Getting our feet underneath us

It's been less than a week since I wrote and yet it seems like so much longer. It's fun to be so busy.

Two day ago we were in Mullingar - a city two hours southeast of us - at a district meeting. There are eight members of our district - six strapping young men, the Old Geez and me. :) We began the meeting discussing our various successes and failures. Then we had a lesson on how to pray more effectively (pray aloud to stay focused, being sincere, pray about the genuine needs of the people you're praying about, stay on your knees a little longer and listen with your heart). After that four of the junior missionaries (as we're calling them these days) gathered together around another elder on the piano and attempted to harmonize in preparation for an upcoming zone conference. Their first attempts were pretty amusing, but the improvement came and now we have high hopes for them.

On this same day an article came out in one of the local newspapers, The Sligo Champion. One of the elders here, Elder Walker the Younger, has given interviews twice to newspapers, but this time we were included in the mix. If I have figured out how to add a picture, you will see it in this blog. These articles seem to be very helpful as the elders have received three referrals just this week from the Church.

And, wonder of wonders, we met a gentleman on the street who seemed to have literally been put in our path. We were trying to find a former member of the branch and this gentleman was standing about 15 feet away from us. At first we just asked him if he knew the fellow we were looking for, but then afterwards Richard told him who we were and asked if he'd ever heard of the LDS or Mormon Church. He said he had, and then in classic form, Richard asked if he'd like to know more. And he said, "yes." I was floored. This is the first time I've had this kind of experience. While Richard was writing down his name and phone number I went back to the car and got him a Book of Mormon. When we drove away two minutes later, he was already reading it. We were very pleased and are now praying that something wonderful comes of this contact.