place and nothing is overlooked. It can be stressful, and often I find that my mind is never able to rest from thinking about the responsibilities and different tasks that we need to accomplish. As the conferences in Scotland came to a close, however, we were able to be reunited with Elder Kulmayer who came back to Edinburgh for a night after a round of exchanges. As I talked with him, he shared such incredible experiences from what he was doing with the missionaries and I felt an incredible light and peace came over me; a noticeable peace that felt very different from the often chaotic conglomerate of thoughts, ideas, doubts, hesitations and stresses I experience. I went away from the conversation briefly to start getting ready for bed, and while alone I pondered on how I felt. In that stillness, I felt a call of sorts come from my Heavenly Father to go and join Elder Kulmayer for his last few days of exchanges in Scotland before we all headed over to Ireland. Although I didn't hear a voice so to say, like Ananias I felt the Lord call me. It was a unique and special experience to me, and I remember looking in the mirror and thinking, "okay, I can do this if this is what you want me to do." An excitement and a confidence came over me simply because I knew it was the will of God. A couple weeks before, Elder Kulmayer and I had talked about the possibility of myself coming with him but for some reason I really didn't want to go. I'm not sure if it was fear or doubt or an unwillingness to do something different, but whatever it was I stayed. But when he came back and shared with me all the miracles he had been having I just knew that's where I needed to be. I went back to where Elder Kulmayer was and told him and we had a moment of just pure joy. Starting the very next morning, we traveled to Airdrie and then Kirkcaldy to conduct exchanges. As we prayed with faith on the streets of and outside of doors, we saw God's hand make straight the way we were meant to go. Door after door opened. Multiple people stopped and wanted to learn more. We taught lesson after lesson. Families, individuals, more people than I have ever before experienced showing interest in the message we had to share. In Kirkcaldy we also were able to attend Sacrament Meeting and spent time with President Yates of the mission Presidency. I will never forget the lessons I've learned from him. He is a true example of pure discipleship and I hope to be like him one day. I know that this is a true work, that this is God's work, that this church is the Church of Jesus Christ once again established on the Earth from the time it fell away after the mortal ministry of The Saviour. It's humbling to be a part of it. Life is good. God is wise. Don't give up. Elder Childers

Me with the Dundee Zone Leaders, Elder Draney and Elder Christensen

All of us at Taza after Zone Conference

Absurb Bird in Glasgow with David Broadley! Love him a lot.

Elder Brown on exchanges wearing the iconic hat Elder Klintworth left behind.