Something that I've learned time and time again as I have been out on my mission, is that miracles are always preceded by faith.
This week as we were teaching an investigator, she offered us a cup of coffee. While my companion was satisfied with telling her, "No thank you", I took it as an opportunity to dive into the Word of Wisdom. She was horrified when we told her that if she wants to be baptized she must quit drinking coffee. She proceeded to tell us about how, "that's just too hard" and "I don't think I can live like that" (seeing as she drinks at least 10 cups of the stuff per day), but the next thing out of her mouth was, "Well, I guess I'm going to have to quit it then." I was amazed-- this is a lady that hasn't even been to a church service yet, but she was still willing to give it up due to the spirit she feels while we are teaching her. She has had only 1 cup in the past 3 days! We'll work on getting her to church though haha :)
Sometimes miracles don't come in the way you expect them to. There is a girl in our area that lives on an obscure dirt road. Sister Herring always wanted to go down that road every time we passed it for the entire time she was serving here in Back Creek. Towards the end of her stay, she finally decided to go down the road while I was away on an exchange. When we reunited, she told me about this girl with ear gauges that she had given a Book of Mormon to after she had gone down that road. She pointed that out to me time and time again as we were driving down one of our regular roads.
Fast forward to about a month later, and I'm driving down that dirt road again, as plans had fallen though--yet again. I knock on the door of the home that Sister Herring had described to me, and the girl with gauges opens the door and lets us in to teach her about the Restoration of the Gospel and the Priesthood. She agreed to be baptized, and read from the Book of Mormon! Sadly, we had to pass her off to the Young Single Adult Elders, but last I heard from them, she LOVED learning about the Plan of Salvation, committed to coming to church, and also committed to be baptized on Jan. 4th.
I feel extremely blessed to have been able to play a role in each of these miracles. The Lord loves all of His children, and to be able to teach people about that love is a truly amazing thing :)
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen...he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." -- Hebrews 11:1,6
