My friend, Amy, had the same experience (sharing without the official call) and found "joy" spreading the true gospel of Jesus Christ. She has given me permission to share this with you. This was a story published recently. Enjoy! and I promise you that it will inspire!
“GIVE THEM YOUR DINNER”
Hastening the Work
The year of 2012
was full of humbling adversity for our family. Through faith, repentance and
obedience to the charge to be a member missionary, our family has felt the
healing power of the Atonement. In July
2013, The full-time Elders from our ward ate dinner with our family. As
dauntless Elder Avanesyan, from Armenia, challenged us to pray for a missionary
experience, I felt the Spirit speak clearly to me that our family badly needed the
blessings that would follow. I was afraid. I knew what this would mean; that I,
a mother raising four busy, challenging children (with a variety of special
needs) and running a business with my husband, would have to find the time to
share the gospel also. However, I had accepted the challenge from the Elders. I
had faith that the Lord was preparing someone, and I couldn’t afford the luxury
of missing out on the blessings. The fleeting thought that Jared and Kristin McCowan,
(a non-member, and his less-active wife) may somehow be interested. I quickly
dismissed the thought. This dear family had an autistic child, and also
suffered from mental illness and drug addiction. The Elders left and I prayed
for direction and courage.
Three months
after the challenge was issued, I got a call from Kristin. Their car had broken
down, again—and Ariel needed a ride. By some unlikely circumstance, I was home
and cooking dinner for my family. I
offered to give them a ride. As I left the house, the phrase came clearly to my
mind, “Give them your dinner.” My children were hungry. This was a rare
occasion to eat together as family a dinner I hadn’t burned. I waved-off the
thought and assumed it was my overly-impulsive nature. As I was getting into
the car, I once again had the clear impression—“GIVE THEM YOUR DINNER.” It was
more like an emphatic whisper this time. I rolled my eyes at the thought,
sighed heavily, and then went back into the house. I pulled the steaming skillet
full of food off the stove. It had no sauce yet, and I wrapped it in a dirty towel
I grabbed off the floor, and took it to the car.
I walked to the
door and apologized for bringing a bland, unexpected, sauce-less dinner in an
old frying pan. What I didn’t know was the at the Lord was working through me, and
that following the counsel of President Thomas S. Monson to “never suppress a
generous thought” was going to change the course of two families’ lives. A
pathetic dinner would do just fine. Kristin thanked me and I dropped Jared and Ariel
off at rehearsal.
The next morning, another rescue call
came. The car had stalled again in the parking lot of a grocery store. I was,
again able to intercede with a ride to school for Ariel and a ride home for Jared.
As we drove, Jared shared with me some tender experiences he had over the weekend. . Twice he had car trouble and he had been
protected and watched over by the Lord. His car had run out of gas and a “big
motorcycle biker” stopped and actually pushed the car---with his bike! The man
then filled the car with gas as a gift and left. The next day, with Ariel in
the car, it stalled again near the freeway. Suddenly, as if from nowhere, three
“strapping young men” approached them and offered to push the car by hand back
up the ramp and onto the road. Jared looked over at me, and at that moment, the
Lord then used my dauntless tendency not to filter my words. Mind you, I barely
knew Jared. He was just the husband of my friend Kristin. It was not my place,
nor did I feel comfortable or appropriate in telling him what I did. But, moved
upon by the Spirit, I boldly declared, “Jared, how many times will the Lord
send you a rescue helicopter as you and your family are stranded on the roof,
with flood water rising all around, before you acknowledge who it is coming to
your rescue?” Jared, dropped his head. “I know, I know. It’s God answering my
pleas.” “Well,” I looked him in the eye, “What are you going to do about it, Jared?”
“I’m not sure,” came his quiet response. “Well, Jared, you’d make a pretty good
Mormon.” I smiled and he snickered. Then I dropped him off at home.
The following
afternoon, I got a voicemail message from Kristin. I listened to it and tears
welled-up as my heart seemed to stop. “Amy, thank you for the dinner and the
rides. I have been able to convince Jared and we have decided to come back to
church as a family. We mean to start attending every week. We will probably
need a ride on Sunday, though because the car may not be ready.” My heart began
beating again. I ran to my husband, Tim. “You have to listen to this.” Tears
then filled his eyes as he realized what the Lord had been busy doing. Lending
them the lawnmower all summer, babysitting their kids, quiet—and sometimes loud
examples of keeping the commandments through our experiences in theater, giving
up a sub-par dinner, and courageously calling this man I barely knew to
repentance; all these things in tandem had been designed by the Lord to give
the McCowans the opportunity to feel the Spirit of the Lord pull them into the
safety of His fold.
