Preparing the Heffelfingers

The three visiting teachers who found the Heffelfingers

See The Reason I Came.
Here is a firsthand account by a member of the Townsend Ward Relief Society, on finding the Heffelfinger family and preparing them to receive the missionaries. The Relief society is the womens organization in the Church whose purpose is to help others. They often meet with members of the church, who, for whatever reason, have stopped coming to church. Here is the account:



Our Relief Society presidency has made visits to women in our ward that we haven’t met since we were called as a presidency. These have tended to be rewarding experiences.

There have been some sisters that we met at their door because we didn’t have a phone number for them. Unfortunately there are a few of these who no longer want to be associated with the church. Even those experiences I do not consider to be negative experiences. And on the other side of the coin there were sisters that we called on who invited us in for a nice visit.

Some sisters we have not been able to meet in person because they will not make an appointment with us, but at least we tried.

When we visit, we try to get to know the sister and her background in the church and then ask if she would be willing to have visiting teachers. There is one sister that did not accept visiting teachers after our brief visit, but when I run into her (about once a year) she visits with me like we are long-time friends.
We have especially enjoyed the times that we have called on sisters who have agreed to have visiting teachers come to their home. Most of the time, we know (through the promptings of the Spirit) who those visiting teachers will be before we return back to the church after the visit.

Being in a ward, we do not have to go on a search and rescue on our own. We have priesthood leaders, auxiliary leaders, home and visiting teachers, missionaries and friends to help us in the Lord’s work. We need not fear making the first move, as there will be someone there to help us. And here I have to give credit to the visiting teachers who kept fellowshipping until their sisters returned to full activity in the church.

And so one evening we were going on one of our visits – to Sheri Heffelfinger. We had never met Sheri. She lived in a part of our ward that worked and went to school in Helena. If she did want to return to church, would she want to drive to Townsend?

Sheri graciously invited us into her home. Erin and Art, the oldest daughter and father, were working, but Leah was home. We started visiting with Sheri . Leah went to the kitchen for something to eat (within listening distance). We were in an interesting discussion about Sheri's background when Leah asked if she could join us. We were thrilled with what an amazing young woman she is. She was like a ray of sunshine, and she said she had questions too. We talked about prophets and following the spirit. We invited Sheri to church and she asked Leah, "Will you go with me? I've gone with you to your church, will you come with me to mine?" We were so excited to hear her say 'my church'. Leah said she would go.

The spirit prompted us to ask if they would like to meet with the missionaries. They said they would. We told them what great sister missionaries we had in our ward. :-) The spirit was so strong, we walked out of there on cloud 9.

The missionaries met the family but, unfortunately, some family emergencies took the Heffelfingers out of town for awhile. Then our ward had to share missionaries with another ward for a month. Luckily Sheri's newly assigned visiting teachers kept track of her. When the Elders came to our ward a few months later I was really worried. Were they going to be as good as the sisters for this family? I needn’t have worried; the Lord knew just who the Heffelfingers needed to deliver His message.
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That is where the article, "The Reason I Came" begins. My companion Elder Roerdanz and I were the first pair of Elders put into Townsend full-time after the Sister Missionaries left.
What incredible timing.
The Lord is so aware of the challenges that we all face. For the Heffelfingers, He prepared every detail so that they could be helped through their distress, and become converted to the gospel.