This morning we did our laundry and worked on next week's Institute class. It will be Helaman chapters 4-9.  Then this afternoon we went to a luncheon for one of our servicemen who is graduating from her officer leadership school and will soon be heading home. We will really miss her in our group meetings, she is a very good pianist. We are happy that she will be returning to her family in Washington.

After our luncheon we headed up to Fort Gordon to try and find some of our troops who are in Advanced Training. We did find 3 of them and had an opportunity to visit with them and to encourage them to stay active in scripture study, prayer, and attending church meetings. We reminded them that we are a resource for whatever they might need. We asked them to consider us as their family while they are here in training. It was so hot today that we felt it best to get out of the sun for all our visiting can only be done outside the barracks. We drove over to the PX and cooled off and drank 2 big cups of water.

We then drove out to Grovetown to meet with a military family who had invited us for supper along with our visit. We knocked on the door and the dad answered with a gasp. Oh  no, mom had just undergone surgery and they had forgot we were coming, but being very gracious they would not allow us to leave, but invited us in and we ended up having a wonderful visit with them. They have 5 children 1 of which was at work and the other 4 are all 12 to 17, two boys, who are twins, and two girls. A neighbor brought them dinner and they invited us to stay. We were very hesitant, but we felt we needed to stay and have dinner with them. We all shared wonderful dinner conversation together and when we were all done, Elder Gowans felt inspired to leave them with a message based on a passage of scripture we are all familiar with, "Knock and it shall be opened unto you." He asked each member what that meant to them personally, then after that we turned to Moroni chapter 10 verse 4 and discussed the meaning of asking with sincerity and real intent. The father had earlier related his story of how he joined the church. He had stated that he had asked in prayer to know which church was true and at the same time to bless him with a wife. He told God that he would do what ever He wanted him to do. The next  morning at 7:30 in the morning two Elders knocked on his door and the  sister who played the piano at his baptism eventually became his wife. So because of his sincerity and asking with real intent to do whatever God would have him do, his very sincere prayer was answered. So using this story we likened it to these young men and women in the house to pray with real intent, meaning that they would devote their lives to God and His work if He will answer their prayers concerning the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Joseph Smith. We left with a great spirit in the home; the father was very appreciative of the message that we left with them.

The Spirit inspires us every day to leave with these families and individuals a message they need to hear.