In all thy ways acknowledge him...

I have had this as my favorite scripture since my senior year in high school. My wonderful seminary teacher, Keith Perkins, at Granite High school seminary, taught me the value of the Old Testament and this wonderful scripture:

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart,
and lean not on thy own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him
and He shall direct thy paths.
Be not wise in thine own eyes
fear the Lord, depart from evil."    - Proverbs 3:5-7

During the night a couple of days ago, it struck me that I have missed a vital part of that scripture, even though I have it well memorized. I have always loved the concept of trusting in the Lord and feel that it has been so important to me in my life and in the Lord's service. However, I never even thought a bit about acknowledging the Lord in all my ways, as being part of that trust.

In the past week or so, we have had some amazing experiences here on our mission. First, we had the baptism of Wladimir a couple of weeks ago (pronounced Vladimir). It has been a blessing to see him find confidence in the Lord and see the change that has come over him as the healing powers of the atonement has worked in him. Then, about two weeks ago, Ralph met the missionaries on the street and, after a short discussion about the church and the gospel, he said he would come to church. Often, people say they will come, but never do so. He came to church and has regularly attended since then, including Institute each week. The missionaries only last week began teaching him the missionary lessons. He has a baptism date coming up soon. Then last night, the elders finally met a young man who has been taught the gospel in the past, but broke off the lessons, and they had a wonderful discussion with him and he promised to come to church next week.

We have a dear sister who has been seriously ill over the past weeks, including some special hospitalizations where we and others have not been able to contact her to comfort her. Last week I asked the branch to pray especially for her and I fasted. When others tried to contact her (she was not in our area at the time), they could not find her and after a few calls, we discovered that she had been released and was at home. She still has some difficult times ahead, but she is much better.

Sister B. has had fabulous success in finding names of ancestors for one of our dear sisters and literally hundreds of names have been prepared for work in the temple. We will be traveling today with this sister today to visit this tiny village of Durchhausen where her ancestors lived. I have also been working with some other members in genealogy and we feel that we are receiving help from the other side of the veil in our work here.

A young man whom we have visited off and on over that past 17 months suddenly started coming to church and has come consistently for the past 5 Sundays. A less-active member brought a newly found friend to church a couple of weeks ago, who is also a member, but had lost contact with the church for years. This dear new sister, Grace, has now come to church twice and each time her friend.

We are seeing the hand of the Lord in the work and things are opening up.

It is so important to acknowledge the hand of the Lord. Trusting in Him is the first step, but acknowledging His love and influence is tied directly to this. Then He will direct our paths.