Miracles of Fasting

Being at Welfare Square is quite fun. Since tours are really slowing down we actually spend most of our time hosting there. The Visitors' Center at Welfare Square is connected to the Bishop's Storehouse so we help people fill their food orders there. People come in with a food order request form signed by their Bishop and then we take them through the storehouse and check things off of their list. My least favorite part is getting the right amount of fruit and vegetables because we have to weigh everything and make sure that they end up with the right total of pounds. Usually people are given between 15 and 20 pounds of both fruits and veggies. The other day I filled an order for a man that was given 53 pounds of vegetables! And the order was just for himself! That is a TON of vegetables. I'm very glad that there is something to do when there are only three tours in a day. It is great to see and know that people have a source of help when their family can't be there to lend them a hand. Heavenly Father really is looking out for his children. It just makes you want to pay fast offerings!

 

This past week I learned a lot about fasting and that it truly does have a powerful effect. We had fast Sunday last Sunday so I had a whole new appreciation for fast offerings and how it is an opportunity for us to help the poor and needy. Sister Imazeki and I witnessed some wonderful miracles on fast Sunday. We had a Japanese tour with four retired men from Japan. Most of the time I didn't understand what they were talking about, but at some points Sister Imazeki asked me to explain something or to bear my testimony and she would translate. They didn't have a Christian background so I was doing my best to explain in a way that would help them to feel the Spirit. It turned out to be a wonderful tour and one of them referred for missionaries back in Japan. Then right as we were finished with that tour we turned around and a couple asked us what they were supposed to do here at Temple Square, so we offered to take them on a tour. They here in Salt Lake from Washington DC for some meeting and wanted to come to Temple Square to see what Mitt Romney believes. As we were taking them around they had this realization that we are Christians too. I guess someone in Washington DC gave a speech about how Mormons aren't Christian, but since Jesus Christ is the center of our beliefs we were mentioning His name and they discovered that we too believe in Jesus Christ.

 

On Sunday evening I got a voice message from someone that I had called in RC a few weeks prior and she wasn't quite ready to meet with missionaries or go to church. She had been to church before but stopped going because she didn't have people there to talk to and the missionaries kept changing. Despite that, though, she still told me that she feels at peace when she goes to church. Her husband isn't religious and so that makes it more difficult for her too. But when I got her voice message she told me to call her, and so I did, and it turns out that she went to church AND met with the Sister missionaries for the first time! She really enjoyed it and she was going to be meeting with the missionaries the next day too! I was so touched that she thought to call me back and tell me that she had gone to church. I didn't think that she would go through such an effort. So I got to talk with her and be excited for her. I really hope that she keeps it up!

 

AND to top it all off, I called one of Sarah's friends (my sister) from High School and she wanted to get her own copy of the Book of Mormon from the missionaries...It was an incredible day.

 

I also spent some of my personal study time this week reading about fasting. Isaiah 58 is great chapter about fasting and I learned that there are some incredible blessings associated with fasting! Here are some of my favorite verses from the chapter:

 

 6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
 7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
 8 ¶Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward.
 9 Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;
 10 And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:
 11 And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

Isn't that incredible!? The Book of Mormon even talks about how we are blessed for giving to the poor in Mosiah 4:26 --

 "And now, for the sake of these things which I have spoken unto you—that is, for the sake of retaining a remission of your sins from day to day, that ye may walk guiltless before God—I would that ye should impart of your substance to the poor, every man according to that which he hath, such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and administering to their relief, both spiritually and temporally, according to their wants."

By fasting our needs can be met (as we receive answers to our prayers and other assistance that we need) and the needs of other are met as well (when we pay a generous fast offering). Heavenly Father truly is looking after His children and I get to show people how when we take them on a tour of Welfare Square. It is just an incredible program!