The miracle of the rice - July 30, 2009

Dear Family of friends,

Well it's definitely been a challenge but we're slowly making progress. The zone leaders had a baptism this Sunday and I did the interview. The brother's name was Moorthy and he was a great young man. He is from a different state but recently moved in with his cousins who are members here in Coimbatore. It wasn't long before he agreed to meet with the elders and four months later he was baptized. This week Suresh and his family came to church this week for all three hours and the baptismal service afterwards. Suresh is the one who is unemployed who was looking to get a job in Saudi Arabia, but it looks like that idea is dropped. Now he's just looking for any kind of work and it has softened his heart to the point where he is extremely teachable. He needs help following the Word of Wisdom but he is willing and he wants to come to the church as much as possible. We still have not been able to meet with his whole family for a lesson and that was mostly due to our fault but this week we will definitely teach all of them.

We have had some big news with the big extended family we are teaching. Punitha and Antony were having some concerns about the Book of Mormon and we did everything we could to resolve their concerns. Punitha seemed to even be a little flustered because she was asking very pointed questions. We left them with a chapter and told them to read and pray about but we weren't quite sure if they would. Well I called the next night and a miracle happened--they read. Punitha said they all read and prayed together as a family (children included) and that she was now convinced that the Book of Mormon is from God. This happened last Friday and they didn't come to church on Sunday so I don't think we're quite out of the doghouse of concerns quite yet but we're moving forward. I'm suspecting she didn't come to church because of some problems they are having with a plot of land they are trying to build on and had to attend some legal issues.

Punitha's nephew, Rahul, is also doing really well and probably progressing the best out of all his family members. But we met him last night and he expressed how lonely he was. He tried to get all his direct and extended family members to church but none came and by the time he was done trying church. He even expressed how lonely he was at school and how he feels like he is an outcast. I don't know why he would be though, he is a sweet and bright young man. I know he'll fit in with the young men at church so we told him to just come to church and establis himself there and then his family would follow.

An investigator of the sisters in our district had a cool experience this week. Her name is Shermilla and she is a muslim orphan. She is the maid of one of our recent converts and as the family was learning the gospel, Shermilla became interested. The sisters began to teach her the gospel as well as English and she absorbed it all so rapidly. Well Shermilla works at the orphanage she grew up in and and the other day the owner told her to make food for the 50 children that were there and he gave her 2 kgs of rice. 2 kgs may sound like a lot but not when it's all you eat, and definitley not for 50 kids. But Shermilla didn't lose faith. She remembered the story of when Christ fed the multitude of 5,000 with only a few loaves of bread so she got down on her knees and prayed to God saying if God could feed 5,000 then surely he could feed the 50. After that she got to work and prepared the rice and curry and she was able to feed all 50 of the children until they were full and still have rice left over. Another time she was feeding the children again but she forgot about two of the children who had smallpox and therefore couldn't attend the mess hall. By the time she remembered the rice was all gone so again she prayed and she was inspired to look in a cupboard and there she found a small bag of rice. She took the rice and looked for the pot but she then found the fire was put out. She had no other source of heat then the left over embers but she made use of what she had and put the rice in the pot. Some time went by and she opened the lid to find the pot full of fully cooked rice. Next time I think something is impossible, I'll just think of Shermilla.

Sorry I couldn't write so much today but I hope you are all doing well and I love you all so much. Thank you for the recipes and support.

Love you a million miracles,

Elder Mackay