Elder Hayden Lott: Success

Family Photo - From October Temple Conference
[Elder Lott is using missionary lingo, in which a trainer is the 'Dad', and greenies are 'Sons'.]
Elder Stanworth, Elder Lott and Elder Higham

Hey Everybody!

To start off, our focus on diligence and enthusiasm definitely paid off this week. We had a ton of success, ended up finding 4 new investigators! The story of finding all of them was really cool, but I'll share the story of the last one. We were actually in Roosendaal, we had a couple of lessons there with some time to fill in the middle so we asked the sisters if they had anyone for us to look up. We finished that and were headed back to the train station when I felt a distinct impression to stop. So we did, then I felt like we should go into the building on our left and do some bell ups, so we did. Then I felt like I should do a certain row of bell ups, and on the second one a guy answered, listened for about 10 seconds then let us in. We ended up teaching him the whole first lesson (the restoration) and he seemed very intrigued. He even tried to buy our book even though he hardly speaks Dutch (speaks pretty good English though), but we told him we'd get one in his language (Lithuanian) and bring it back for free with another message. He accepted right away and told us his schedule for the whole next week when we said we weren't sure how fast we could get a copy. Such a cool experience.

That really was a cool experience but it isn't really all that uncommon at the times when I am truly seeking the spirit and revelation needed for this work. I am fairly confident that it can be so for all those seek God's will and have the gift of the Holy Ghost, missionary or non-missionary. It just depends on your desire to serve God and his children. With the specific case of walking down the street, yes that may just be a prompting missionaries get because of our calling. But as members of His church, we have all covenanted to stand as witnesses of god at all times and in all places. People are around us every day, and to the extent we seek for God's help we can be guided to know who we can share the gospel with, who is ready that is in our lives, and in what way. He will provide us the means to do so if we seek to follow Him. Just like Elder Bednar says in his Mormon message series, patterns of light, the spirit can guide us constantly. Maybe it won't be clear. But it will be like a foggy day, where with light ahead we have just enough to take a few steps forward, and after that a few steps more, then a few more. We might never see the big picture of where we are going, or rarely that is, but as we follow the light we will be led on true and good paths.

[Mom note: I know that this link has been shared several times over the course of this blog,
but it is clearly one of Elder Lott's favorites, and has also given me much food for thought
as I consider the teachings in the Patterns of Light series.]
Patterns of Light - Spirit of Revelation
Elder David A. Bednar

I love you all!

-Elder Hayden Lott

Question of the week: Do the Dutch or Belgium people follow the European custom of kissing cheeks when greeting each other, or are handshakes more common?

Answer: With the kissing of the cheeks I've rarely seen the Dutch do that, but Belgians do it quite often.