5 Things I Love about Orangeburg

The following is part of a letter Elder B. Walker wrote to his sister on Monday 25 February 2013

1. The area we (just the two of us right now) cover is large. The ward boundaries are exactly twice the size of the Salt Lake Valley. There's plenty of people to talk to.
2. The ward members are very welcoming and willing to serve. (They feed us a lot too.) Many of the ward members have years and years of experience. (Experience in construction, callings, business management, spirituality, etc). We have very inspired leadership too; they take the time to pray and ponder for inspiration of what they can do to fulfill their callings.
3. It's really easy to keep a positive attitude when you have a great companion that doesn't get discouraged easily.
4. I'm humbled by the blessings that the Lord gives. There is a stark contrast in the lives of the active outgoing members compared to those that piddle in the communities and don't have much of a desire to forgo and leave behind their bad habits. They are astoundingly happier and much more productive.
5. I have learned how, why, and what to do as a member in the wards I will live in to make it a loving prosperous place, as far as bringing souls to Christ.

Saturday 23 February and Sunday 24 February, we had 13 appointments with people. Every single one fell through. However, we both sustained our positive attitudes and God blessed us because of it. Sunday, the first door we knocked on let us right in. It was a very long lesson. He talked about the struggles he's been going through. We taught the restoration (first lesson in Chapter 3 of Peach My Gospel) and I used a lot of scriptures. He told us we were scaring him because every single scripture we read he had pondered on semi-recently.

Also, there was a piece of paper that had phone numbers and names and looked like at some sort of even these names were collected from interested individuals. It didn't have a date and I found it right after I got to Orangeburg and my companion didn't know what it was. I almost threw it away a lot of times over the past three months but kept telling myself no matter how old it was (expectancy was 2+ years ago) it wouldn't hurt to call them anyway. One of the names had an associated address too. We called them all, none answered. Yesterday, we visited one of them, the only one that had an address. We were let right in but it turned out the person we were looking for wasn't home. As we were leaving, she got home and she was surprised to find out we were there for her. We found out it was an event from last summer that she had written her information down and nobody every followed up. We started to talk about how prophets need authority to do things like to baptize and she interrupted us to tell us she's been dreaming lately about going back to church and singing and that she has felt a great desire recently to be baptized again. We then invited her to be baptized and she told us how excited she is and described the Spirit to us and that was how she was feeling. Cool!

Saturday, the first person that opened the door (while knocking around our fallen through appointment) let us right in. He told us that he loved the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. We taught him a little bit, described what a church service is like and he said, "Wow! Every church should be like that." (Did I mention he's a reverend?) He's all for coming to church next week with his wife too. (He's got to be a retired reverend).

The Lord blessed his obedient children. I promise, keeping the commandments is the answer 100% of the time. When we put God first, all else falls into place.

Elder Benjamin Walker