Submitting to the Will of God

This past week, I learned a lot about the importance of submitting to Heavenly Father's plan and timing and just enjoying what He has in store for you. I have been waiting for a visa to Brazil for over 10 months now, and transfers are coming up. We received a phone call letting us know that my companion would be getting transferred and I would be training a new sister missionary. The mission president told me that I should really ponder and consider if I still wanted to wait for my visa at this point in my mission (since sisters serve for 18 months) or if I wanted to just permanently stay here in North Carolina. It was a lot of news all at once. The idea of never getting to teach the gospel in Portuguese like I had planned was disheartening, but I started to just accept that it must be for a reason that my visa wasn't coming and if God really just wanted me here, then I would be better off to just accept it and run with it! I decided to keep the option open of my visa still coming, but to mentally tell myself that I was going to be in North Carolina for the rest of my mission. After much prayer and pondering, I really felt good about it and started to get excited about serving here. For the record, I have loved the past 10 months here in North Carolina and know that Heavenly Father has needed me here for very specific reasons all this time. I do not regret any of it. But, it wasn't until just recently that I could honestly say that I was happy to be here for the rest of my mission and that I would be completely alright if my visa never came. I felt at peace finally with the idea of it, trusting that God had a reason for it all that I would be shown someday.

Fast forward to four days later, when I received another phone call from the mission president. Can you believe it? My visa had gone through and I would be leaving in 3 weeks for Brazil! I could not, and honestly still don't, quite believe it. All those times that God had told me that He had a time and a season for everything turned out to be true! Well, of course they did. But the miracle to me was that He prepared me, taught me, and lead me to reach the point where I not only accepted His will for me, but I was excited for it and happy with it. I know that as we truly turn our desires over to the Lord and allow Him to work in our lives, we will be lead to where we need to be when we need to go there. I would never have planned things to work out the way that they have, but I also would never change the past 10 months either. Though it is hard to see why certain things happen to us, I know that everything has a purpose. We are meant to learn from our trials and struggles. As we are patient and have faith in Jesus Christ, He will magnify our futures to be more than we could have dreamed.