Making Up The Difference

May I close my testimony with a short story.
A few months ago, Sister Bateman and I were touring the Japan Fukuoka Mission.
The missionaries in Kumamoto introduced us to a young Japanese brother who had just joined the Church and then told us of his conversion.
He was from a non-christian background.
When he met the missionaries, he was interested in the message.
He liked the young men who were teaching him, but during the course of the lessons could not understand or feel the need for a Savior.
The missionaries took him through the lessons and taught him about our Heavenly Father, Christ, and the plan of salvation, but he didn't have a witness.
The missionaries wondered what they should do and decided one day to show him a film, a Church film that deals with the Atonement.
It is called The Bridge.
The young man saw the film and was disturbed by it, went home, and couldn't sleep all that night, but still he didn't have a witness.

The next morning he went to work.
He worked in an optician's shop making eyeglasses.
During the course of the day, and elderly woman came in.
He remembered her coming in a few weeks before.
She had broken her glasses.
She needed a new pair.
When she had come in earlier, she didn't have enough money and had gone away to save more in order to purchase the new glasses.
As she came in that day, she again showed him her spectacles and showed him the money that she now had.
He realized that she didn't have enough yet.
Then a thought came to him: I have some money.
I don't need to tell her.
I can make up the difference.
So he told her the money she had was adequate, took her glasses, made an appointment for her to return when he had finished making the spectacles, and sent her on her way.

She returned later.
He had the glasses ready for her.
He handed them to her, and she put them on.
"Miemasu! Miemasu! I see. I see."
Then she began to cry.
At that point, a burning sensation began to grow within his bosom and swelled with him.
He said, "Wakari masu! Wakari masu! I understand. I understand."
He began to cry.
Out the door he ran, looking for the missionaries.
When he found them, he said, "I see! My eyes have been opened! I know that Jesus is the Son of God. I know the stone was rolled away from the tomb and on that glorious Easter morning He arose from the dead. He can make up the difference in my life when I fall short."

Merrill J. Bateman -Stretching the Cords of the Tent -April 1994 General Conference

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi