August 5, 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

I like Miami quite a bit actually. It felt a little hot when I first got here, but now mostly I just think it's too cold inside with all the AC. The clothes are working well, except I stained one shirt while I was opening a coconut, so I'm still trying to get the stains out of that one.
This week I have been reading in Heleman and Ether, specifically about Samuel the Lamanite and the brother of Jared, and I was really hit hard by the faith of the brother of Jared, that it was so great that the Lord could no longer hide his hand from him.
Faith is a strange and wonderful power.  By faith the earths and heavens were built, and how it is important in the conversion process of any individual is still something I'm struggling to understand.
In our area there are quite a few people who just won't keep commitments. What makes this even sadder is that a lot of these people do believe to some extent or another that the church is true, and for the longest time I just could not understand what they could do, or what we could do to help them keep their commitments.
Though today it still stands as a somewhat unanswered question, one of our recent converts has given me one of the answers I've been looking for.
This man, a 60 year old new member broke his leg 2 weeks ago in a scooter accident, and two days later when we heard about it and were able to come down to see him, expecting him to be bed ridden, found him sitting up with the big smile on his face that he always has already telling us how he had planned to walk to church. Of course we didn't let him, we came and picked him up that week,
But the next week before we even had the chance to go down and pick him up, we found him pulling up to the church door on a mini bike with his walker thrown over the front.
How he got on to the bike I will never know, but that day I came to understand a bit better what Nephi said, for I know that the Lord gives no commandment save he prepares a way.
Week after week I get when following up with commitments, or even giving commitments, I hear reason after reason of why they couldn't or they can't, and I must admit that at times I have thought that the excuse was valid: had Nephi said I know not how to build a ship, that would have been a valid concern, had Samuel said they will kill me if I get on top of that wall, that would have been a valid concern, had the brother of Jared said I have not the knowledge as to how to light these ships, that would have been a valid concern. But the Lord does not ask if you will be able to, but will you.
I've realized that the removal of obstacles in a person’s conversion is not nearly as important as instilling them with the faith that if they trust in the Lord, that all things are possible.


Love you guys.

Elder Low.