Missionary Experience

Aubrey and I have really enjoyed working with the missionaries in the Lakewood ward this summer.  We were called as ward missionaries back in May and have been doing a lot of fellowshipping and I've been going out on a lot of exchanges.  Today was especially fun from a missionary point of few for me.  The Elder's gave me a call this morning as we were walking out the door to church and asked if I'd be able to give a lady and her two kids a ride to church.  I quickly dropped Aubrey and Cooper off at church and then  went to pick them up.  Cassie was her name and she had recently been baptized three weeks ago; she has a four year-old son named Juan who turns five in August and a 4 month old daughter names Jewel is only a day younger than Cooper!  From what I can tell she is a single mother but loves the church and got along great with Aubrey and I; we are going to make sure to include her in some of our weekend adventures from now on.

I ended up having to take Cassie and her family home after sacrament meeting because her daughter was running a fever and not feeling well and it ended up leading to my missionary opportunity for the day.

A pet peeve of mine is when people are stuck with car trouble and no one offers to help or they just honk and get angry when the troubled car is stuck in their way.  On my way back to church i noticed a late model Toyota Corolla limping through the intersection with flat tire.  After going through the intersection myself I flipped around and found them parked at the front gates of a cemetery, all three of them gathered around their flat tire looking clueless as to what to do.  I pulled up and offered my help and they were grateful.  It turned out that they were on their way to church themselves and were just a few hundred feet from their apartment when they realized that they had a flat.  There were women in their late 40's and a boy about 15 or 16 years old and they had just recently moved from Kenya.  While I was jacking up their car we discussed some of the World Cup activities and then our conversation migrated towards church since all four of us were dressed for it.  Turns out they were on their way to church as well and so naturally we each shared what church we were from.  They were impressed to know that our church was also in Kenya and after a few minutes of talking I put the missionaries number in the front cover of an old Book of Mormon that I had in my car door that had been waiting there for just such an experience.  The family was very grateful for the help with their tire and I was grateful for my opportunity to do a good deed and share the gospel.  The showed me where they lived as we had to get a lug nut wrench from their apartment because mine was too small and I intern informed the Elders where they lived as well.  Hopefully they will come visit us at church soon and some more good will come from this sunday afternoon's activities.

We are grateful for the opportunity that we have to be a part of the ward mission's efforts and look forward to more missionary activities while we are here this summer.  We challenge you to take some time to slow down and serve someone else, maybe you too can have a great missionary experience!