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.

He Will Teach You

One of the people we have been teaching is such a great example to me of how Heavenly Father really does teach and prepare us to understand and receive the knowledge He wants us to have. She has been slowly increasing in her faith over the past few years as she has experienced the loss of her mother and trials of health. Though she grew up not really being very religious, she has learned to turn to God through prayer and has such immense trust that He will take care of her. She has been feeling the Spirit tell her that she needs to learn about the gospel and be a part of it. Yesterday, we taught her about the Word of Wisdom. This commandment was revealed to us through another prophet, Joseph Smith, and it details how God wants us to take care of our bodies and our spirits (See http://www.mormon.org/faq/word-of-wisdom). This commandment teaches us to abstain from alcohol, coffee, tobacco, tea, and illegal drugs in order to protect ourselves spiritually and physically and have the most happiness. We knew that she struggles with some of these substances, especially smoking, and so we invited her to pray about this commandment and ask God herself if it is something that she should do. To our surprise, she told us, "You won't believe this, but I already have been praying about this! For the past 2 weeks, I have been asking God to help me quit smoking. And I didn't even know it was a commandment!" This is such a testament to me that God is in control and that He is preparing and guiding all of us to learn what He needs us to. He was already teaching this woman how to better care for her body and spirit before we even talked to her about it. I know that there are forces at work in our lives preparing us for the future. Every experience and trial we have can be an opportunity to grow if we will take advantage of it.

Love Your Neighbor

For the past 2 months, we have been trying and trying to get to know one of our neighbors. We would see her in passing often, but never had the chance to get to know her. For some reason, we really felt like we needed to reach out to her and bring her some cookies. We went over several times, never getting an answer at the door. Finally, one day we saw her sitting in her car when we came home from getting some groceries. Although it felt a bit awkward, we decided to go back outside and talk to her. We told her how we felt like we needed to get to know her better and asked if we could come by in a few days and bring her some cookies. She said, "Of course!" and we set up a time to come over. We weren't sure what she thought of it, but were excited to get to know her. We went over...and she didn't answer the door. A little disheartened, we decided to just leave a note. As we were writing, she drove right up and was so apologetic! Apparently she had been looking forward to it all day, but was running late from work. She welcomed us in and we just sat and got to know one another. I was surprised at how quickly the conversation turned to topics of faith, prayer, and struggles she is having with her faith. We were able to share with her our beliefs and testimonies of God's love and how He is willing and ready to hear and answer our prayers. She told us how it was weird that she felt so comfortable with us and sharing personal experiences, but that she was so grateful we came over to talk with her. I just had this great feeling of love and concern for someone who I had barely known 10 minutes before. This experience showed me how important it is to reach out to those around us and love our neighbors as God does, even if it is out of the way and a bit uncomfortable at first. You never know when someone is in need spiritually or otherwise and how much a little bit of love and concern can really make someone's day better.

"And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him." (Moroni 7:45-47).

Watch this neat video! It talks more about how kindness and love help our society thrive. :) https://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages#the-civility-experiment

Never a Coincidence

Something that I have realized more and more as I have been on my mission is that there really never is a coincidence. Heavenly Father is a God of order and He has a plan for all of us. He knows our talents and abilities and how we can best help those around us. He will guide us to those people who we can touch and who we need to be touched by. An example of this just happened the other day. We had gone to church and a few other meetings, but our plans for the afternoon got a little jumbled and we were not sure where we were meant to go or who God wanted us to see. Since we share a car and it wasn't our turn, our options were kind of limited and we ended up getting dropped off at a nearby apartment complex by the member we were with before. As we were trying to figure out where to go, that same member sent us a text to tell us that she saw one of her friends walking on the road nearby and she told us we needed to go talk to her. We started walking to try and talk to her and see if we could help her with anything. We walked and walked and didn't find her. By that point, we were almost home and were not sure if we had really used our time productively. But, about half a mile up the road from our complex, we stopped and talked to a man who was walking the other direction! He was very nice and we gradually got to talk with him more about the gospel. Apparently, he has had several run-ins with missionaries throughout his lifetime and has actually been to a church before when he lived in the Congo! He had a lot of questions and misunderstandings that we were able to answer and clear up for him, and he seemed to be happy to have talked with us. He promised to call us after he had finished his move across town. Though we don't know exactly what will come of that situation, I am confident that God led us to meet that man so that we could share more with him about the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we are doing our best, the Lord will put people in our path that we can help and strengthen. I am grateful for those moments where I can see that I have been able to act as an instrument in the hands of God.

