I loved getting to talk to ya'll yesterday. At first, I was nervous to call, but I am so grateful for the spirit I felt as we talked and the love and support I felt from all of you. Thank you for keeping me in your prayers! This is a hard work, but it is a work worth doing and I am so grateful to make this small sacrifice for the Lord and His children.
We've had several investigators drop us this week, and others who are not keeping commitments. "We love agency, except when it's our children or our investigators". We are pressing forward in faith, looking for those who want the fulness of the gospel and are willing to do what it takes to get it. There is a miracle waiting just around the corner for us to find. Satan always works the hardest when something amazing is about to happen.
For those who were not a part of the phone call, I want to share a story. Though it is a little silly, it's meaning goes very deep.
Sister Brand and I had just finished a lesson and were walked down the street back to our car. We stopped to talk to a couple of women about the gospel. As we were talked with them, we heard some rustling in the tree next to us and heard something fall and thump on the ground. We didn't see anything immediately out of the ordinary, so we kept talking. At the end of our brief conversation with these sisters, we walked over to the tree to see what had fallen. We discovered a squirrel laying in the shallow ditch under the tree. At first Sis. Brand thought it was dead, but we noticed that it was still breathing. The closer we got the faster it breathed, but it couldn't move. We stepped away from it. Sis. Brand questioned why the squirrel fell out of the tree. They spend their whole lives climbing around trees without falling. It seemed against nature. I offered the idea that it got bitten by something. I said it was just nature's way and it would work out the way it was supposed to. Sis. Brand couldn't leave the poor creature. For some reason she felt sick in her heart. We weren't sure what we could do for it, so we decided to pray. Sis. Brand offered the prayer. She pleaded for the squirrel to have peace and to be able to die quickly so everything would be all right. When she finished the prayer, we both looked up, fully expecting the squirrel to breathe its last breath and die in peace. After staring with bated breath for about 5-10 seconds, we were surprised as the squirrel popped up to its feet, leaped over to the trunk of the tree, looked at us for a few seconds, and then darted up the tree. We stood dumbfounded. We were surprised by the quick recovery.
Now maybe this is a normal circumstance, that squirrels sometimes slip out of trees, are paralized for a few minutes, and then are able to get back up and continue living their lives again, but to us it was a sacred experience. These "tree rats" as the locals call them, are reviled by many as annoying and disgusting creatures (to us as well, on many occasions), but for some reason, on that day, in that instance, we felt compassion for this common squirrel. For some reason we felt the desire to pray, to plea for its welfare, and with such faith expected an answer. The answer we received, was not was we expected. We learned that day that our prayers are answered, and often times not in the way we expect them to be, but always in a way that is better than we could have ever imagined. We learned that faith is an expectation, it truly is. It is not a dormant hope, but the courage to act on whatever answer we receive. We learned that God is VERY aware of us. He watches over everything, even the overpopulous "tree rats". He loves us, even the vilest of sinners. Christ prayed for us and died for our sakes. The gospel, in a nutshell, is very simple: love. Christ loved us. He set the example for us. If we will love Him, follow His example, and change our hearts to be more in harmony with His loving will, we will receive the greatest gift of eternal life. It's that simple.
Love ya lots! Trust in the Lord. Love Him. Pray often with faith. He will direct you.
Love,
Sister Cottam
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