We started working hard to have a member at each of our lessons. We would meet with the member before hand and teach them the same lesson we planned to teach to our investigator. We would lay out our lesson plan and invite them to participate and to share their testimony with the investigator or less active. We found that this really helped in keeping our lessons on topic and moving forward. However with all that work there are still times lessons don't go as planned that sometimes your member decides that they know best.
Even now thinking about this particular instance I laugh with dread as it was so bad. We had met with our member two days before the lesson and all seemed well. Our member was prepared to share two scriptures, an experience, and their testimony. They had a copy of our outline and knew the investigator so we arrived thinking all was well.
We got in there and started our lesson. All the sudden our member started contradicting or fluffing up what we were saying. (ex: you should pray every day - member would say, well you don't have to pray every day and you'll be fine) We were totally blown away we had no idea what was going on. We tried to continue but at every turn our member was attacking us. It was incredible.
The spirit had left and we could tell we were loosing our investigator and she was frustrated. Both Sister Christopher and I could feel the tension and that things were wrong. It was a fight or flight feeling and I was not about to flee so there I was about to fight. I said a silent prayer and then asked if I could sing a song. It was so out of blue I had no idea where it came from. I didn't know what song I was going to sing or how I was going to sing it.
We were trying to teach the concept of prayer so the song that came to my mind was "Oh, My Soul Hungered". More nervous then I had ever been I explained that I wanted to sing this song but that I only knew it in English. I wanted our investigator not to listen with her ears but with her heart.
So I sang:
Oh my soul hungered the moment I knelt down to pray,
And felt all my doubts wash away.
Oh my soul hungered, He heard my cry.
The voice of the Lord spoke peace to my mind.
Oh my soul hungered Things that were old became new
When I learned to feel what I already knew.
With all my heart, With all my soul,
I wrestled before the Lord to make my life whole.
He filled my hunger, He fed my soul.
He fed my soul.
The truth that belonged to everyone else
Is now a sacred part of myself.
Oh, I found out what I could not find,
When I heard with my heart
What I knew in my mind.
Oh, my soul hungered.
I finished, and you could feel the change in the air. Sister Christopher and I bore testimony of the truth and power of prayer. We then asked if our investigator would prayer with us before we left. We knelt down and asked if she would offer it. We both folded our arms and bowed our head. It felt like eternity but finally our investigator started to pray. The spirit was so strong. We set up our next appointment and left. This whole time our member had been silent. As we walked to the bus our member told us she had never seen anything like that. She was so impressed by us and knew that our investigator was in good hand. That night we couldn't thank the Lord enough.
Today that investigator is a faithful member of the Church and attends every week. She's old and has dementia but there is one things she remembers and that is that the Church is true.
mit freundlichen Grüßen
Jenessa Jensen
