"The Spirit of God, Like a Fire is Burning"

I really didn't want to go to Institute very much this morning. Mornings are hard for me. The natural woman takes over and I just want to stay in my warm bed but I got up and got ready and went and I'm so glad I did!! It was awesome. The missionaries were there with an investigator they are teaching and it ended up being a really awesome spiritual experience which culminated in this man bearing his testimony that Joseph Smith was a prophet. The missionaries were grinning from ear to ear and the spirit was so strong it was almost tangible. He has a lot of questions but seems to be a man of great faith. He is a survivior of Hurricane Katrina and basically lost everything--his home, his job that he'd had for the last 27 years, his new car, even his brother, but he has an amazing attitude and said that he felt that the Lord brought him to where he is at this point for a reason. He said when he lived in New Orleans he'd seen the missionaries coming before and just wouldn't answer the door but now he has been really searching and asking God some serious questions and so this time when the missionaries came to his door he let them in and now he just wants to keep learning more and more. It was a great lesson and got a little off track from the actual curriculum but I don't think a moment of it was wasted. The teacher was telling us about his experiences in Hattiesburg following the hurricane and how he got to hear Elder Ballard speak and he (Elder Ballard) pronounced an apostolic blessing on the victims of the hurricane and said that a lot of good would come out of the trials they were and would experience including that many of them would be led to the gospel. It was awesome to be there in a room where that blessing was coming to pass right in front of our eyes. The man started out asking a lot about how you can tell you're feeling the Holy Ghost's influence and apparently came to the conclusion that he felt it since he bore testimony of Joseph Smith. I feel really blessed to have been able to be there today and participate in that class. It is so evident to me that God loves each of us and knows us and I'm so thankful to know that he is my loving Father in Heaven and that He sent his Son Jesus Christ, to atone for my sins, to die for me and to be resurrected. The gospel of Jesus Christ is really such a miracle!