Let's Go to Church!

Sundays have always been one of my favorite days of the week, because it's the day when you get to see the 'fruits of your labors'!  Who, out of the hundreds of people that we invited and taught, will come to church?!  Sister East and I have had such a large group of people these past two Sundays, that we've had to ask some young women in our ward to go on splits with us to help us 'pick up' everyone that we promised.  I wonder if sometimes people tell us they'll come to church with the thought, "oh these girls will never pass by to pick me up anyway!"  haha!  and then Sunday afternoon at 3:00 -- "Surprise!!  We're here to take you to church!"  There was one 14-year-old boy who we had invited to come to church,and he had seemed super excited to come.  However, when we should up at the meeting place, he wasn't there.  I asked around on the street to see if anyone knew where he lived (because his current house was under construction).  We finally found a woman who knew where he lived and she agreed to take us to his house.  As we were walking down the street, the young man passed by on his bike on the street in front of us.  We yelled for him, but he didn't hear us.  So, I did the only sensible thing to do and took off running after him!!  Unfortunately, we never caught up to him...bikes tend to be faster than running, but we tried!  

As I've been studying in the scriptures, I was intrigued by Alma's instructions to his son Helaman concerning the plates (Alma 37).  He begins by telling his son that the Lord works by small and simple things to bring about great things.  Then, he talks about how the scriptures helped Ammon and all those missionaries in their missionary work to the Lamanites.  Finally, he tells Helaman that he doesn't understand the Lord's reasons, but that the Lord has a wise purpose for every commandment that he gives us.  I'm sure that it wasn't always easy to keep the records in those days.  Scratching out words in metals would not be fun, and I can imagine that someone at some point probably thought, "What a waste of time.  No one is even going to read these records.  I'm just doing all this hard work for nothing."  Yet, as Alma testified to his son, the Lord has a wise purpose and He is in control.  Often in our own lifes, we too find ourselves wondering, "Going to church is such a waste of time," or "No one pays attention when we have FHE or family scripture study," or "I'm doing all this hard work preparing this lesson or this talk for nothing."  Whatever it is, we too wonder whether our 'small and simple' efforts are truly going to pay off in the end.  I testify that YES!  Our 'small and simple' efforts always pay off!  We can't always see the full picture, or understand the Lord's ways, but we can have faith that truly, the Lord has a wise purpose in every command, and if we faithfully obey we will be blessed!