Champion for the Cause: The Lord's Simplicity

Monday and Tuesday were a little too much for Elder “Mac”. Our goal was one member at a time. Unfortunately I tried to push him a little too much with dinner and one member. He’s not dumb; he knows that is two, not one. That really got him worked up and stressed out. All day Wednesday he kept asking me if we had one member and if I had worked out the rest of the week. Not yet.  All I could tell him is that I was working on it. That wasn’t good enough for him. He broke down in tears through out the day. He wanted to go home.

Wednesday night God sent help. We got a hold of our Bishop and he said he would most certainly help give a blessing to Elder Gregson. We met him at the church. He was talking with someone so we went into a room to wait until he was ready. Just before we walked in to a room, Sister Budge in our ward shouted out to us, “Elders we have left over cake!” She brought it over to us. It was strawberry shortcake. Sunshine loves that, especially the strawberries! Before he took his first bite he looked at me, giggled, then smiled with tears in his eyes. That was the first time I saw him smile the whole day!

 

Bishop invited us into his office. I usually have something to say, but I was out of words. I had no idea what to say. I just knew we needed his help. Bishop looked right at him and said in a loving grandfather’s voice, “I saw your shot.” He lighted the mood and helped McKay feel comfortable.

Bishop and I placed our hands upon his head, and blessed him. Bishop blessed him with mental strength and to be able to finish. He let him know that he is a great example to those around him. It was exactly what McKay needed.

With McKay’s syndrome, I have discovered, we HAVE TO work on a certain schedule. If we don't, his mind starts spinning and we have mental breakdowns like this week.  With full confidence we tell you our schedule that you will understand the circumstance and trust us when we are saying we are doing ALL we can.

6:30 Wake up
6:30-7:00 Walk and do sit ups
7:00-8:15 Get ready and eat breakfast
8:15-8:30 Read the Book of Mormon
8:30-9:00 Companion study
9:00-9:30 Facebook post
9:30-10:30 Goo Nap
11:30-12:30 Lunch
12:30-1:00 Drive to mission office
1:00-3:00 Help at mission office
3:30-4:00 Drive back

4:00-4:30 Goo Nap
6:00-7:30 Dinner and lesson
8:00-8:30 Facebook post
8:30-10:00 Wind down and get to sleep

I sent this to my buddy earlier today on email:

“I've been struggling with the workload. It's not like what we used to do. We literally visit one member a day. That's all Mac can handle mentally. Maybe we will get to more people face to face here but what I'm learning is  1) Patiently wait for The Lord to open the doors 2) Minister to people one by one 3) The power of prayer. I've been praying that we would make an impact on others that we don't even know that some way we could reach them. “

 

I know the Lord is working a miracle through McKay. We must have faith before we see miracles. That means we have to make it through the tough days and the ones were, to me, it seems like nothing is happening. However, it’s BEAUTIFUL to see him light up when he gets out of the ONE lesson. He is so happy and feels so accomplished. We are touching one person at a time and it’s humbling for me eyes to watch.

I'm praying to find ways to find and teach people during the day on the phone or online; so far no luck. I definitely had some interesting phone calls this week :) Will you pray that we can have a break through in this particular area? If you have friends or family who you think would be blessed by the gospel, INVITE them to learn more about the church from us. We are not threatening at all. We can message them on Facebook, call them up or even Skype them. Have them find us on Facebook or send us an email and we can work it out with them. It will be a blessing to them and you.

Even after all the tough things we faced this week, I want to share with you the strength the Lord sent me. On Friday night we went to dinner with the Wassons. We watched the video I made about McKay, 6.7 seconds. I had been frustrated with our schedule that day and when we shared the video the Lord softened my heart. I didn’t know what to say again after the video was over. We got to the car after we prayed with them and I just cried and cried. I knew that we were doing all that we could and McKay’s simplicity was blessing people one by one. When we got home I read McKay’s nightly summary for the day. As I saw these words specifically from him to me, “he is an example to me and always love my brother forever! “ I choked up as I read them and started to cry again. I told him to post it. I went in to the kitchen and the Lord literally brought me to my knees. I had no strength. I was bent over staring at the floor as tears dripped to the floor. McKay walked in the room. No words. He simply wrapped his arms around me and I wrapped mine around his. He patted my back, then my head. Then he said, “I love you man.”  I said, “I love you too.”