Week 9- When You’re Where You Are Supposed To Be, Look Around and PERSIST 

Scriptures:

(Identify the original plan and then what the Lord wrought through willing servants)

1 Ne 4 (and really, the whole story of obtaining the plates of brass)

Alma 17-18- Ammon went to proselyte, but instead he...

1 Sam 17- David didn’t go to battle Goliath, but he ended up…

1 Kings 18- Elijah went to meet Ahab, but he decided to...

General Conference Address:  

 “Let the Holy Spirit Guide”  Elder Ronald Rasband CR 04/2017

Thought:

The reality of missionary work is that someone will stand you up.  I loved the Italian way of saying that.  If someone stood you up in Italy, you would say that they “threw a dumpster at you.”  It can certainly feel like that sometimes!

It can range from a simple scheduling error to someone being scared of continuing their conversations with you.  We may never know all the reasons why someone will stand you up.  When it happens, practice the following two behaviors and watch your life change.    First, forgive them.  There is no need to judge them or get mad at them.  Let it go and proactively forgive them.  Give them some grace and the benefit of the doubt.  The second thing you do is look around.  You are where the Lord has called you to be at the time you were supposed to be there, so look around.  There is probably a good reason that you are there.  

We had an appointment with a guy in Verona, Italy, who stood us up. While we were there, we introduced ourselves to those in the room and got to know them.   One of the men in the room was Thomas Kwabena Affum Buono.  He was young and a refugee from another country.  We started talking, and then a knock came to the door.  He went to answer it and had a small conversation in his native tongue, and then closed the door and came back to continue our conversation.  We didn’t think anything of it.  He was married with children back home and was trying to make money to help them out.  Over the next few weeks, we taught Thomas and got to know him.  The members of the ward got to know him.  We had a General Authority Seventy in the ward who befriended him and even got him a job.  It was perfect.  At his baptism, he disclosed that on the day that we met, the other people knocking on the door were Jehovah's Witnesses, and he told them that they were too late.  He was already having a conversation with us. 

Imagine how his life is different now, and that of his family, in part because we were willing to “look around” after being stood up.  ALWAYS LOOK AROUND after being stood up & PERSIST 

Invitation: 

The next time someone stands you up, look around and then open your mouth and PERSIST