Stillwater (Still Waters)

What a tender mercy I have experienced. Last Thursday got a call from my uncle ElRay who lives in Jerome. His daughter, my cousin, Leslie is on a mission in Oklahoma where I served my mission. He told me he had a letter to read to me from Leslie, if he could get through it:

"On Thursday we went tracting and met a woman who invited us right in: Madaline Hardin. She was so nice she invited us to eat apple cake with her. We sat there talking and as we talked and I enjoyed being there with her. We knew she must have had missionaries before because who invites you in for cake? We asked her about it and she said yes, years ago. She is 80 now and she had sisters who would come and she just loved them.We asked if we could come back the next day and share a message with her. She agreed and we came back on Friday after district meeting. Madaline told us that she had pulled her old Book of Mormon out and had been reading. Her church is changing doctrine and she doesn’t like that so we talked about that. She told us that she was using a card that one of the missionaries gave her to keep her spot. They had put suggested reading on it. I asked if I could see it. It was the usual scriptures on the back of the business card: 3 Nephi 11 and Moroni 10:3-5 then I flipped the card over. The next thoughts happened so quickly. I was looking at it and I saw the last name of the missionary and then looked at the mission office address I was thinking about that address when I heard Sister Fleming say she is from Idaho. Preston Idaho I read. I looked at the name again. Sister Kathryn Porter. “Katie”, I mouthed. With tears that now filled my eyes I looked up and quietly said this is my cousin. I can’t explain the way I felt. I still get chills now telling you about it. Sister Fleming looked at me with huge eyes and smiled in awe. Madaline asked how she was and I told her what I knew about her. She said tell her that you met me and that I say hello. After that I taught not just for me or for the usual reasons but for Katie too. Sister Fleming and I have never taught so powerfully. We taught with our whole hearts. We testified more powerfully than I have ever heard us do. I don’t say this to be prideful but that is the best lesson that we have ever taught. The spirit was so strong. I have never prayed so much in a lesson before. My head was swimming with the baptism I was already planning in my head and the desire I had to write Katie right then. Madaline understood. She could be ready, she does have a few things that she will have to work through. My heart was so full after we left. I want to stay in Stillwater so badly after that and since then the work has just picked up a ton. It was amazing to me to think that Katie had been in Stillwater. That she had been in that very house that I was in. That she had probably taught on that same couch that I had. I know this may sound silly but it was really neat to me. So that is my really cool story for the week."

Both Uncle ElRay and I were in tears after he got done reading it to me. And all this time I had thought that nothing good came out of Stillwater. It was my hardest area. I pulled out my mission journal and I did not write Madaline's name in it and I do not remember her. But I did learn something I had forgotten about Stillwater. I had prayed for a challenge. And did I ever get a challenge, let me tell you. I shall not go into it but it was tough. What a wonderful Blessing for me to share with my cousin. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father has chosen to give me such a gift from something I thought I had failed in.