Last week we attended a
Zone Training Meeting. Elder Renlund of the Seventy and his wife spoke to us.
Prior to the meeting, President and Sister Vest and Elder and Sister Renlund
shook our hands. I didn’t think a lot about it at the time, but as I shook
Elder Renlund's hand, I clearly felt something that said to me, "This is a man of
God."
We received some special
instruction. Elder Renlund shared a story of a young missionary who was called
to Zimbabwe, but his visa did not come through, so he was assigned to George,
South Africa. This missionary had developed a bad attitude because he was not
serving in Zimbabwe, where he was called and was questioning how he could be
called there and then not be able to serve there. This Elder and his companion
went to visit a less active member who was living with his girlfriend. As the
Elders introduced themselves, the less active member asked this missionary with
the bad attitude to tell him his name again. The less active member then went
into another room and came out with a picture of a young man in white clothes.
It turns out that this less active member had baptized the father of the
missionary with the bad attitude many years earlier. Lives were changed from
that experience. Both the less active member and the missionary with the bad attitude
came to know firsthand that the Lord is directing his work. They both made changes
because of the experience. Our Heavenly Father knows each of us personally and
our individual unique circumstances. He knows where we need to be and what we
need to experience to make positive changes in our lives.
Elder Renlund explained
that had a right to receive revelation as to why we were called on our
respective missions and when we receive it, he counseled us to write it down.
We need to act on
revelation we receive.
He said that God doesn’t
care much about what we were, he cares about what we are!
We received some really good
training.
