Prayer and Missionary Work

I was looking through some old emails and I was reminded of an experience I had in college.  I had just returned from a 2 year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Brazil and was back at college in the US.  I was running some errands and had to get my bike tuned up.  The bike shop said it would take half an hour so I went to walk around the waterfront area of the college town I lived in.

I came to a fountain and decided to sit down. I saw a guy there reading the bible. I had a feeling that I should go talk to him but I was a little nervous since I hadn't talked to anyone about the church in English in 2 years.

I decided to pray. I said basically if I am supposed to talk to this guy, get him to come sit over here and talk to me. When I opened my eyes there he was. He introduced himself and asked if I believed in the bible. I said yes. He asked if I was a believer and I said I guess you could say that. He had a pamphlet talking about how we can believe in The Bible.  I told him what church I belong to and then he said "so you already went on a mission and everything?" I said yeah and he asked where. I told him I had served in Brazil and he asked what part. Most Americans aren't super aware of geography in Brazil except for maybe where Rio de Janeiro or Sao Paulo is. He told me that he helped open a church in Recefe. and he lived there for 2 years.

He asked lots of questions about The Church, Joseph Smith and The Book of Mormon. We talked a bit and I was having trouble talking about the Gospel in English. It told him that I have a lot more scriptures memorized in Portuguese so he said I could speak Portuguese because he speaks it too. So we talked for half an hour in Portuguese about The Church The Bible and all his questions. Although he didn't agree with all my answers, I was able to clear up several things he understood wrong about The Church, Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and some of the doctrines of The Church.  I invited him to church and told him where the closest building was.

I asked what time it was and he said he didn't know but had to go. We both left and when I turned around, I saw him talking to someone else about the bible.

Although I never saw him visit church, It was a really good experience and I was happy to be able to answer a lot of his questions that he had not been able to ask a member of our church before.  It was even more fun that weeks after I got home from my mission to Brazil, I was able to use my Portuguese to talk to another American about the Gospel.