Out of changed hearts

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Saturday Afternoon Session of the April 2003 Conference.

Lots of speakers talked about sharing the gospel in this session. Two stories by different speakers were interestingly similar. One from Elder Eyring:

One humble man was called as the president of a tiny branch. There were so few members he could not see how the branch could function. He walked into a grove of trees to pray. He asked God what he should do. An answer came. He and the few members began inviting friends to join with them. In a year, hundreds had come into the waters of baptism and become fellow citizens in the Lord’s Church.

And one from Elder Ballard:

Some years ago a faithful convert, Brother George McLaughlin, was called to preside over a small branch of 20 members in Farmingdale, Maine. He was a humble man, driving a milk delivery truck for a living. Through his fasting and earnest prayer, the Spirit taught him what he and the members of his branch needed to do to help the Church grow in their area. Through his great faith, constant prayer, and powerful example, he taught his members how to share the gospel. It’s a marvelous story, one of the great missionary stories of this dispensation. In just one year, there were 450 convert baptisms in the branch. The next year there were an additional 200 converts.

I noticed these stories because they reminded me of my missionary Abe and his little 30-person branch in Arkansas right now. He is different than the men in these stories because he won't be Branch President very long. In a few months he will come home and his life and priorities will change. But he is similar to these men in that the work needing to be done in his branch seems monumental! The people he is teaching live in hard circumstances and have seemingly insurmountable trials. The strong members in his branch are few, and they are weary. There may be no miraculous end to this story.

But the thing I'm realizing is that the small miracles in these situations are just as real as the "450-convert-baptisms" miracles. And for the people involved, they are just as life-changing. One family who comes back to church. One man who returns to the temple. One woman who accepts a calling she first refused. One missionary growing into a more determined, mature servant of God. Maybe even one missionary's mother seeing in new ways what "sharing the gospel" means.

Elder Eyring says:

[People who are] bold and effective in sharing the gospel…see themselves as children of a loving, living Father in Heaven. And they see themselves as disciples of Jesus Christ. It takes no discipline for them to pray. They do it naturally. It is no special effort to remember the Savior. His love for them and theirs for Him is always with them. That is who they are and how they see themselves and see those around them.

Now that may seem to us to require a great change, but we can be confident that it will come. The change in individual members is happening across the Church in every nation. This is the great time foreseen by prophets since the Creation. 

I love seeing Abe grow and change as he serves his mission. And every once in a while I glimpse these changes in myself as well, like Elder Eyring said—as bit by bit I find it a little easier to remember the Savior, a little more natural to pour out my soul in prayer, a little easier to feel God's love. Those things are miracles too! And they're miracles that lead to more miracles:

I know now that the great miracle, a mighty change, will come inside the members, not in the world around them.

They and members across the earth will love and listen and talk and testify out of changed hearts. Bishops and branch presidents will lead them by example. The harvest of souls will be great, and it will be safe in the Lord’s hands.