Hi everyone!
This week has been one of my hardest weeks as a missionary. The Lord has asked something very hard of me, but I couldnt be more grateful. I am in a new area, which actually isnt really all that new to me. It is the area that I was originally assigned to when I came to Florida in January 2013. Walking into that house where everything happened brought a feeling of sicknesses in the pit of my stomach. Among other things this area has been closed for two transfers and my companion Sister Alcazar and I have a lot of work to do. Sister Alcazar is from Mexico and is working on her english. I know that the Lord is really expecting me to get a hold on my spanish. She is so sweet and I love her so much!
I know that this is part of the healing process to go back to where it all began, and though it was hard a first it has shown me just how strong I have become. It has shown how truly powerful the atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ is. It has shown me how strong my testimony has become.
One afternoon after studies I was really struggling so I began to pray and plead with God to tell me what to do. I felt inspired to open an old relief society manuel (daughters in my kingdom). and I read this: Throughout the history of the Lord’s restored Church, female disciples of Christ have lived up to this standard. Like Esther, they have been faithful and courageous in the face of difficult challenges. They have found purpose in their lives, as Esther did when her cousin Mordecai asked her, “Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Like Nehemiah in the Old Testament, they have not been diverted from their sacred responsibilities. When Nehemiah’s enemies tried to tempt him away from his duty to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, he replied, “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?” His enemies continued to tempt him, but he stayed strong and true to his important work. The world has tried to persuade the women of the Church to abandon their God-given missions, but faithful Relief Society sisters have not “come down.”
I knew at that moment that the Lord wanted me to get to work, that He did not want Satan to bring me down, and He knew that I didnt want that either. We are all doing a great work. Times will be hard, but I know that it is then that we must hold fast and get to work. We will not come down to the things that will distract us. The world needs us faithful latter-day saints, this is not time for distraction.
Eliza R. Snow said “I will go forward,” she said. “I will smile at the rage of the tempest, and ride fearlessly and triumphantly across the boisterous ocean of circumstance … and the ‘testimony of Jesus’ will light up a lamp that will guide my vision through the portals of immortality.”
In other news we got a brand new 2015 toyota coralla and we put the first 100 miles on it! The ward is soooo excited to have sister missionaries back in the ward, its so fun to see how excited they are! Thankfully while the areas was closed the elders worked a little bit in our area and had a recieved a refferal for a lady named Claribel. She is friends with a member from the fountainebleau ward which is where I served when I first got here. He joined us for a lesson and it was amazing. She has already recieved a Book of Mormon from the Elders and has been reading it! She is kind of homeless. She has a house but it looks super aboandoned and its in forclouser, so she- as the memebr would say 'lives off the kindness of others.' But she was so excited about every point of doctrine we taught her. I wish you could see her face and eyes light up as we talked about the priesthood and the sacarament, and prophets. She has so much faith! She was brought to tears when the memeber told her that she could be with her husband for eternity. Her husband passed away and buring this time they were not together because she was a drug addict, but she says that she has forgiven him and that she wants to be with him forever. She was so excited to hear that he could be baptized and forgiven. She says she knows the true church. She is so excited to get baptized next Sunday. We were nervous that she wasnt going to make it to church yesterday but she did. We went over at 8:15 to make sure she was ready and to wait for the memebr to pick her up, and she was completyly 100% ready to go. She loved gospel prinicpals which was about the milleniyum (I know a lot of deeper dodctrine for claribel this week :/) but she kept commenting and asking questions she just loved it! We are so excited for her baptism next Sunday!
LOVE YOU!!!!!!!
XOXOXOXOX
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