Fire

This week has been hectic and very slow.

     Friday Elder Krizin and I drove home from Lubbock after pretty much a week up there waiting for our bikes to be out of the shop. We got home and we both were tired. I had holes in the bottoms of my shoes, and I could tell you personally I would have been okay with just calling it a night and go to sleep. I put back on my shoes and backpack and told Elder Krizin that we were going to go out and work. We prayed for the spirit to guide us and we left. We pretty much rode our bikes across main (the highway) and a few blocks in we both just pulled over and decided to start right there. We knocked about 6 trailers. We talked to the resident of every single home and was able to set up appointments with about 4 of them. It was incredible to see the miracles we saw. One of the doors we knocked on a 17 yr old boy opened up the door. We started to talk to him a little and then his uncle came to the door... We conversed, and he really showed no interest in what we had to share. Elder Krizin was trying to teach about prophets, and then it went quiet. So usually that means it's my turn to teach.. Well I looked at him and I had full intentions of teaching him about Joseph Smith, and I asked him about the nascar race... I didn't even know it was Nascar season! I didn't even know there was a race or anything! That man open up to us like we took a shot gun to a can. He was all for talking after that. We weren't able to teach him or his family, but we made a good impression. The Lord really does guide us in all we do as long as we put our faith in him and seek his guidance.

     Sunday was great. We went to church and then we went over to Sister Mays home. She's an older woman that can't always make it to church So we take the sacrament to her. We had a great time talking and then we sang a hymn with her, prayed and left. We had a member with us, and he said he was willing to go out knocking doors with us. So we went and parked by the post office and started walking around. We knocked on a trailer and a lady answered. She was kinda embarrassed to talk to us cause she was in he Pj's, but she came outside and talked to us. She has been going through some hard times lately and we taught her the first lesson. She really enjoyed what we had to teach :) She wants us to come back and keep meeting with her. This lady has lived in Seminole her whole life, and has never seen or talked to missionaries before. It's unbelievable sometimes the people the Lord places in our paths. We also met this man that can not read because of his cataracts and we are going to give him a Book of Mormon on audio, we'll drop it by later today.

     Tuesday was a normal Tuesday. We woke up early, and drove up to Lubbock for our district meeting. Had district meeting, and then drove over to the mission office to give our letters to president and pick up some supplies. We went over to Wal-mart to shop and then we headed out on our way back home. So on the drive we were just past Wolfforth, and there was a Dodge 3500 with a trailer of 8 bails of hay on it that pulled in front of us to pass a car in the slow lane. It started pushing and like a diesel normally does it smokes. Well... There was more and more smoke that kept getting thicker and thicker. We finally hit our brakes and he did too and pulled into the slow lane. We sped up next to him and saw that his load was on fire . He hadn't realized it was until I rolled down my window and yelled "FIRE!" with my arms flailing around! He pulled over really fast and by the time he had pulled over the fire had drug through the center of the bottom 6 bails... A Highway Patrol officer saw the trailer go up and called fire immediately. Elder Krizin and I ran over to the truck and helped grab the older guys things. His 21 yr old grandson was with him. We got everything out of the truck and ran the 100 yards to our car. The fire had spread to the side of the road and because of the drought it spread fast.. it was down the side of the road about 300 yards by the time the fire engine got there. It took like 6 engines to put out the fire  (their fire engines are the size of a flat bed international tow truck with a big water tank on the back.) After the fire was out, the trailer was empty, and the firefighters were cleaning things up, we were able to help the two in the truck get their things back in and get them to the nearest gas station to take off the front two tires on their double axle trailer so they could drive the rest of the way home. (The front two tires blew from the fire melting them.) They drove all of the way up to Oklahoma to get hay for their 27 horses. They drive up every week to have the feed for all of the horses. The saddest part is they were an hour away from home.... They live in Denver City. We were able to get their information so we could possibly go teach them. It was definitely a scary experience. I mean think if we weren't there.. He would have never noticed his load was on fire and one could have fallen off and caused a HUGE mess on the highway or even killed someone if a bail hit another car.

     Wednesday We were able to meet with a recent convert. This lady has such a solid testimony, and she surrounds herself in the gospel. She is one of the primary teachers in the branch here. She was actually listening to the children hymns when we showed up. It was so neat! :D Later that night we decided to go to a bible study (our ward mission leader put one on every Wednesday) The topic was apostasy. WOW. This lesson he taught gave me so much insight on the apostasy and how it plays such a major role in our teaching and not just "God always calls prophets. He is the same yesterday today and forever. After a while people reject those prophets and go into spiritual darkness which is called apostasy, and then God calls another prophet to lead the people." Now I have bible verses of why we had to go through apostasy and really know how to teach a lesson to someone who doesn't know what an apostasy is and what the reason for on is.

   I'm so grateful to be out here on my mission and the opportunities I have every day to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ. This work is incredible and can bring so much joy into the lives of so many people.

Thoughts....

The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from
progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear; till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the great Jehovah shall say the work is done. (Joseph Smith, Jr., History of the Church, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1978, 4:536).

"I wanted to thunder and roar out the Gospel to the nations. It burned in my bones like fire pent-up, so I [commenced] to preach.... Nothing would satisfy me but to cry abroad in the world, what the Lord was doing in the latter days" (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, London: Latter-Day Saint Book Depot, 1855-1886, 1:313).

The Gospel must be preached to the world, that the wicked may be left without excuse. (Brigham Young, Discourses of Brigham Young, sel. John A. Widtsoe, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1941, p. 319).

In the early days of the Church, John Taylor was called to go to France, to open the work there. There had not been missionaries in the great nation of France, and this was what he said in 1849: “I am engaged in my Master’s business. I am a minister of Jehovah to proclaim His will to the nations. I go to unlock the door of life to a mighty nation, to publish to millions the principles of life, light, and truth, intelligence and salvation, to burst their fetters, liberate the oppressed, reclaim the wandering, correct their views, improve their morals, save them from degradation, ruin and misery, and lead them to light, life, truth and celestial glory” (Life of John Taylor, p. 208).

I love this work. I'm so grateful for all of the support I receive.

Love,
Elder Devon Taylor Marshall