Brethren and Sisteren, what a week! I cannot believe it is once again the best day of the week here in San Diego. Of course, I'm referring to p-day!
For those of you who follow my blog religiously (so only my mom) you would be thinking that I would have transfer news. But alas, this is a weird 6.5 week transfer, so I find out tomorrow where I'm going and who I'll be stuck with. President has already told me personally, but I can't ruin the surprise for the rest of you guys insert evil laughter.
Let's see... reel back the tape... what happened besides literally the coolest miracle ever...
This one brother took us out to lunch at a Chinese buffet. That was a lot of fun, because he called us out of nowhere and was like, meet me at the buffet in 15 minutes, lunch is on me. That was a lot of fun, because literally everyone was staring at the two brothers in white shirts the whole time. I've never felt so many eyes before.
Funny story, back in Lakeside there was a push to rate the chapel so that it appears high on the list when searching for Christian churches. And because of it we had a family walk in, so I took that challenge here to zone 4. Every lesson we have with members, we invite them to leave a review on the chapel in hopes that travelers will join us when searching for a Christian church. Anyways, the stake president is in our ward, so we had a lesson with him and invited him to do the same. He thought it was the coolest idea, and so in stake conference last Sunday he said that the missionaries, Elder A and his companion, forgor his name, invited me to leave a review. So even though he forgot my name, the whole stake got to hear the challenge.
Miracle time, buckle your seat belts
So the last week I saw a video on the best Facebook group, Missionary Hacks and Tips. This group is filled with social interaction deprived young adults, so naturally it's a dumpster fire. It's normally filled with how to prank the sisters and get away with it (works every time), with the occasional tip once every General Conference. Anyways, somebody posted a video on how to move member records on our map. Normally when we plan our day, we find a section of the map we feel inspired to visit and then hit up the members there. But if their records aren't on the map, we don't know that they live there. So I took about an hour and moved all the wayward dots back to what their addresses say.
So this one morning after, we pray and plan our day. We felt inspired to hit up this one area so we wrote down a list of people we'd hit up before lunch and set out. We did a quick companionship study at the park, talked to a few homeless brothers and then went to our first one. This was a member record I'd moved the day before, so it had no contact records on it. So we pull to his house and pound down his door. His roommate answered and said he'd be right there, so we just chill on the doorstep. We can hear him putting on his pants and hit belt, and then comes running out to meet us.
"Sorry I'm late, come on in," he says. We didn't let him know we were coming, so we ask him, who told you we were coming? He points upwards and says, "He told me." My comp and I look at each other, don't know how to respond to that one. "God told me that you'd be here in 30 minutes, so go get showered and cleaned up and meet them down on the street." My brother saw a vision of us walking down the street to his house, so he knew he had to get showered to meet us. He then laid out his entire life story for us, and how he ended up in San Diego. We were able to give him a priesthood blessing and get him the help he needed.
What an emotional day. My guy has been through a lot, and I could feel a little bit of God's love for him as we gave him a blessing of comfort. God loves his children so much, and this moment was just a glimpse at the master plan that our Heavenly Father has for us. It's like a wiper blade across rainy windshield, where you get to see clearly for just a moment. If this is not evidence of a loving Father, you're gonna have to send me to the next life to figure it out myself.
It reminds me of this beautiful video made by the church. When I don't feel enough, I remember that only God can see the full outreach of the goodness of our actions. We truly changed this man's life, but that was one of those windshield wiper moments. How many other impacts have I made out here? What kind of interactions have you made on the people around you? If you need more charity for a brother or sister, pray and ask to see them as God sees them. Easy peasy.
Brothers and sisters, this truly has been an amazing six months. The experiences I've had out here have been life changing, and it's only the beginning. Thank you all for your long-distance love and support. Whatever comes this next transfer and the next 18 months is up to God, but with Christ we can truly do all things. Says so in the Bible.
Jesus Christ lives. And because he lives we will too. Joseph Smith is a prophet called of God, and the Book of Mormon contains God's truth for this life pointing to the next. I love y'all, but your Heavenly Father loves you more, and I hope you know that. Christ has won, brothers and sisters.
-- Elder Coxson
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