Letter from my Brother on a Mission

I just really wanted to share this letter of my brother's from his mission. I can't believe this is my little sarcastic brother who always tried to play tricks on me. He will be home in about 3 months, and he has changed dramatically! The little stinker has turned into a mature missionary! I guess that is part of why God gives us callings...to turn us into who he wants us to be! Enjoy...

"I'm not sure I want to give a full account about this week, because Dad might get mad at me, and it's pretty embarrassing, but in the end everything worked out in the Lord's favor so I will give the full story. Tuesday Elder Sims and I took a bike day like we are supposed to once a week. We got to the place we wanted to tract in the afternoon, and realized we had forgotten our bike locks. We decided to stash the bikes in some bushes, and we went on our merry way. We found a guy named Jack during that time, who ended up coming to church and is committed for baptism now. The Lord really blessed us there. Like I said everything ends in the Lord's favor.

Also during that tracting time buses started dropping kids off from school. When we came back to our bikes 1.5 hours after leaving them our bikes had been stolen (Don't hurt me Dad). When we surveyed the scene we realized that the spot we had hidden them was probably the worst spot in town to hide them. The area was the most ghetto area in Pine Ridge and our bikes were actually really visible to drivers and walkers by on a fairly busy road. Yeah we are pretty big idiots.

There was a neighborhood watch officer's office right across the street from where the bikes were stolen, so we went and met Officer Manning and told him about the theft, and he said to bring back our serial numbers on Wednesday. We spent some time looking for our bikes that night, but couldn't find them.

The next day we went in to see officer Manning, and as soon as he saw us he just asked, "How much do you love me guys?" well I love him a lot because he had our bikes in a back room. That morning some guy came to his office and told officer Manning that the man's 12 year old son had stolen some bikes, and he wanted the officer to scare the heck out of the kid. So we got our bikes back. We were so happy, I gave officer Manning a big hug.

He helped us get our bikes out to the van (I don't know if I mentioned it but I have a Dodge Caravan in this area), and then he went back inside his office. He immediately came back out and told us that he wanted us to stop back by sometime, he wanted to know about what it is we do.

Well we had time then so we taught him right then. This guy used to be an associate pastor at a church, but felt strongly that his church's 'once saved always saved' teaching was wrong. He knew that commandments were meant to be followed and our salvation depended on that. Because of his belief many in his church called him a false prophet, and he left all churches a while ago. He knows that Mormons get a similar treatment, and he feels that is wrong also, and wanted to know what we teach. Everything we were able to teach him he agreed with "1000%" as he put it. I realized this could be the most elect, surely the most prepared, person I had ever taught.

Once I had that realization I had a deeply spiritual revelation. The spirit basically told me 'I know your area a lot better than you do, and I have the power to put people in your way that I have prepared' or in other words our bikes were stolen so we could meet Officer Manning. One of the greatest miracles for finding a new investigator I have seen. Elder Sims had the same revelation that I did, and he told officer Manning that very thing.

Told you there was a happy ending."