The story of a lifetime starts here in the South Africa Cape Town Mission.
As we were awaiting our meeting with the new mission president (President Lebethoa) we decided to go to the mission office to pick up supplies for the rest of the zone. To our surprise, president Lebethoa was at the mission office and was ready to give referrals to the unsuspecting missionaries that would enter in through the door. To our amazement, he gave us a referral that he had received from California for a Taiwanise family that lived here in South Africa! This would be the first time in my 18 months of mission that I would be in the presence of Taiwanise people, I was excited to meet them and so I gave them a call.
As Raymond picked up the phone, I was so excited to hear his voice that I didn't pay attention to what he was saying, but he was excited to meet with us the next Monday. That whole week we prepared both mentally and spiritually to meet with this family and to be ready not to make them feel uncomfortable or hesitant.
Finally Monday came and meeting with the Tsai family was amazing! We got to know them a little bit better and it turns out that Kim (Wife/Mother) has never prayed before and her son Chris had asked her a question about their religion just a week prior to us meeting with them. She wasn't able to give him an answer and what makes the story even better, he had asked her and Raymond (Husband/Father) how he could be both their son and God's son.
Raymond shared how he had come to know about us through his father and it turns out that Raymond hadn't spoken to his father for 18 years before the time we called him. As a 16 year old boy, Raymond's dad had left him and his mother and never gave a reason for leaving, but at the age of 17, Raymond decided to leave home to start a life for himself. He had his father's phone number but was too mad at him to call and find out why he had left. Eventually Raymond decided that he wanted to come on a tour in to South Africa where he was able to meet Kim and decided that she was to be his wife. For the next 8 years after their marriage, her family hated Raymond and tried to make their lives miserable so that they would get a divorce.
Meanwhile in California, Raymond's dad had met with missionaries and decided to join The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints. He said: "The church changed my life and I was doing family history with the missionaries one day and had an impression to try and get in contact with my son" For over a month, Raymond's dad fasted and prayed that the Lord will help him to find his son and the Lord did! One day Raymond's father felt impressed to download we chat and about 2 days later Raymond had an impression to put his old sim card into his phone. As the phone switched on, there was a we chat request sent from Raymond's phone to his father, and without thinking twice Raymond's father gave him a call and asked for forgiveness. He said that he messed up as a father and wanted to make amends. Raymond was touched by his father's apology and wanted to know what had made this change in his life. His father said that he had joined a church where he felt at home and where it taught him humility and love for family.
Now Raymond receives calls from his father twice a day and is continually meeting with the missionaries. He also has a baptismal date for the 5th of November 2017. Kim has come to know the God that gives her the blessings that she receives in life, and Chris has come to know that he has a loving Heavenly Father and loving parents that look after him in this life.
The Lord continues to watch over them to this day and hopefully in the future, they will be able to share this story with others... Till we meet again.
Off course you would resteem a religious post, it just depends who it is from, right?