God's Business

Dear family and friends,

It has been a great week full of working. I don’t think I have ever been so tired all day every day. It has been such a great privilege to have so much work to do. As a missionary, everything I get to do has an affect on someone, be it myself or another, What I do with my time affects them. What a great calling I have!:)

This week we had the privilege of baptizing a wonderful woman who has made so many sacrifices for the gospel. She is someone who has left all to follow Christ. It was a little nerve racking, preparing to baptize her, an 8 month pregnant woman, but all went well. She is a great friend! She always takes care of us missionaries by saving some small rice for us every time we come to teach her. She also taught us how to make a favorite African dish, “palm butter” a few P-days ago. I admire her faith and all of the sacrifices she has made for the gospel, including her fiancée who was not willing to support her righteous desires, so she now survives and finds her daily bread wholly on the grace of God, now living alone. Hers is a wonderful story of faith!

We had a touching learning experience yesterday as we walked home from a long day of work. We passed a truly awful looking old man who was pushing a wheelbarrow with a cooler attached to it. He was selling small food and an African favorite, “juice in a bag” (we call it 5 dollar typhoid). His face was so thin and gaunt, he was very bony and as we say it here in Liberia, “dry”. No meat on the man’s bones. It was obvious that he didn’t eat much, ever, and likely never has in his whole life. His teeth were half rotted out, that is the few that were still in his mouth… As we passed him, my heart went out to him in sympathy. I knew that he was hustling every day, all day, not stopping to earn the pathetic salary to feed himself and likely a small family. It was apparent that he was never educated and had never been blessed in a worldly aspect.

My companion and I passed him and I so desperately wanted to help him. I wanted to tip him somehow and help him out with his business, but as it was Sunday, there was no way I could do that. We just kept walking and I couldn’t resist the urge to do something, so we turned back and chased the man down. He could barely understand our English and wasn’t comprehending who we really were, other than two strange white man from America. I tried to help him understand that there was a way for him to receive help from God to relieve some of the suffering he now was going through. I asked him if he wanted God to bless his business and help him in all aspects of his life. Of course, he was eager to learn this key! I told him that I had one simple, very simple solution to help him find better success in all aspects of his life. He was so eager for me to tell him!

I told him that if only he would take one day off out of the 7 days in a week from his hustling, join us in church and keep God’s commandments, he would find incomprehensible success in all aspects of his life, particularly in his market. I was so sad to see his response to that statement. He had apparently already been told this key and knew it already, he simply wasn’t living it. He urgently stated that he needed to get going and go sell, that he had a very long route to finish before the sun went down in order to find enough food for the upcoming days. He brushed us off and kept going.

I felt so incredibly sad for this poor man, and for all of us when we have not only A solution, but THE solution to a problem but don’t live it. I so desperately wanted to put my hand into my pocket and tell the man, “here, go buy yourself some food and rest, today is Sunday, it’s the Sabbath of the Lord. Go home to your family.” But that wouldn’t have done any good. I know the Lord is like this with us. He so desperately desires to give us all that we need, but most often, we are simply not willing to put our faith in Him and keep His commandments.

If only this man was willing to take care of God’s business, then God would have been able to take care of his business. But when we ourselves choose not to follow Him and His commandments, then sometimes, even our daily bread is not able to be provided by our Father in Heaven. Justice must always prevail.

It has been a great week, and my companion and I have a great one planned ahead of us! Thank you for all the prayers on my behalf, I need them, all of them. Take care!

-Love, Elder Fairwell