An analogy in the New Year

Happy 2020! I was a missionary for all of 2019 and wow what an amazing growing experience that was!

Something I learned this past year is how much I love using analogies to relate the Gospel to people’s life. So I thought I would share one that has been coming up a lot lately. It’s what I’ve been sharing in response to the question, “Why would I pray to a God if I don’t even know that he’s there?”

If you were sick with such a severe illness that it looked like you were probably gonna die and some stranger came up to you and handed you a business card with the name and phone number of a doctor, would you call the number? You’ve never met the stranger, so how do you know if you could trust them. You don’t even (really) know the doctor’s there. You don’t know if it’s a fake number or not. You don’t know that the doctor will answer. If you do call and it is a doctor, you don’t know if they would be able to save you or not. So…would you call?

Most people would at least give it a shot. So I then ask them why. Why? Why would you try and call this random number from a random person you’d never met before?
~ Because I hope it would work
~ Because I want to be saved
~ Because I’m running out of options
~ Because why not?
~ Because it’s that easy

What if the doctor didn’t answer? My favorite answer someone gave this week. Try again. Call until they do answer. When we don’t know that God’s there or that He’s listening, isn’t prayer the same thing? Wouldn’t we want to try simply because we hope it works?

Now what if we feel like God doesn’t answer. Do we give up? Or do we keep trying until we do get the answer?

Just like you don’t know if God is there, you don’t know if the doctor really is either. But don’t you wanna be saved? Why don’t you just try it out…

The first person we shared this with was our friend Guo JM. She was confused as to why we were always asking her to pray and read the scriptures and we found where the miscommunication was. She didn’t understand that prayer and scriptures actually related to her life. Asking her in analogy form she began to think really deeply about what prayer had the ability to do for her and it was incredible.

The next people were the Jiang family I mentioned last week. This past week when we went to teach just dad and the daughter were there. But dad asked us the same question~why should he pray~so we shared it with them. You could see his perspective change in the countenance on his face and you could tell he had this new understanding. Sunday when mom, dad, and daughter came to church again. Mom told us we had changed dad and daughter’s life and that she wanted to be there when we come to teach this week. I’m way excited to keep helping them!

On Sunday we shared this analogy with Tina. Tina has been struggling for a while with the concept of God and had never been willing to do any of the invitations we gave her. I shared this analogy and she was left with no words.

One last miracle I want to share is with our less active member Li DX that I mentioned last week. He came to church! He truly came to church and was so excited to be there! The members welcomed him back and after the Sacrament he shared with us how he truly felt the power of Christ in his heart. I just sat there amazed at how far this man has come. He still has a long way to go, but he has taken some leaping strides.

This work is incredible! It’s gonna be a great year!

I know God is there. I know He is listening. So just pray.

I love you all so so so much!!!

安姐妹