Kristin, Jared, Ariel
and Caleb were dressed in borrowed Sunday attire. Sunday we took two cars to
church, one filled with McCowans and one filled with my own children—a very
loud and charismatic caravan. Our families attended church together. The
following week in church, Jared bore his testimony to the entire congregation
about being guided by the Spirit and feeling loved by the Lord.
That week, Elder Reinhold joined with
Elders Avanesyan and Cantrell as a triple companionship. Elder Reinhold
probably didn’t know at the time that his arrival was part of the Lord’s design
to teach the McCowans. I had told Elder Avanesyan and Elder Cantrell about the McCowan
family the night I received the phone message from Kristin. I was filled with
excitement for the potential of this family. I confidently told the
missionaries, “This family is going to be baptized! Get your white clothes
ready!”
A week later, Elder Reinhold, out on a
mission for only two weeks, asked Jared if he would follow the example of Jesus
Christ and be baptized. “That’s why I’m here!” came Jared’s ecstatic response.
That afternoon, the Elders and I joined together in a special fast for the
McCowans as they began to obey the Word of Wisdom.
Several days into
discussions, Ariel needed another ride to singing rehearsal. As I was driving Ariel
and my daughter to rehearsal, I felt compelled to talk with her also about the
gospel that her Father was embracing and his upcoming baptism. I told her how precious
the Gift of the Holy Ghost was to me. To my surprise, she told me that she
wanted to be baptized, too! I told her
that she was already old enough and that she may even be able to be baptized
with her Father two weeks later. She asked, “Would the Elders let me? What do I need to do?” I said, “Absolutely!
Let’s call them right now and ask them!” I put Elder Avanesyan on speaker phone
in my car and explained that Jared’s daughter was with me and that she was wondering
if they would let her get baptized with her dad. Of course, they were thrilled
and very encouraging. (I later found out that Elder Avanesyan screamed for joy
when they got off the phone!) Shortly after I dropped the girls off, I had the
pleasure of calling Jared to tell him that his baby girl would be following in
his footsteps toward baptism and that she wanted to learn everything he had
been taught about the Gospel. I then texted the Elders, “Sharing the gospel is
PURE JOY!” This feeling was beyond happiness—it was pure joy.
Ariel accompanied us to several lessons
in the following week. During one particularly joyful lesson, the Elders and I
struggled to hold back our emotion as we watched Jared begin to take over and teach and explain his understanding of
principles of the Gospel to his daughter. What began as a “catch-up-discussion”
became a precious experience as we watched a humble father teach and bear
testimony to his daughter of sacred truths he, himself had only just learned.
The joy we all felt joy cannot be adequately described in written words. After Jared
had his pre-baptismal interview with Elders Anderson, Avanesyan, Cantrell,
Crane and Reinhold, Bingham, and myself--my emotion took the form of an
involuntary victory-happy-dance in the hall of the church. The phrase,“Jump for
joy” has new meaning to me now.
Jared and Kristin
are now living the Word of Wisdom, and this evening, October 29th,
2013, my husband, Tim will baptize Jared and his daughter Ariel. Their sweet
autistic son, Caleb will, no doubt embrace the same opportunity as soon as he
is able to do so. I am particularly
humbled that the Mission President had the inspiration to assign a third Elder
to our ward at just the perfect time--enabling the Elders to teach in my home,
during a period of weeks when my husband would be working long hours and could
not be present.
There is no joy,
no success, nor happiness that can compare with the experience of bringing
people into the light of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. I will continue
all my life to seek those who are ready to be rescued into the safety of His
fold. They “are only kept from the truth because they no not where to find it.”
I will look for another family. I will never stop hastening His work. The Lord
has my hands and my heart. I pray he will continue to use my family as an
instrument in bringing people to Him.
The joy and healing blessings that have
been heaped upon my own family, my precious marriage, and my personal testimony
of the Savior’s love for me are immeasurable. I am humbled and honored that He
can work through an imperfect, selfish, flawed daughter like me to accomplish
great things. My “plate” may already be full-- but I will just take another
plate and have faith that the Lord Jesus Christ and my Heavenly Father will
guide and direct me every day and every hour. I cannot deny and cannot keep
from declaring that sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ indeed changes lives,
transforms character, fortifies families, and resurrects love in marriages. I
feel as the sons of Mosiah 28:3 “Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared
to every creature, for they could not abear that any
human bsoul should cperish; yea,
even the very thoughts that any soul should endure dendless torment
did cause them to quake and etremble.”
I am so very grateful that I listened to the bold,
yet quiet promptings of the Holy Ghost. I will serve Him all my days and I will
never hesitate to give my time, talents and all God has blessed me with or will
bless me with… even my dinner.
-Amy Elizabeth Akin
Yakima 6th Ward
Yakima, Washington Stake
October 29, 2013
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