Several months ago, my good friend and next-door-neighbor moved. She was the best neighbor ever...and I miss her terribly! But, with change, comes new opportunity. There was a man who moved in, and a few months later his wife, children, and his mother joined him. They are a nice family, from Detroit. He is in the air force, and his wife works in Salt Lake. His mother looks after his two daughters, who are 7 and almost 3-years-old. They were kind enough to accept all the zucchini I brought by this summer, as well as some other over-run vegetables I was growing.
One day, after school had started and life had settled down a bit for them, Elsa (the mother/grandmother) knocked on my door and said how lonely she was. She doesn't drive, and with everyone being at work and only the baby to look after, she had become lonely. I invited her in and chatted with her for a while. She indicated that she had always gone with a friend to a Baptist church. I told her there was a Baptist church nearby and that maybe she could go there. However, she had always gone with a friend, and I guess she didn't want to put her son out to take her and pick her up. So, figuring nothing would come of it, I said to her "You could come to church with me and meet some people in the area." I also told her there are activities the women do once a month that she would be welcome to attend with me. Mostly I just thought she needs Relief Society!
About a month after that, she asked if she could come to church with me. This was the day before stake conference, so I explained that it was a little different that day, but she was more than welcome to come. It was a typical stake conference, and I wondered if she would be totally turned off...but a couple weeks later she wanted to come again. This time she stayed for sacrament meeting and most of Sunday School, which was gospel doctrine. The teacher was awesome and gave her a warm welcome to class. He made quite an impression on her.
So, off and on, as she was able to (when her son and daughter-in-law weren't working) she came and said she would come to church with us. People began to get to know her and welcome her to class and say how glad they were she was coming. The missionaries in our stake were doing a big push around this same time, to get the youth involved in missionary work and sharing the gospel with their friends who may not be members or may not be active. One day we had them over for dinner and as they gave the message after dinner, asking us if we had any friends who were interested in hearing the gospel, etc, instead of giving my usual answer of "no, I can't think of anyone..." I was able to say "Yes! My next door neighbor has been coming to church with us!" They were so excited!
A few days later, they asked me to set up a time for her to come to dinner or a family home evening that they could come to. This was right around Christmas, and with all the busy-ness of the season, I didn't get an opportunity to invite her. And then, it was our wards' turn to feed the elders again. The ward mission leader (who was the gospel doctrine teacher at the time Elsa first came to Sunday School) asked me to feed them and invite her to dinner with us. The day before we were to feed them, the elders called and said they had 2 things to speak to us about...first, they would be by at 6:00 for dinner; and second, they wanted to invite us to Elsa's baptism on the 16th of February! They had visited with her and she had chosen a baptism date. Wow!
I started attending the discussions they were giving her, along with a few other ward members. She was very accepting of everything they taught. When they asked her to think of someone she wanted to baptize her, she knew right away...the gospel doctrine teacher who had taught her first Sunday School lesson. Yesterday she was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints, and today, during sacrament meeting she was confirmed and given the gift of the Holy Ghost. It has been a very special weekend! Her baptism was beautiful. The Spirit was strong!
It is so amazing to me, that by simply opening my mouth and inviting her to church, she has been baptized. That day I invited her, she noticed the pictures of Jesus and Joseph Smith I have hanging on my wall, and asked about Joseph Smith. I gave her a brief explanation of who he was and what he did. She is the first person I have been brave enough to invite to come to church with me. It is amazing what instruments we can be in the Lord's hands if we will follow the promptings of the Spirit. I love this church, and gospel and I love the Book of Mormon! I just had to share in my excitement and joy!