Our Divine Heritage

This past weekend, we had the amazing opportunity of attending the Saints Unified Voices Choir Fireside directed by Gladys Knight. It was an evening full of uplifting, fun, and inspiring Christian gospel music and testimony. Gladys Knight and her husband, William McDowell, both joined the church as adults and told their stories of how they came to learn about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the truth of the Book of Mormon. I loved the message they shared about how we are all children of God and that He loves each one of us equally and individually. The main message of the fireside was that we all are brothers and sisters and that we need to unite one with another. There is so much hatred, division, and persecution in the world. But, the gospel of Jesus Christ is not one of criticism or discrimination. The gospel of Jesus Christ is all about love, service, and helping those around us to fulfill their potential as a child of God. I loved how Gladys spoke about the value of our differences and how we can learn from one another as we embrace those unique qualities. We may not all agree, but we all have the opportunity to learn from one another if we are willing and open. I know that the world would be a much better place if we would all stop and remember our true identity, as children of our Heavenly Father. If we could truly recognize the potential that everyone around us has, would we judge so harshly? Would we be unkind or unforgiving? If we really knew what the person next to us was going through emotionally, physically, and spiritually, would we treat them any differently? It is my hope and prayer that as we recognize this divine heritage of ours, it will change the very people that we are becoming.

Here's a great video about this topic too!
http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=1101413030001

Believing is Seeing

One of the most fundamental principles that Jesus Christ taught while on the earth is faith. It is the power behind everything that we do. Everyone, whether they realize it or not, has some level of faith in something. Even waking up and getting dressed in the morning is an exercise of faith that your day will actually be worth waking up for. But, faith in Jesus Christ is more than a simple belief in something to come. It involves trust, reliance, and hope in the knowledge that because of Him, you can change, you can learn, and your prayers will be answered. We have been talking with a man recently who has a strong belief in God and in Jesus Christ. He is very educated in theology, and is interested in learning about the Book of Mormon. We explained to him that he didn't need to take our word for it, but that he could read the Book of Mormon, pray about it, and ask God for answers (see Moroni 10:4-5 on page 529). We told him how it is an act of faith to pray and ask God for guidance. He responded that he believes in God, but that he bases his faith on historical evidence, proof, and information and "doesn't need God to give him answers." I know that this is not true, and that Heavenly Father is open and ready to give us answers to our questions as we are willing to ask in faith. Just like the story of the apostle Thomas in the Bible, it is better to believe and act on our belief than just to go by sight: "Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." More often than not, we have to take a few steps into the dark to get to the light at the end of the tunnel. 

Opposition in All Things

It's a fact of life -- there are two sides to every coin, bitter for everything sweet, darkness and light, hard and soft, wrong and right. The world is made up of opposing factors that bring complexity and depth to our lives. Often, life is an "uphill battle" and we have to work hard to do what is right. Though these opposites often mean that we must experience difficulty in our lives, they also help us to see the miraculous, the joyous, the exciting, and the peaceful moments more clearly. This true principle of opposition and contrast in all aspects of life is not just an interesting fact. It is an eternal truth that is vital and very intentional. Heavenly Father sent us to Earth to learn, grow, and experience opposition. He knew that we would not always make the right choice, but that we would be able to learn, become wiser, and grow to rely on Him through our experiences. A woman that we have been meeting with teaches me so much about how to overcome adversity. She has been on dialysis three times a week for over five years. She experiences so much pain, lack of mobility, and suffering. Though an independent spirit, she must depend on those around her for everything that she does. Yet, you will never see this woman without a content smile on her face. She is at peace because she knows that this life is not the end. She knows that God loves her and that as she follows His plan, she will be able to experience peace and rest one day from all of her troubles. She sees everything that she must endure not as a nuisance or a reason to doubt God, but as a blessing and proof that He is guiding her. Heavenly Father knows what we can handle and He allows us to experience hardship so that we can become better. We all have potential more infinitely great than we can even imagine, and God will guide us as we strive to become more refined, more faithful, and more obedient to His will. I know that faith is power and that "if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them; wherefore he showed not himself until after their faith" (Ether 12:12 on page 509 of the Book of Mormon). Though life is full of surprises and challenges at every corner, it is also full of opportunities to grow. I know that as we view our challenges as growing experiences instead of roadblocks, we will be able to become the person God knows that we can. Learn more about God's plan here: http://www.mormon.org/beliefs/plan-of-salvation

