Selwin's Week in Shreveport

This week Gladys Knight performed here in Shreveport.  It was really amazing when she bore her testimony and when the choir sang. The whole reason for the concert was to reach out to more people to tell them about the church and the gospel.

The rest of the week was mostly service.  One of the things we did was paint a house.  It made me remember King Benjamin’s words when he said, “when you are in the service of your fellow beings, you are in the service of God.”    

I felt like I wasn't giving my all last week so I sat on the couch and looked up at the picture of Jesus Christ looking back at me.  I asked him "what more do I have to do?” and “How can I do it better?" I sat there for a while but nothing happened … just silence and then something came to me.  It said, “fast and pray for the things you think you are lacking and you will have them.”  The next Sunday was Fast Sunday so I made up my mind to fast for answers to two questions:

1.  How can I have more faith that when my mouth is opened, you will fill it with the words which need to be heard?

2.  How can I trust you even more and have confidence to talk to even more people about your gospel?

And so I fasted and prayed with a focus on these two goals.  My prayers were answered that same Sunday as we were doing follow-ups from the concert.  The plan was to go and give them the gift package they had requested and just tell them about it, but this one lady … when we pulled up in front of her house it was like she was expecting us and we were actually supposed to be there on Tuesday.  We sat down and talked to her about the package and shared the message of the Restoration. I felt the spirit, but it was when she told us she had planned to order the Book of Mormon the next day because she wanted to read it and to find out for herself what it was talking about. That made my eyes open.  There are so many people out here just waiting on us to bring the message to them and for that day I did not worry one bit about where the words would come from.  I trusted in my Savior and my prayers were answered for this lady. Heavenly Father is there just waiting for us to turn to him for help and inspiration.  If we do this with a sincere heart and a contrite spirit we will receive our answers. They might come as dreams, or as in my case, through other people.  In Doctrine and Covenants 84:85 it says we need to “trust in the Lord and the words which need to be heard will be meted out of your mouth.” For me this was a miracle and one I needed. It just shows even more how much our Heavenly Father loves each and every single one of us.