A God of Miracles

We have noticed a distinct trend while on our mission. Not that it's new, but it seems compressed in frequency. It goes like this. Whenever we have something really wonderful that encourages us and gives joy in our work as missionaries, something will happen almost immediately to distract and discourage us.

Then again, from that point of discouragement or disappointment, something else happens to lighten our hearts and cause us to rejoice again. We press forward again with hope and determination.

We have been commenting on that phenomenon over the last two weeks and then it happened again!

Last Friday, our English class for missionaries in one of the zones had only two missionaries log in and one of those is from Texas. We felt frustrated and discouraged, reminding ourselves that we're offering THEM a gift of language learning, but they don't want to receive it.

But this morning, we met with a different zone and about 15 missionaries logged on. After going over a couple of grammar items (common mistakes we encounter) I talked about Elisha and Elijah. Very few of them know much about the Old Testament. We discussed a little about what happened between those two prophets and then told in detail the miracle of the oil filling all the empty containers in town.

One of the missionaries wondered, "Do miracles like that still happen today?"

I told a story of a miracle I knew of, and invited them to share their own miraculous experiences. Since part of the purpose of our meeting is give them a chance to hear and converse in English, it was perfect.

Here are some of the stories. One elder told of being young and the family was broke. The father was out of work. School fees were due and they had no way to pay them. His father called the family together to pray. After they prayed, the young boy (telling the story) picked leaves off the tree and handed them to his father to pay the fees. But moments after that, a man came to tell his father that he was hired for a job he had wanted. They were able to pay the fees before the deadline.

Another fun one was an Elder who was a teenager and went to the Ghana Accra temple on a several-day trip to do baptisms for the dead. The girls that were with his group went out to walk around the temple at night. They came back and said that they had seen the Angel Moroni, standing in front of the temple.

The youngster didn't believe them, but they continued to insist. They had all known who it was. The next morning, the boy noticed that all the girls were unusually tired and weak and it made him think "maybe it really did happen, since people who have had powerful spiritual experiences often have felt tired and sick" afterward.

He decided to go out that evening and see if he could see the angel too. So he walked around the temple, but he didn't see anything. The next evening, he went again, walking around and watching for heavenly beings. Again he was disappointed.

The next night was the last night and he went to the place where they said they had seen the heavenly messenger. He saw nothing. So he prayed and asked "Heavenly Father, Please let me see as You see and hear as You hear."

Still, he saw nothing unusual.

The next morning, he decided to pack his glasses, even though he wore them all the time. "For some reason, I didn't want to wear my glasses," he remembers. When he arrived home, his glasses were nowhere to be found. They were never found.

For the next week, he had a white discharge from his eyes, but by the end of the week, he no longer needed his glasses and has had normal vision ever since.

(I often notice that the Lord has bigger plans for us than we have for ourselves!)

Another Elder told the story of as a youngster, he read the Book of Mormon every day. One day, he felt weak and tired. He knew it was because he had no food. He continued to read and felt the impression that he should keep reading and he would get the food he needed. A little later, his aunt came over and asked him to deliver something. When he returned, she gave him money and he went and bought food. He remembered the prompting that he should trust the Lord to provide for him.

Another Elder told of rescuing a boy from drowning, even though he was a very weak swimmer himself and the water was icy snow melt. He knew that God had helped him beyond his own capacity.

Another told of his father who was completely broke and went to enlist in the armed forces of his country. There were so many applicants that they told them they had met their quota and go home. He walked toward home and a small, quiet voice told him to go back. He ignored it and kept walking. But then it was louder so he obeyed. When he arrived at the compound, he saw that there was still a long line waiting. They had told them all to leave as a way of finding out who was most determined. So he got in a long line, but despaired of being able to be tested that day. The still, small voice came again instructing him to go to the captain of the whole event and speak directly to him. There were about 10 men all helping screen the applicants, but he knew which one was the captain. He bypassed the whole line, but nobody objected. He went up to the captain and spoke to him. The man said, "Yes, you are the one we need. Come over here to be weighed and measured." He was enlisted that day.

Yes, God is still a God of miracles. If Jesus gave sight to the blind, and his prophets parted the Red sea and the Jordan River, and made an iron axe to float and multiplied oil a thousand times over and Jesus fed 5000 men and their families with a few loaves and fish, why wouldn't he give a young boy who asked to see something heavenly corrected vision, or provide food for a hungry boy, or help a young boy rescue his friend? Why can't he provide a job for a man desperate to take care of his family? Why couldn't those young girls see an angel?

I believe that the reason we may not be witnessing miracles on a regular basis is simply because we're not looking. Or we lack the faith or the understanding to see what is happening around us. Perhaps we have hardened our hearts so that we don't want to give God the credit.

Recently we had a young man request a large sum of money to pay for him to finish a graduate degree. He complained that he would be suicidal or he would feel like he suffered damnation if he didn't get it. Do we sometimes try to demand the precise blessing we want without exercising any faith in God's processes and procedures? Usually, God WANTS us to expend effort. (That was one of the discouraging days where we were distracted from our efforts to bless the people here.)

Another told of passing an exam he knew he couldn't pass on his own after praying for help. So from Friday's discouragement, today we're on top of the world. Not only did these young Elders share their testimonies and experiences, they did it in English and all of us were spiritually enriched.

Proverbs 3: 5-6 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart: and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.