eternal families

one reason thats unfortunate about leaving at the time we did to come to japan was that i couldn't teach relief society. i know that sounds weird, and so unlike me, but this lesson was on eternal families and i was really excited about it. 

i love getting my weekly emails from my younger sister and brother who are serving missions right now. i love hearing about what they are experiencing and hearing about their lives while they are so far away. this one experience of my brother ryan's really stood out to me, way more than everything else he has said and was planning on reading this section of his email if i would have given my lesson on eternal families -

Another miracle story: So i think it was about monday, but i was having a pretty tough time. nothing really bad, but just getting a little frustrated and discouraged. It was because two of our investigators are pretty good but they've just got a lot of problems. We have one girl investigator, shes older, single, and doesnt have a good relationship with her family. and because of those things had been getting really lonely, just having a really hard time finding joy. And as much as my companion, the two members, and i tried to share and bear as strong testimony as i could, it just seemed like i couldn't do anything to help. One of those things where its like these are real world, real peoples problems, im 19 years old, how can i possibly help. We did as much as we could and it helped and she's progressed, but not a huge amount. then it happened again, we went to visit our vietnamese investigators (who are really fun, ive been able to teach him three english phrases: hello i am bryan, i dont understand, i want baptism...extremely useful i know) but anyways they are having all of these problems cause there boss wont pay them enough, so they are hardly having enough money for themselves let alone sending money home to there families. So we again did as much as we could to help, and headed home. On the way home i just kept thinking about all this stuff, that was just out of the hands of a 19 year old missionary to help. then i looked over and i was biking right next to a guy, decided to say hey. he seemed like something big was one his mind but he would reply anyways, then almost out of the blue, a question just came out of my mouth: what do you think the purpose of life is? I thought he was ignoring me at first cause there was a pretty long pause, and he said, you know thats what i have been trying to figure out, i dont know. he went on to tell me last december he had his 15 year old son die from a brain tumour. And he still just hasnt found peace about it. He told me he sat by his side everyday for about 9 months as he was in the hospital. He says tons of people have different ideas of where his son is, but hes not sure about any of them. He has just not been able to get over it, no matter what. With that we were able to pull over on our bikes and i was able to look him in the eye and tell him i can tell him exactly where his son is right now. my companion came back and we sat on a bench along the river, opened the scriptures and shared the second half of the plan of salvation to a man in need. he just was soaking it up and we were all almost in tears the whole time. As we were able to share about God's greatest blessing for us is we can have eternal families and he loved it. He said he was already able to feel a little better. It was a miracle. God sends us young uneducated kids to bring His children home. Thats our reason for being here. It was so incredible to be able to watch as the message of the plan of salvation change this man's life. It was one of the most spiritual experiences i have ever had. This gospel is incredible. He doesnt live in our area but im so excited for the elders that get to teach and baptise that family. 

i love that story. and am so grateful i have family members who are, and who have, dedicated years of their lives to bring joy and peace to people all around the world. and because i think i have the most awesome family in the world, i am extremely grateful that i know we can be together forever.