So, Jeremy has gone through a lot this past week. Sunday he was doing great. A couple days past and he heard some things about the church from some people that weren't positive towards the church and he was confused and he texted us asking for the address of the temple. He went up the next day and was able to talk to some of the temple workers. They answered some of his questions that he asked. He obviously wasn't able to go in and he was still confused after that and headed over to family who lived nearby the temple. They told him a lot of things negative about the church and they don't really like the church. He called us and we tried to help him. We prayed so much. Elder White and I didn't realize how much we cared about Jeremy until this week. It's so sad seeing something like that happen--someone so pure and doing so good be influenced by evil or have confusion brought into their life through such trials. We each prayed often for him with everything we had. We lined up a time for him to join us at a member's home for dinner and to talk. We were eating with him and were able to help him feel the Spirit again. We had a testimony meeting and the Spirit came in. Jeremy at one point during dinner said, "why would I leave such a good church?" After the testimonies sister walde (one of the members) needed a blessing so we helped her husband give it to her. I wondered what Jeremy would feel or think because he hadn't seen a blessing before. I prayed that he'd be able to understand the spiritual significance of them and that he'd feel the Spirit. After the blessing he told us, "during that I felt that the room got brighter. I seemed to see a light grow from y'all until it hit the ceiling." The power of the Priesthood is true. (James 5:14-15) On Saturday I we later found out how Jeremy had been thinking a lot and still taking everything in. He told us yesterday, "I was driving around on Saturday and I got really lost. I didn't know where to go and you know how you told me to think about things and pray intently about them? I did that. And I asked God to help me find my way home. I felt better every turn I took and as I continued I noticed I ended up at a church and I got closer and saw it was the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." We told him how God loved him and we talked about what a miracle and clear answer to his prayer that was. So there were a lot of miracles with him this week.
There were a lot of miracles in addition. After one lesson we had we opened the door to leave the appointment and first people we saw were struggling to lift a heavy couch. The younger of the two (who was the son) said, "hey dad look it's some of your friends" (we later found out this was a less-active member we didn't know about). We were able to help them out. It feels so good to be at the right place at the right time. God is so loving and perfect that He gives us little and big assurances like these to give us confidence and enable our faith (alma 58:11; cf. Heb. 11:1).
Well I don't have time to write more but I love y'all and hope you have a great week!
Elder Russell
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