A Pear of Miracles

An elderly lady we were teaching asked us if we would help her pick her pear trees. With the early freeze, these were the first trees I had seen with fruit on them in all of Etna. She was very blessed. For three hours we picked the whole bed full of our truck. We had hundreds of pounds of pears! Being old, she said she couldn't use them so she gave us half, thinking we could give them away. So we made a big ol' sign that said "Free Pears and Free Happiness!!!" and put them on our truck and parked on the busiest street in downtown Etna! We met SOOOOOO many people and gave away pounds of pears and quite a few pamphlets. 

The next day we scheduled to do it from 5 to 6:30. I decided I wanted to do an experiment; my companion and I decided to set an appointment with the Lord. I said, "All right God, we will be there from 5 to 6:30. Send us someone at 5:30 who we can teach. We will be there waiting for them." All day long we talked about our appointment, and even wrote it in our planners, it WAS GOING TO HAPPEN! We got out there at 5 and I pulled my ukulele out and sang hymns as people came and took more pears. My excitement started to build as 5:20 came around. I put my uke away and waited like a little kid waiting for Santa. AT EXACTLY 5:30 A LADY DROVE UP!!! I must have looked like a clown with how big I was smiling. She took all the pears we had and we got her address and scheduled a time to go back and teach her.

I was overwhelmed with joy when I saw how the Lord worked with us. When we show the lord our dependability, he really increases our capability! It was cool to see how we created it spiritually, then the Lord saw that it happened physically.

In Doctrine and Covenants chapter 29, it says, 

31 For by the power of my Spirit acreated I them; yea, all things both bspiritual and temporal

32 aFirst bspiritual, secondly temporal, which is the beginning of my work 

I know that the Lord LOVES it when we make a plan and move forward with faith. Just like the story of the Brother of Jared in the Book of Mormon. He made a prayerfully made a plan and then asked for the Lord to help him accomplish what he could not do. Just like I could not make someone come to me at 5:30, the brother of Jared could not make the stones glow so they could have light in their ships. 

The Lord has asked us to do missionary work, ALL OF US. We can all make a personal game plan, just like the the Lords servants have asked. "We must each carry out our own personal game plan to serve with enthusiasm alongside the full-time missionaries" Elder S. Gifford Nielsen

He trusts us to act. 

I FEAR NO DRUNKARD!

One evening my companion and I were talking with some girls outside their house as a small party was going on behind them. We could tell by the man passed out on the couch outside and the lady throwing up in the front yard that there was alcohol involved. As we were wrapping up our conversation, a lady staggered out using vulgar language to try to get us to leave. Dropping her bottle on the porch, she had her eyes fixed on me as she walked my way. As she was coming, I had the words come to my mind from the prophet Abinadi "Touch me not!" She came within a foot of my face and glared at me as I looked back into her eyes. I had no fear, I KNEW that she couldn't touch me. I smiled and said, "goodnight!" and got in the truck. She walked up to the window and continued to glare at me. Smiling, I said to my companion, "Sister, drive fast!" My companion started the car forward, and this lady walked, jogged, then started running next to my window. When she passed my door, she grabbed onto the side of the truck bed and threw her leg in. She hung on as we continued driving, until one of her friends ran up and peeled her off. My companion gunned it as I watched her get into a fist fight with her rescuer through my rear-view mirror.

I had a deeper understanding of the power of God in the face of foes. Abinadi, a man who stood before his accusers, and said as they stepped forward to constrain them, "Touch me not, for God shall smite you if ye lay your hands upon me, for I have not delivered the message which the Lord sent me to deliver; neither have I told you that which ye requested that I should tell; therefore, God will not suffer that I shall be destroyed at this time" (Words of Abinadi)

I know that God protects those who are on his errand. To help myself remember this, I look in the mirror and tell myself, "I fear no man!"