Also read this article for further insight: https://www.lds.org/ensign/2014/03/trials-tribulations-and-trust-in-the-lord?lang=eng&query=trials+trust+in+the+Lord&cid=HPWE041614697

Families are Forever

This past week, we stopped by to visit a woman from church who we hadn't seen in a while. She welcomed us in and immediately gave us the story of what has been going on in her life the past few weeks. She told us about her elderly father and all the health problems he has been experiencing. He has been in and out of the hospital, suffering from multiple very severe illnesses that cannot currently be treated without causing other health issues. Basically, she told us, it is not looking good and he is likely to pass on soon. As she talked, I felt her sadness, her despair, and her pain. But, I also felt a quiet and subtle strength. Though she cried and mourned, I could tell that she had hope for her father. She knew that he would be alright, and that knowledge came because of her faith in her Heavenly Father and her Savior, Jesus Christ. She powerfully testified of her knowledge that her father would be happy and that he would be reunited with his wife, siblings, parents, and other family members soon. This experience illustrates to me the eternal principle that our families can be united and bonded together forever because of Jesus Christ. Because of His gospel and teachings, we can not only be forgiven, but we can be perfected. We can prepare to live in the presence of our Heavenly Father, and we can help our friends and family to get there too. There is a scripture in Alma 34:32 on page 295 of the Book of Mormon that reads: "For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors." To me, this means that our purpose here on Earth is to do all that we can to be ready to return to God. Jesus Christ came to the Earth to make it possible for us to return to the Father, and as we follow His teachings and commandments, we can be made worthy to live in God's presence. I am so grateful to know that my family can be together forever. I love my family and I don't know what I would do without them in my life. I testify that God intended our families to be together not just until death, but for all of eternity. To learn more about how, read here: http://www.mormon.org/values/family

Love Breaks Down Barriers

Yesterday, we had an amazing experience that testifies to me of the power of love and the Spirit. We were out talking to some people at an apartment complex, and teaching them more about the Book of Mormon. After talking with them, we asked them if they knew of anyone who might be going through a loss and would need some uplift. They immediately referred us to a friend who had lost a child recently. We went to knock on her door and told her that her friend from across the street told us she might be in need of some help. She was very stand-offish and skeptical of us, unsure of why these two random young women would just show up at her door offering to help her. She even asked, "There's gotta be a catch -- what is it?" We simply responded that there wasn't one, but that we knew she was in need of help and that we wanted to do all that we could to provide some. She reluctantly let us in and we talked to her about how much we knew that God was aware of her and loved her. We shared a scripture from the Book of Mormon: "And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me" (Moroni 7:33 on page 523). We told her about how faith in Jesus Christ will give us the power to overcome any challenges we face, whether it be loss, addiction, loneliness -- anything. We asked if we could come back sometime to tell her how and to talk with her. She agreed! As we departed, we asked if we could pray for her. She told us that she normally doesn't just let people pray for her, but that she would let us. After a simple yet concerned and loving prayer, we looked up to see that she was crying and had been touched by the Spirit of God. This woman, who has been holding on to the loss of her child for two years and feeling as though God had abandoned her, was able to feel His presence again through a simple act of love. She gave us the biggest hugs and told us she loved us. I know that love truly does have the power to break down any barriers. I saw it yesterday as a situation went from an awkward "Who are you??" to a powerful and hopeful "I love you". Charity is the pure love of Christ, and as we show that love to others in our day to day lives, their hearts and their lives will be changed.