1,000 lives in 100 days

July 26, 2015

Keith started a program in our mission called 1,000 lives in 100 days.  He felt the need for the missionaries to not only work towards new converts, but to spend a little time helping those who were already members of our church.  He challenged each companionship to pick 10 names of members who were in the wards where they served.  They had 100 days to help make a difference in their life.  Hence the name: 100 companionships times 10 people to help = 1,000 lives.  It’s been rewarding hearing about some of the experiences:

Elder K: I’d like to share one story that we had from the 100 days 1000 lives.  There is a family of 3 that recently had a daughter die. Their daughter was 14 and had an accident in school and ended up passing away a few days later. That all happened on my first day I had moved to this new area. The family started to blame God for what happened and stopped going to church because of that experience. The husband also started trying to kill the pain with an addiction to marijuana. They wouldn’t even accept a message from us for months. But one day when I was with Elder T., we knocked and she opened the door and told us they were busy.  We asked if we could simply stay for 1 minute or 2 and say a prayer. She said “yes” and we had a really powerful prayer. When we finished she said she would be home the following night and asked if we could pass by. We did and had a great lesson about the plan of salvation. (Where we came from, why we are here,  and where we are going) We've been progressing great with this family lately and they're all coming back to church, doing family home evenings, and starting a repentance process to be sealed together in the temple. It's amazing the change that I've seen in this family, and I’m so glad to have been a part of it.

And a fun letter from a sister missionary: Sister L. and I had our first baptism yesterday! It was so wonderful, Jocelin our soon to be convert once she receives the Holy Ghost, is such an amazing young lady. She has a solid strong testimony and is a walking miracle with all the changes we’ve seen since we started teaching her. I love the gospel; it’s incredible to see the power it has in the life of people, even when we testify of it every day.  I had never seen it happen so "up close". I feel so blessed and thankful to have been a part in that change in Jocelin's life.

Yesterday while we were out working with a member, we bump into a family he knew.  Apparently this family was investigating the church some time ago, Family Huerta. They had just lost the father an hour before! We offered a hymn and a prayer. I didn’t know how we could help them, but I prayed that they might feel the Spirit and that they might open their hearts to the truth.  They agreed to meet with us this Wednesday.