Consider the Lilies of the Field--The Lord Provides

(Letter from February 23, 2013--One of our favorite experiences!!~K)

One of the days this week I was reading in the Book of Mormon in third Nephi when Jesus visits the people and teaches the beatitudes and such. As I read about how the Lord will provide for all of our needs as long as we do our part and have faith I initially thought about the people here and how, for many of them, if they don't work on Sunday then they don't eat on Sunday.

As missionaries we are asking them to keep all of Gods commandments including keeping the Sabbath Day holy. And for me I would sometimes hesitate within myself, because I know these people's situation and I know what it means for them to not work on Sunday and instead attend church.

But it is a promise of the Lord, and the Lord knows that we need physical things as well as spiritual things, and if we put our priorities in the right place and show our faith in the Lord he will make sure that we are taken care of. He takes care of the birds and clothes the lilies of the field in raiment that is more impressive than Solomon's temple.
And he can also provide rice for a family if they make the decision to keep His commandments and keep His Sabbath day holy.

But in addition to this, as if to drive the point home, later that day as we were out teaching our less-actives and investigators it was a very hot day and I didn't have any more water on me. I was very very thirsty, and sweating a lot, and of course I can't drink the water from the houses of the people or else I'll get sick. And there is no way we could return to our apartment to get water without wasting a lot of time, so we continued on with our teaching.

But just as I was about to get to the point where I would need to get water from some place or else I might have some problems, it starts raining. And at first this was almost a mocking gesture to me, but then as we arrived at our investigators house I noticed how the water was running off my umbrella in a small stream. So I asked them for a cup, and with a few weird looks from them I took the cup and filled it up twice with the water running off my umbrella and drank. And as soon as I wasn't thirsty anymore it stopped raining and became clear and hot once more.

Now this may have been a small thing, and maybe you could call it a happy coincidence, but to me it just reminded me of what I had studied earlier. I was in need, and the Lord provided a way. And if He can do that for me when I'm thirsty, He can do the same for these people when they are hungry. And as a result I have no more fear in asking these people to keep the commandments of the Lord, because I know that when he makes a promise he makes good on it.

March 4, 2012

A quick follow up to the story that I told last week.

During this week we visited one of our recent converts on Tuesday or Wednesday---this was the family that I was primarily thinking about when I said if they don't work they don't eat.

They attended church on Sunday and the father committed to not work on Sunday so I knew that they would be having a hard time having rice that day. But when we visited them again the father shared with us his experience.

On Monday, when he started work again (and his work is he is a ciket driver; it's like the tricycle drivers except it's a pedal bike) he said that it seemed like everyone wanted to ride in his ciket and he was so busy that he earned more than twice what he would usually earn in a day before 2 PM.

He knew that it was because he didn't work on Sunday and went to church. So now he has more than enough money to save up for Sunday so that they will have enough to eat without working on Sunday. Again just another testament to me that the Lord always keeps his promises.