Walking by the Spirit

7 June 2014

We were introduced to a family from Puerto Rico by the proselyting missionaries. The military father had experienced a few deployments and struggled with P.T.S.D. They had been married 25 plus years and were the parents of three children, ages 21, 17, 15.  They had chosen to be less active but were very willing to feed missionaries.  We invited them to learn Resiliency Skills.  They agreed, we set a date only to be contacted with a cancellation of the meeting.  Sometime later, we received a frantic call from the proselyting missionaries telling us the mother wanted to talk to us as soon as possible. We completed our appointment and went to their home.  The father had lost emotional control and had been verbally abusing his wife and children.  The wife contacted his 1^st Sargent and called the base military police and had him arrested because he was looking for his weapon that his oldest son had hidden from him.  The children were scared; the mother was devastated at the insults and accusations she had to bear from her husband in front of their children and her mother and her mother and several nieces and nephew were also visiting at this time.  A very sad situation and there was no sign of the presence of the Holy Ghost in the home, just fear and sadness.  What a wonderful gift we had developed and were unconscious of it . . . we knew the absence of the Spirit immediately!! How wonderful to be worthy of Gifts of the Spirit and the tender mercies of our Lord; remembering that it was the family in crisis that the Lord was blessing through us.   Another confirmation to us the Lord loves all his children and is waiting on us to open the door and prepare ourselves to do His will (for us this meant get up and go, prepare ourselves to be led by the Spirit, and humble ourselves before the Lord – none of this is easy for us). We listened as the mother unfolded the previous story to us.

As we listened, we prayed for guidance. The message that came clear was to invite the Spirit into the home.  We offer blessings of comfort to each member of the family. They accepted these blessings so Elder Sturgis, Elder Rosales and Elder Manner began giving these blessings.  The presence of the Holy Ghost was very strong and undeniable.  Elder Manner was fairly new in his mission experience and was unwilling to participate in being voice for these blessings but even he could not deny the Spirit. For all practical purposes, this family was strangers to us and yet the youngest daughter rose from her blessing by Elder Sturgis and gave him a very long, tight hug!  (At our next visit with the family, the mother and grandmother told us that she had shared with them the tremendous feeling she had during the blessing, as if she was being held very tightly and lovingly.)  This family’s primary language was Spanish so Elder Sturgis was left out of most of the conversations but the Spirit still directed him as he gave blessings. We departed the home with the commitment to visit again.

It was just 3 days later; we received a call from the mother to please come over as soon as possible. At this time we learned about the youngest daughter’s spiritual experience.  Then the mother asked us to counsel with her youngest daughter because she was fearful of her father and crying a lot. It never ceases to amaze us the exhaustion that comes from being an instrument for the Lord and the unbelievable joy that comes at the same time!!!  We showed her the LDS video. “Because of Him” and tried to be still and hear the promptings of the still small voice as he directed us. We challenged her to pour all her feelings, concerns, and fears to the Lord in prayer.  We asked her to commit to praying alone each morning and each night for 7 days at which time we would add to her commitment to the Lord.  We met with her midway during these first 7 days and checked on her progress.  She was radiant and told us that she was feeling better and was faithful to her commitment to pray.  At the end of the 7 days we again met with the family and gave the youngest daughter a journal with the new challenge to continue in her twice daily prayers but now she was to “be still” and listen to the Spirit and write in her journal what she felt.  Once again she promised she would accept the challenge.

In the meantime, the second oldest daughter was scheduled to graduate from high school and informed us that she was not going to walk at graduation because it was too chaotic at her school.  We persisted in encouraging her to participate in graduation.  At our mid-week visit with the family she agreed to let us go to her school and find out what was needed to be sure she was able to walk at her graduation.  The morning of the first 7 days we were at her high school talking with the At-Risk Counselor.  How wonderful the Lord is!!!!! They were having mandatory graduation rehearsal at 10:00 am that morning and we were there at 9:36 am.  With the counselor’s help we arranged to order her cap/gown (the company was delivering gowns later that morning and she was able to contact them and add a gown for our special young lady).  We were unsure whether she was at school that day, so we called her mom (another miracle, because he mom seldom answers her phone when we call), she informed us that she was at school.  The counselor invited us to watch the graduation rehearsal to see if our young lady would show up.  While waiting for the seniors to gather, we suddenly heard a familiar voice and felt a warm hug as she said, “Are you looking for me?” We informed her that all was taken care of for her to walk.  Just as suddenly as she seemed to appear, her countenance changed and she glowed with happiness. She could hardly wait to tell her friends that she would be walking and she was anxious to inform her immediate family and cousins that they WOULD be attending her graduation!  Later that same day we received a call from the counselor that the gown at arrived at her office and she asked if we could pick it up and deliver to the student since she had already left for the day.  That is when we deliver the journal and cap/gown to the family. The senior in the family is hesitant to pray but Elder Sturgis asked her if she would write in a journal those special moments in her life when she felt the love of our Savior and she accepted this challenge so we will give her a journal.

This family is not out of trials yet, the father is trying to return to the home. The mother has insisted that they will go to church with or without him.  We will continue trying to help them pray individually and as a family unit. The grandmother has also chosen to be less active, but hopefully we can invite her also to work on a change of heart. The parents are receiving marriage counseling from the army but as the mother said, it lacks spirit.  They mother and children have agreed to receive Resiliency Training. The father of this beautiful family has many serious issues to work on and most importantly is inviting a true spirit of repentance into his life. We continue praying/fasting for this family to receive a complete change of heart and work on a strong testimony of Christ’s Atonement for them.

Let us all remember; this was a chain of tender mercies given to us and this family by the Lord, only as we prepared ourselves to be instruments in His Hands! The gospel of Jesus Christ is true and the only way to return to live with our Savior is through obedience and hard work in keeping His commandments and enduring happily to the end.