An Invitation To Come Home

This week passed by in an exceedingly quick manner. On Independence day we got to go to a little party with the District and the Zone Leaders. We had a meeting where we got to meet our new mission President, President Leishman. At the meeting he shared a video of a talk Elder Holland gave to the new mission presidents in the MTC which I would like to briefly relate to you. A young man left home vowing never to return again. He was in Idaho. He went and joined the Hell's Angels and got into an appalling life style. One day he woke up in an trashed apartment having no idea how he had gotten there. He took it as a too-late wake up call, and drove all the way across the country to California (by some sort of arbitrary decision). There he started getting involved with the local Hell's Angels again. One day as he sat on the porch of his beaten up trailer home, he saw two missionaries coming down the street. The very sight of them filled him with rage, bitterness, and resentment. He watched as they approached his house, and laughed as his two vicious pit bulls charged the fence frothing and gnashing their teeth. Part of him wished the fence was not there. The missionaries quickly backed away from the fence and kept walking. Then, they suddenly stopped, talked for a while, and came back toward them man who was laughing cruelly at them and his two savage canines. Again, the dogs charged the fence with their usual ferocity, but when they drew near the missionaries, both dogs suddenly stopped, quieted, bowed their heads and turned and walked back to the porch and sat down. The man was stunned, as were the missionaries. The missionaries then opened the gate and walked in, heading toward the man. They began a conversation, in which he told them how stupid they were for coming in. One of the missionaries asked, "So, are you from around here?"

He replied that he was from Idaho originally, and named the town he was from.

The missionary asked "Oh, do you know Mr. and Mrs. So-and-so?"

The man replied. 'Those are my parents".

The missionary paused, and reached out his hand and said. "Those are my parents, too. They have been praying for you at family prayer every night for the last 20 years. God has sent me here to invite you to come home."

Over time, the man, helped by his brother who he didn't even know existed, repented and came back home to his family and became active in the church and is now sealed in the temple to a wonderful woman. How amazing is that? Think about how many people had to be prompted by the Holy Ghost for all of that to happen! We are where we are for a reason!

We are out here to invite people to come home. I am so grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and for the kind of person I have become because of my Savior.

I don't have anything else to report on for this week, but I did want to be able to share that amazing story with you. I hope you all have a great week! Farewell.

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Elder Benge