Astonish The World

Dear Minnasan,

President Grant said this about the Church in Japan: “I have an abiding faith that this is to be one of the most successful missions ever established in the Church. It is going to be slow work at first but the harvest is to be something great and will astonish the world in years to come.”

To astonish the world...that's a big thing. As our President has said about this, "In order to astonish the world, we must first astonish ourselves."

I'm feeling pretty astonished right now.

You would think that at this point in my missionary service, I wouldn't be "astonished" or very much surprised at the fact that miracles occur in missionary work -- I mean, I read about them occurring all the time in the scriptures, hear about them from other missionaries, and even have experienced them from time and time again in my own life. So, you would think that I would have come to understand that this is the work of God, that it is being hastened, and that He is on our right hand and our left hand to bear us up. And yes, of course, I know that. But then, for some reason, whenever a miracle happens, I am somehow still astonished. I think, though, that the most astonishing part is that I (me, a mortal, just plain old Sister Weigl) can have a part in this work, if I but humble myself and do the things which I have been commanded to do.

The even better part? That it is a promise extended to all of us. We can all play a part in spreading the Good News. That's an interesting fact: the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as translated in Japanese, means, "The Good News of Jesus Christ." This truly is the best news that we could give anyone. It is the best gift, it is an eternal gift that never rusts, fades, goes out of fashion, or breaks. And we, each of us, have the opportunity to share it with another. That's pretty awesome, huh?

Anyways, the other day, we taught our investigator from the Book of Mormon (We read 2 Nephi 31 verse by verse with him). We had prayed diligently and sought revelation, and we felt like this was what we needed to teach him. It was what he needed to hear. We felt that so strongly, but somehow, the lesson did not pan out quite the way I wanted it to.

We taught the lesson to the best of our ability, but our investigator didn't exactly seem too "astonished" by the doctrine. I had hoped that he would be jumping out of his seat, begging us to be baptized. But that wasn't how the lesson ended. We simply asked him to re-read the chapter and pray for guidance. I biked home a bit disappointed, but also full of the knowledge that me and my companion "had done all that lied within our power." Something that my companion said really stood out to me. She said, in effect,"Okay, so yeah, that wasn't exactly how we wanted things to turn out. But, we did what we could. We showed our faithfulness to the Lord, and so He will bless those efforts."  We saw the blessings of our efforts a lot faster than I thought we would.

That same night, that investigator called us, and I picked up the phone. He had forgotten what his commitment was (what part of the Book of Mormon we had asked him to read), so he called to ask what it was again. When I told him, he said he had already read that part. So, for some reason (I'm still not exactly sure why), I asked him, "Would you like a different reading suggestion?" And he said he would.

In that moment, my mind caught hold upon a scripture that I had thought of earlier in the day. I had been praying and a particular scripture came to my mind, and I had thought it might help him, so I jotted it down. I hadn't thought much about it, but as I talked to this man on the phone, I felt like I needed to share that scripture with him, so I did.

That's when things really started clicking for him and the conversation took on a whole new level. He told me that he wanted to be baptized, but explained that his work situation makes it really difficult for him to come to church. During the conversion, I felt extremely guided by the Spirit. This man was asking me a lot of hard questions, in pretty difficult Japanese, but somehow, I was able to speak to him. Somehow, I was able to understand him. Somehow, I was able to testify to him. And most importantly, I was somehow able to say what he needed to hear.

That "somehow" is the power of God. It is the enabling power of the atonement. I can testify that yes, "It shall be a given you in the very hour, yea, in the very moment, what ye shall say." And yes, God is with us "on our right hand and our left."

Sister Weigl