This past week my eyes were
opened yet again to how fast time flies on by! After telling various people I
had 17 months in my mission after they asked the other day, I realized I have
been out for 19 months! It is so weird to think about. It seems like all of my
good friends in the mission are dying off now and so the last stretch might be
a lonely one.... lol.
This past week has gone by
incredibly fast and I forgot to bring my planner so I will do my best to recap
some of the things that happened. Yesterday we stopped by our investigator Walnels house because ever since he got his new job we haven't been able to meet with him. It was nice to finally see him but he was going into work at 1:00, so couldn't come to church at 2:00. We tried to get a hold of Marta and her family as well, but haven't had any luck. ,She didn't come to any of the English classes this last week, so we are a little bit worried about them. We will continue to try our best to get in contact with them again.
We had a member from Worcester come down and visit Elder Silva, so we ate dinner after church and then went out and met with some members. One of them is struggling right now and is turning away from the church. We have tried to meet with him alone before, but his wife is always there and since they always fight with each other we haven't had too much success until last night. We were able to steal him away for a little bit in his garage to play some pool and get to know him which turned out to be great because we were able to share a message about prayer with him, which is something he really needed to hear. The Spirit was there and now we are going to go back tonight to play a little more pool with him and share a message. He is a great guy, but with everything going on in his life, he has been turning away from everything he knew before.
On Saturday we were able to go to the Temple with our branch because three of our members were taking out their endowments, so it was a great blessing to go there and do a session with them. I CANNOT wait till after the mission to be able to just sit in the Temple all day. That is one of the biggest desires I have had since I first started. It truly is the House of The Lord.
One of our members finally got her divorce papers from her husband in Guatemala, so that means she can finally get married to a recent convert and they can get sealed and everything!
There has been a lot of things that have happened giving us great cause to celebrate. We are still in the process of finding new people to teach, and have been trying to follow up with some of the ones we have already contacted.
As for me, I have been doing pretty well. I love this area and the people here and the fact that there is so much to do.
As time goes by and as I have more and more experiences I learn more about our Savior and his great and abundant love for us and come to the conclusion that I really do not know him as well as I would like. I am so grateful for his perfect love, and overwhelming desire to shower us with the blessings from heaven, as we but ask him in faith, believing that we will receive them. I think at times in life we become so complacent with everything that we forget exactly who it is that allows us to have EVERYTHING that we do have as blessings from them. The Lord truly is the one that gives and takes away, all for a wise purpose in him for our benefit.
In "True to the Faith," under Gratitude, towards the end it says "Work at being grateful. You will find that it yields wonderful results." I can testify of that. To me gratitude is one of the simplistic things and yet one of the most powerful things we can learn in this life, especially when we express our true gratitude to the Lord for all he has done for us. It is what allows us to be filled with happiness and joy even when everything around us seems to be falling apart.
This past week I have been striving to apply a principle from a book titled "Putting on the Armor of God" (Yes, I have been given permission to read :-). The principle I have been applying is "WHAT HOLDS MY ATTENTION HOLDS ME." I wrote it on a sticky note and have it in my planner so that when I open my planner throughout the day I take a little inventory of what I am thinking about during the day. As I do so it helps me to focus on the things that really matter most like our Savior, what he did for us and the many blessings he has blessed me with and what he has in store for me. As a result of this I have been re-awakened many times this past week of REMEMBERING the reason why I am here, who it is I am serving and the power behind the calling that I have been given to represent the Savior of, and Redeemer of the World, Even Jesus Christ. As I remember that, I remember that not only as a missionary, but as a member of the church, I am to say, do, think, act and love as Christ himself would. That is a huge task to try and accomplish, but I am so grateful for the great blessing of our Savior's grace, or in other words, enabling power to carry that out and do the best that we (he and I) can do together.
For all of those reading this, who are members, I would ask you the same soul searching and thought provoking question that Alma asks in Alma 5:26, "And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?" I feel that if we truly want to show our Father in Heaven and Savior Jesus Christ that we love them, and that we are grateful for all that they have done for us and to continue to feel this song of redeeming love forever, that alma speaks of, we should strive to remember each and everyday who it is that gives us our daily breath and strive to live our lives in a way to keep our baptismal covenant to ALWAYS remember him. I promise that as we do so we will find a greater peace come into our lives, a peace that can only come from the Prince of Peace.
I love my Savior, and all that he has done for me. I am so grateful for Him bringing me to this knowledge time and time again that those drops of precious blood he spilt were for me and for all of you. It is my prayer that we will strive to remember Him always and as we do so, be filled with his perfect love and share this wonderful message of love, hope and miracles with all those around us. I leave these things with you in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
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