8/23/2021 In Our Weaknesses (Elder Davis Byrge)

***This is Katie. I couldn't let the day go by without letting you all know about a very special day approaching quickly for 2 of our missionionaries. Cade and Davis will officially hit their 1 YEAR MARK (aka Mission Hump Day) this Thursday, August 26th. As this is a momentous day in the life of a missionary any words of encouragement sent their way would be greatly appreciated and I know they love hearing from home. Again thank you so much for your love and support for these 2 wonderful young men!

Washington and Texas hold very big pieces of our hearts and as of tomorrow Michigan will as well. Sam will be flying to Detroit in the morning. The work continues and I am truly grateful for these 3 Elders and their love, dedication and sacrifice as they serve to the best of their abilities. Thank you for being part of their journey. We love you all so much!***

WHATS UPPPP YALL!!!! It has been going so good over here in Richland. I wanna tell y'all about our friend but I can't use his name so we're gonna call him John. So a couple weeks ago we were in the basement at the Family History Center in a meeting and some legends in our ward were upstairs grinding family history. Anyways John works at the dollar tree right next to the church. He doesn't have a car so he usually walks home. That day he decided to walk into the family history center because he felt like something told him to. So he got in there and asked all the people upstairs if they could pray for him because he is going through some really hard times. So they did, then they came down and got us and we started talking to him a lil bit and set a time to come by. We were crazy busy so we set it for a day or 2 out. But later that day a member whose wife was at the family history center said he was going by and the spirit was really telling us that we should go as well so we went with him. Anyways then we really met John. He has had a crazy hard life. He was in prison for about 55% of his life and has had some really traumatic experiences. We got to know him a lil more that day and he has changed our lives since. We have been meeting with him on a regular basis and he loves the Gospel. He came to church and it was the most pure thing I have ever seen, he had the biggest smile ever. He has been making friends in the ward and he loves it. There are a lot of people in his life that try to tear him down but when he's learning about the Gospel and at church he is so happy. We went to the temple with him the other day and talked about the plan of Salvation. He has lost a lot of loved ones in his life. At the very end he started crying and stood up and said "God is good '' and hugged us all. The spirit was so strong.

Recently he started living the Word of wisdom and it has been a lil hard for him but he's been doing it and it's like he is a totally different person it's incredible! He has changed my life. Yesterday we went with a member to pick him up before church and he came outside bawling. He says he knows his soul is okay because he is on the right path but he is so worried about his family and friends. It was the most pure thing ever. The thought of the people he loves not living with our Father in Heaven and our Savior literally broke his heart. It was just like Mosiah 28:3 go check it out. It really humbled me, it made me reflect on how much I desire the welfare of the souls of all my brothers and sisters. We all need to have that desire that John has to share this gospel. Since we have been meeting with him he is a totally different person and we owe it all to the Lord. He is the one changing John, not us, not the members, it's the Lord.
I have learned that no one is ever too far from changing and receiving and living the gospel. I learned that outward appearance means absolutely nothing. He is on date to get baptized September 4th please keep him in your prayers.

It's also so humbling to see how God will deal with all of our weaknesses. The past little bit I have been struggling with perfectionism. I have wanted to be the perfect missionary so that I can please my Father in Heaven and it did more harm than good. But something I heard came back to me, a story someone shared when they had the same thoughts they said that they felt God telling them "I have only had 1 perfect missionary." It's so true. Jesus was that perfect missionary. We don't need to be perfect, we just need to keep trying and in our weaknesses we will see miracles because we have a very loving, very merciful Father in Heaven who loves us so much. JESUS IS A GOD OF MIRACLES, never forget it!!

I LOVE YOU ALL!!! I invite you all to reflect on this story of John and ask God to give you your own missionary opportunities and I promise that He will!! You are all such beasts, I LOVE YOU!!!!!!

Elder Davis Byrge
davis.byrge@missionary.org