Dear Family and Friends,
I
have missed almost more weeks than I've written it seems these past few
times. As you can imagine, I've had a lot of time to reflect these past
few weeks on the time I've spent here in New Mexico. I am humbled and
sincerely grateful for the opportunity to serve a mission. This General
Conference has been on of the most powerful and yet one of the most
simple that I have ever been able to watch. I was very touched by the
frequent and earnest invitations to make our prayers more meaningful and
more faithful. How true is that? It is so easy to let the daily prayers
we offer become more and more of a checklist item, especially if we are
"too busy" to take time to ponder and take real consideration for the
specific needs that we have, or the specific blessings we hope to
obtain. At least for me I have too common taken the approach of praying
for the strength to do it on my own, not considering the essiential
element of Grace that enables us to do things beyond my own abilities. I
have seen miralces in my life, yet if I were to go back and restart
now, I would exercise greater faith in the possibility of greater and
more frequent miracles. That being said, I now know that with this
lifeline of prayer and with the desire to see the kingdom of God roll
forth in greater haste will bring greater miracles to come as I exercise
that faith from this time forward.
We had a few minutes left after finishing planning on Sunday
night at the office, so we decided we would stop by the gas station to
wipe some bird droppings that had situated themselves on the front
windshield with some siginifcant amount of adhesive white matter which
was obnoxiously obstructing our view. As we were there we had time to
talk to a few last people, and after having a few come and go, not too
interested I engaged a young man who was just returning from the
convenience store to his vehicle. After talking for a few minutes he
opened up and asked what I had meant about the prophet and apostles on
the Earth today. He asked if they perform miralces, and for some
examples. I then proceeded to portray one of the most marvelous miracles
of our day when a 14 year old boy, earnestly seeking to know God's will
sought his council through sincere, meaningful and faithful prayer. As a
result he saw God our Eternal Father and his Son Jesus Christ, he
proceeded from that time forth to hearken to the voice of the Lord in
the most exact and diligent way he possibly could. Eventually that lead
to the revelation of a book, some 531 pages after being tranlated from
ancient reformed egyptian by the power of God, for the boy had but a 3rd
grade education and couldn't hardly form a dignified sentance let alone
an entire book, no matter what the size. The Book of Mormon is truly
one of the most miraculous miracles of our day. As we spoke the spirit
descended and he was visibly touched. A little fear came over him as he
realized a couple of things. Since 4 years ago he had recovered from a
heroine addiction which he had fueled daily totaling in cost of about a
half a million dollars as he described, in order to do that he had to
rely on the faith he had fostered in Christ and his study he regularly
engaged in with the Bible. He said that there are times that he doesn't
understand the bible and he wants to be able to grasp that first before
he tries anything else. While the spirit did touch his heart and he did
learn some important eternal truths, he was not invested and excited to
accept the message. He casually accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon
and confirmed that the spirit had witnessed the truth of the things we
had taugth him. This is something I share to imply an important point.
One singular event in a persons life CAN create a pivitol turning point
and lead them home. But with so many voices, and so many distractions
and deceptions in the world we live in it is almost an instictive
natural man kind of thing to become desensitized to the truth. To become
so far removed from the sorce of light and truth that even a ray of
light seems dismal and even annoying to those who may enjoy the
darkness. But as with anything, if it is persistant it will always cause
us to react even if we didn't choose to act in the first place. In that
same perspective as someone reacts to that light and their eyes are
able to adjust to see more clearly hey may catch a vision of what is
awaiting them if the come to the light and allow it to envelope their
lives. This is what the power of a member missionary can do. As a
full-time missionary we may come in contact with some great number of
people on a day to day basis teaching and testifying and shedding light
on the confusion and decepctions of today's daunting world. Yet someone
who has not had time for their spiritual eyes to adjust is simply
annoyed or possibly just temproarily looking in the right direction but
immediately they are surrounded by the same influences and confusions
they had been dealing with before. But someone who can wrap their arms
around that person and be with them, meet them where they are and then
regularly and possitively shed that light with some gradual degree of
increasing intensity will make changes that cannot be made by one
singular glimer of light. I hope with all my heart that the light we
hold as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints will
not be set under a bushel. I pray in faith, knowing that each of us KNOW
already someone who can use a greater measure of that light in their
life right now, that the spirit will give us the courage and the clarity
to meet them where they are and to gradually shed that light in their
lives so that they can recognize and partake of the joy this Gospel
brings. I hope that each of you have agreat week, and that you may
recognize the hand of the Lord in performing the greatest miracle of
all, the miracle of conversion, each day in your lives and the lives of
those around you.
Elder McGarry
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