The Hand of the Lord

Alright another wonderful week here in Rome. I am trying to get myself adjusted to the cold which supposedly reaches its peak in February, and then hopefully starts to leave. I hear it is pretty cold back home too so we can all survive it together I guess.

Every week we have a missionary meeting with our district and sometimes we share experiences we had during the week where we saw the hand of the lord. So I think I will share one of these moments with you. So Thursday me and my companion had to go across town to do some paper work for her permesso di sogiorno. Afterwards we had an appointment so there was not enough time to go all the way back to our apartment for lunch. We went to a main train station to grab some food and sit for a little while before taking a train to our appointment. After grabbing a few things from a supermarket I remembered there were some tables at the downstairs McDonalds that we could sit at for a few minutes so we wouldn’t have to eat standing up. It was pretty crowded, but noticed two tables towards the back corner that both had 7 of the 8 spots vacant. The 8th spot of both of these tables was occupied by men, foreigners and as we made our way to the table I just figured we’d take the one farthest away but as I passed by the other table I hesitated and sat there instead. Before we started to eat I had to make a phone call to Louisa so I was speaking English and after I hung up the man sitting at our table asked in English where we were from. We explained we were missionaries and a little what we do here in Italy and he replied, “oh, I met some brothers from your church the other day. I gave them my phone number and they promised to call me so I could learn more, but they never did.” I quickly had him rewrite all his information, he was named Murphy and he was from Ghana. I told him that within 2 days someone would contact him and assured him there must have been a reason he wasn’t contacted. I left him some information of the restoration to read and our phone number and then after a really amazing talk about God and the importance of putting him first in your life, we had to leave for our appointment. We gave his number to the Elders and they contacted him that evening and set up an appointment for the following day. That next day we were at our big English class, outside of Rome, with the other Elders and we were sharing this experience with them commenting on how we had almost sat at a different table and if we had we wouldn’t have met Murphy. one of the Elders Interupted really excitedly, “No Way! You met Murphy? Did you get his number?” Apparently he had been one of those elders who originally contacted Murphy but the phone number he wrote down was missing a number and wouldn’t work. He explained how disappointed he was because Murphy was so great, and how he had even prayed that night that somehow they could make contact again. I think that something Murphy mentioned to us in conversation really sums up this whole experience. He said, “The Lord always takes care of me.” The Lord is aware of all of his children all of the time and I am so grateful to be here as an instrument in his hands to help his children.

Friday evening me and my companion met a really cool man on a bus and invited him to a baptism that was taking place the following evening and he agreed to come. It was so great to see him there and to have the members really embrace him and show him so much attention and love. Member missionary work is so important. This man really seems genuinely interested in learning more about God and I know that he is in the right place to do it.

I love this gospel. I know that we can all have a relationship with our father in heaven thanks to prayer. It is so amazing to know that we can talk to God at anytime day or night and to know that he listens and more than that, he responds.

Hope you all have a great week! Love ya!