This
week flew by, my mind is still in a fog, BUT, transfer calls came in and.....
WE'RE BOTH STAYING!!! I finally get to finish training a trainee :D and my
first 2 trainees are now companions AND my Sister Training leaders! AND one of my old companions is training a new
missionary in my district! So, essentially, my whole mission is just coming
together this transfer, what a time to be alive!!
All I have time for is a
quick sum up of the week. FIRST, M., probably the most enthusiastic person on
the PLANET!, we finally got to meet with her again and teach her son and they
both just ate up the restoration. When we shared Amos 8 and talked about how God’s full church was lost
for a while and there was an apostasy, she SCREAMED, like she got punched, and
started going "NO, that’s AWFUL, oh NO!! Say it isn’t so!" It felt
like something you’d see in an old Mormon movie, but she was serious. So,
thankfully, the next thing we taught her was about Joseph Smith and how he
restored that church again, and she says "WOW, God is so great he let the
earth repent and restored a prophet, He's so good at forgiving!" I never
even thought of it like that before, she just blew my mind. And made me feel
like a calm and laid back individual.
Later that week we stopped
by again with a 15 year old young woman from the ward. We walked around the
area, met 2 less active members who wanted to go to church again, and talked to
another one of our investigators, before we stopped by. The lesson with them
was great, then we visited another less active family who said they’d come to
church on Sunday. We dropped the young woman off and are thinking "wow,
what a productive evening, God is so good, I’m so glad she got to experience
that!" THEN, on Sunday, she gets up and bears her testimony on how she
went out with the missionaries. We're thinking "yes, she loves missionary
work and the gospel!" and the first thing she says is "I didn’t want
to go, but my mom made me, but I’m glad she did!" HA, I felt kindda bad
about dragging her out but the WORK OF THE LORD MUST GO ON!!
We also got to teach the
youth all about missions and what they’re like, and all the young women got super pumped
to go on them someday, it was just a youth filled week. It made me kindda
homesick but SUPER GRATEFUL that this church has such a good youth program. It
really helped me when I was growing up, and I know I wouldn’t be where I am
today without it.
Anywho, our district
made it an action plan to go talk to people at the park, and whenever I’ve done
that before I’ve had little to no success. But, we did it anyway, since we
committed to it, and I was humbled quite fast. We met a senior named T. who
starting tearing up when we told him about the Book of Mormon and how it'll
help him have the relationship with Jesus Christ that he's been looking for. Just
goes to show that God knows better than I do
We had Zone Training
Meeting and it was just lovely. The President asked us to start having a pen
and paper with us when we pray, so we can write down our impressions, forcing
us to have a 2 way communication with God instead of just us talking at Him
then going to bed. And oh man, it CHANGED MY LIFE!! I invite all of you to try
it, I received some of the best revelation of my life by doing that this week. And
what I learned from Heavenly Father is reflected perfectly in a talk from the
ensign this month!
It’s by Elder Bednar and
it’s called “Accepting the
Lord’s Will and Timing,” talking about how we go through trials to prove to Heavenly Father
that we "won't shrink" when times get hard. In Luke 22:42 it talks about Christ suffering for the sins of
the world, and he says "Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from
me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done." Prayer is not a way to
change GOD's will, but a way to change OUR will to align with Heavenly Father's.
Elder Bednar talked about how various people were going through trials that
they felt they couldn’t handle, and asked God to heal them. The question that
was posed to them, and is posed to all of us, is "do you have the faith to
NOT be healed?" It got me thinking, do I have the faith to not be healed? Do
I have the faith to be okay with God putting me through hard times as a way to
grow and get better? Can I have the faith to believe He CAN remove the bitter
cup from me, but also the faith to accept that sometimes I need to drink from
it so I can learn? Just as Christ always submitted to the will of the Father,
we must also be willing to endure all the heartaches that life has in store for
us. But, unlike Christ, WE don’t have to go through them alone.
My mission has
definitely turned out differently than I expected. And my life in general has
taken similar unexpected turns and ups and downs. I was reflecting on what Elder
Bednar said and realized that all that I have been through is exactly what God
needed me to experience. He never left me, He's there to support and comfort
me, but as I rely on Him as a way to get THROUGH the hard times instead of a
way to ESCAPE them, we give ourselves a chance to be better
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