We are Part of a Drug Cartel??

Hey everyone! 

This week was a good week here, we got tons of work done and saw some really sweet blessings! I am not going to try and explain every little thing day by day, I don't want to bore you with all the little details.


So we will get right into it here!


So for our good ol Salvation Army service adventures this week, I know its been a while since you have heard one from there. We had to help make a little cabinet thing to hold pictures, but the only material and all we had to work with was a wooden filing cabinet. So we had to take it kind of apart, use pieces we broke off from it, and make a nice ghetto little picture frame holder. Needless to say, we killed it, if you are going for ghetto. At this point we still dont even know if they are just going for the ghetto look or that is just how it ends up, either way it leads to some stories for you guys in the email. Now I know you are all done reading since the Salvation Army story is done, but don't worry, more crazy things happened this week!


Now the real stories all come from Saturday, man it was quite a day. So we had some lessons set up that went through from the very beginning of the morning! We finished our study and got right into a lesson pretty much, and turns out on Saturday we had a total of 4 lessons, which may not seem like a ton, but for our new area and working on building a teaching pool, it can be a challenge.  So that was just a killer day for us to be that busy, more details on the craziest lesson to come. 

So also in between lessons we went to help this lady move from one apartment to another one across town. So we met this lady knocking apartments and she answered her son's door and basically we talked and gave her our card and told her to call if she ever needed anything. Well given the fact that we are helping her move, she needed help and called. So immediately we get in and her apartment was just a nightmare. We realized that a whole TV show type remodeling would be needed and we were in for it. So that is all chill, but then she tells us about her son who has a drug problem and all her life issues, basically blaming it all on other people. But in packing up some of her house, we realized that for sure there isn't just one drug problem in the family... We are sure that plenty of "good times' with substance and drug use goes down in that house. Also given that every box we had to pack stuff was an alcohol box, it was kind of sad. But basically we are pretty sure by helping her move and pack up and whatnot, we may or may not have helped with like the biggest drug trafficking here in Morris... I got to say, I figured that if I would ever be accidentally helping move drugs it would be with some like high end mob boss or Mexican mafia type deal, but nope, just some old lady with a evil little dog.


Now that was just the beginning of the crazy that was Saturday. We had a lesson set up for the end of the night and it was for this new family so we were super excited to get in and get to know them. So we are talking to this couple and it is going super well, we are hitting it off and they are a super awesome family, but then it begins. This lady's brother walks in, he is maybe late 20s, but immediately starts telling us that we are wrong and trying to bash us and tell us we don't know our doctrine and just lots of silly stuff to say. So basically he is giving it all and Satan is working real hard to take the spirit out of the room, and he was doing a good job and we could not get a single word in, and it was a wreck. So I was just looking for any spirit to lead me in what to do, and what hit me was that I needed to do something bold. I thought about it, thought it was pretty crazy, but we went for it. When I was finally able to get a word in, I pretty much just said that I wanted us to kneel and pray. We would all kneel there and pray for the spirit. If during or after the prayer they didn't feel anything at all, then we would walk out of their house without anymore questions or anything. But if they felt even a particle of faith or spirit working in them, then there was a reason, a God given reason for us being in their home. So we prayed, I followed the spirit in this prayer and the feeling in the room was incredible. There was a spiritual behemoth that had entered the room and we knew everyone could feel it. The brother who had continued and would not let us get a word in before, could not say another word against us while we were there that night. He was purely docile with some subtle tears in his eyes. And we talked and we set up a time to come back next week, there was a reason for us being there.


Now whether they choose to follow their feelings of the spirit or not, there is some good lessons to be learned here. One being, if we feel even that particle of faith or hope of the spirit, it is then on us. There is a reason for that particle of the spirit, and if its a good feeling, then it must come from God, there is no other option. And second, brothers and sisters, sometimes we need to be bold. When the spirit works upon us in such a way that we know what we need to do, then we need to follow that prompting at all costs. We need to be bold and go out of our comfort zone, because guess what, when you are on God's side you cannot lose, but nevertheless, we are in a battle, well more like a war. The war between God and righteousness and Satan and sin is real, and every single one of us is not only enlisted in that fight, but we are on the front lines, and if we chose to ignore those promptings, we may lose a crucial battle and lose space in our hearts, or the opportunity to save one of our brothers and sisters. 

So when it comes to the battle against Satan and sin, BE BOLD!


I love you all and hope you have wonderful weeks!


Elder Pickering