TEACHING BY THE SPIRIT

June 21, 2010
Hey fam......(and anyone else who may be sneaking a peak at the personal life of Elder Cryer!)
How is everything going for you all? I hope that the answer to that is "We're doing GOOD! Thanks for asking!"
Well things are still pluggin along here in Kansas.
Last night we spent an hour and a half helping a guy install a screen door! It was one of those nice heavy duty ones with glass and all that jazz. It was hard to install. There were ZERO pre-drilled holes! Let me say that one more time....there were ZERO pre-drilled holes! We eventually got it all figured out. It was funny because the guy we were helping spoke only spanish and I speak english and Elder Alonso speaks mostly spanish but a little english and so we were handing directions back and forth. Elder Alonso handed me the spanish directions and he said "O.K. so what does it say to do?" I just shook my head and he started laughing! The he handed me the ones he had and said "Here I think these are the english ones" then he grabbed the ones I had and he started looking at them and then he said, "Wait....these aren't even spanish! I don't know what they say!" Then after some searching we found the spanish ones. It was funny. Its kinda tricky to install a door when everyone speaks different languages!
So me and Elder Alonso were out riding our bikes the other day in Hugoton (in 104 degree weather I might add!) and we saw a guy mowing his yard and so we figured we'd go and see if he needed any help and see if he'd be interested in learning about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We rode over and said "Hey Sir, how are you doing?" He looked at us with a blank expression and then continued to mow. Again we said "How are you doing?" He looked at us again with that same blank stare and continued on his way. We dont give up that easy though and so we followed him and said "Can we give you a hand?" Again he just looked at us. Then Elder Alonso grabbed a pass along card out of his shirt pocket and said "Can we just leave you with this card?" and then he extended his arm out so that the man could get the card. The man looked a little flustered for a second and then grabbed the card and shoved it down in his mower and it chopped the card up! We both quickly said, "Well you have a great day O.K." and then we rode off before we started cracking up laughing! I told Elder Alonso that I think that's the funniest thing I've ever seen anyone do with one of the cards that we've given them. It was SO funny!
Well in our weekly letter to President Pfile he asks us to share a miracle story with him and this week I shared with him an experience we had this week with a lady that we taught. It was such a spiritual lesson. So anyways...I copied that bit of my email to President so here it is:
We had an AMAZING lesson with a lady that we found off of tracting. She invited us to come back another time and so we set up to go back the next day. She said she'd talked briefly with missionaries before and so we asked her if she would like to come to church with us. She said no because it was fathers day and her family was going to Garden City for the day. We asked if we could teach her the first lesson and she said yes. When we got to the first vision the spirit was so strong. I knew that she was feeling it. I finished the first vision and testified and then Elder Alonso testified to her and then I got the impression that I had to ask her how she felt. So I did...I said "How do you feel?" There was a long silence. No one said a word for what felt like five minutes. Then she said "I'm never speechless." Then we just let the silence speak some more and then eventually she said "Its like when you hold a baby for the first time.....that feeling that you just can't explain. It feels like your so full you could explode." Then she asked "Do you even know what I'm talking about?" I couldn't help but smile. I said "Yes. I know exactly what you mean. I know because I'm feeling it right now too." Then I asked "Do you know what your feeling?" She looked at us with tear filled eyes and said "Tell me". We both testified to her that what she was feeling was the spirit. We committed her to be baptized and she accepted. Then we went on to testify about the Book of Mormon and then we felt like we should invite her again to come to church with us. When we invited her she accepted without delay. It was amazing to see the spirit in action. She received her witness so strongly during the lesson. Without the spirit we can do nothing.
It really was an amazing lesson. I want every lesson to be that way. Those super super spiritual lessons only come so often it seems. I guess it has to do a lot with how sincere they are about learning but I think to a large measure it has to do with us. It has to do with whether we are relying on the spirit to tell us what to say or if we just get comfortable with our own ability to teach. It has a lot to do with our attitude and our love for that that person that we are teaching. Like it says in the scpriptures....without charity we are nothing. It's true. If we dont love the poeple then they will feel that and it will hinder the spirit. We need to have charity and the spirit before we can expect to have success.
Well....I guess I'd better go get to work. I still have some laundry to do and floors to vaccume and food to buy and letters to write and people to teach this evening! I hope that you all have a great Monday and a great FHE!
I love you guys!
Love Ben