July 17, 2009

Hey family, I love you all, thank you for all of your letters and stuff, it really is encouraging!I appreciate the emails too, but I wont always have time to answer or read all of them, I only have 30 minutes for email. Please send any longer messages through dear elder, so I can have a bit more time to read them and email you back! I am greatful for your prayers and guidance. I pray for you all often. On Tuesday I had a great experience at the RC (Referal Center, it is a call center where we call people to follow up on their orders for free videos, bibles, and copies of the Book of Mormon. I called a number and the lady on the record was not actually home. The woman I talked to was very nice, and she told me they had not gotten a chance to watch their video, "The Lamb of God" yet. I asked when we could call back after they watched it. She told me the lady that I was trying to contact was going into surgery this week, and was not doing very well, so she was unsure when she would be up and about again. I told her how sincerely sorry I was about the situation. She asked me, very sincerely if I would pray for her. The spirit was very strong! I told her that I would, my scriptures happened to be open to Matthew 7:7-8 at the time. That scripture talks about God answering our prayers. I felt impressed by the spirit to read her that scripture and to tell her that if she would pray with faith, through her prayers and mine everything would be alright. She was very emotional, and told me that she knew that was true, and thanked me. I arranged for her to be called back in a couple of weeks, and I hope that they accept the missionaries when they are called back. Experiences like that make every answering machine, every person that hangs up on you, every person that is angry and tells you never to call them again, it makes all of that worth it. One call out of 50 can make it all worth it. I have prayed for this woman every night since then and I know that her prayers, and mine will be answered! I hope that we can all learn from experiences like this and go forward with faith!!! My time is nearly up for email so I will wrap this up, I will try to write more in my letter today. Please forward this email to the family, or put in on my blog. I am so grateful for a loving family!Oh, and just so you guys know it is OK for you to refer to me as Keith in your letters, it is nice to see your first name occasionally here. Love, Keith (Elder Banner)