Family,
Well,
I talked to you yesterday and will see you all in a month, but I guess
that you probably still want an email, mom. So I guess I'll write an
email.
As I mentioned in
the phone call, the airport that President Tilleman flew into is on
Moresby Island, but where most of the visits took place was on Graham
Island. After we picked up President Tilleman (and had some quality
gospel conversations just in the airport with him) we headed off to the
ferry. Since they've recently reduced the ferry schedule for the ferry
that runs between the islands, the ferries have gotten a lot more
crowded, and with only one car in front of us in line, they cut off our
vehicle so we'd have to wait for the next ferry. Since we knew that
President Tilleman would only have a brief stay on the island, we just
had the day packed with teaching appointments, and so missing that ferry
would force us to cancel a lot of appointments, and Alma-Rose's
interview was supposed to take place right after we got off the ferry.
So just immediately acting on a prompting, we jumped out of the truck
and just ran towards the ferry and asked if someone could walk on the
ferry, even if they didn't have a vehicle. The ferry worker agreed, even
though walk-on boarding is supposed to take place before people drive
on. So, President Tilleman was able to run down and get on the ferry,
where Sid, the hereditary chief that we've been teaching, happened to
also be riding and offered to give President Tilleman a ride to the
interview. That was awesome, because that gave President Tilleman and
Sid the chance to have a one on one talk. God just orchestrated that one
perfectly, and no appointments needed to be cancelled.
We a lot of other
miracle visits, including setting a temple date with one of the less
active members who's been on the fence about committing to go for a long
time. We only had a very short period of time for the visit, and we
couldn't meet in their home, and so in just a few minutes on the street
outside the little public library in Masset,we just witnessed a miracle
take place! It was awesome. We had a lot of other visits, but one of the
most powerful ones as well was with Sarah, who we just think is just
great. (She said the opening prayer in Sacrament meeting this week, by
the way.) We just talked a lot about the Book of Mormon, and during the
discussion we learned that she does think that the Book of Mormon is
true! She's not at the "baptism" part of her journey, but she's doing
great. We got out of that lesson rather late and we still needed to
travel back to Queen Charlotte for the night, and so we got back late
enough for President Tilleman to say that it was the latest that he had
ever been out teaching with missionaries. The entire drive home he was
just teaching us, and it was awesome. Because we were out later than the
schedule usually permits, he taught us about obedience to our
priesthood leaders, including respecting the keys that they hold (for
example, President Tilleman holds the keys that would let us be out
later than 9 or 9:30) Relatively close to the beginning of the drive, he
pointed at the clock that read "11:11" and told us that that time
should always remind us about obedience from now on. So, there you go.
11:11 means obedience.
The day following was the day of Alma-Rose's baptism, which was just an amazing service. When we arrived we ran along the beach to the water to feel what temperature we were dealing with, and it was just almost an out of body experience it was so beautiful. The faithful little branch came out to support her, along with some other onlookers. Alma-Rose has been very public about her decision to be baptized, and as a result, she's faced a lot of opposition it, and it hasn't phased her at all. In fact, the church (and religion in general) faces a lot of opposition on the islands here, partially because of the direction that the world is going, and partially because of abuses that other religions have done on the island that have left a bad taste in a lot of the native's mouths. She's just a great example of being a disciple in a world that seems to be lacking them.
It seems like from
what the themes of general conference are and from how the world is,
that we're all going to need to step it up and be disciples. When we're
kind of cozy in Utah we kind of get shielded from the way that the world
is, but we're all going to need to stand strong when opposition and
persecution come! And we all need to work together to help make this
world a place by sharing the gospel. Sometimes the islands here feel
like a smaller version of the whole world, but here you can see the
difference that even one person that develops and has integrity to their
testimony can make.
Well,
family! The church is true! Heavenly Father is there, and He loves us
(The name for the creator in Haida is Salaana, which means "he who
powers the lights" as in lights in the sky.) He sent His Son to save
each one of us. Not to condemn us, but to save us and to give us every
possible opportunity to return to live with God again. And we have a
prophet on the earth! We can receive guidance directly from God.
And
every time there's a baptism or anything like that, there's usually a
big potluck, and the missionaries get sent home with all the leftovers.
So it's a good thing that I now have a Lotoja registration to scare me
into not eating too much!
Sure love you all, and I hope you have a great week!
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