It has been awhile - 01/03/13

Thanks to the holidays, I haven't been able to email in a long time. But I'm very happy to report that I'm very happy.

Transfers are coming up! Calls go out Saturday, and Monday is transfer day. Since my companion has been here for so darn long, I'm guessing he will be leaving for greener pastures. But you never know what mission president has in store for us.

 

I'm impressed with how wonderful the Lord is in directing us exactly to where we need to be in order to answer someone's prayers. Right after Christmas, I felt like we should visit a certain older couple. When we showed up, the wife told us that she was feeling sick, and that she had been praying for us to show up. Why she didn't pick up the phone and call us, I'm not sure. But the Lord knows his children, and he demonstrated to us his love through that soft and gentle prompting which led to spiritual experience for all of us that were involved.

 

Similarly, I received a letter from an investigator in my past area expressing her struggles to follow the right path after we left. She thanked me for not giving up on her even when she was hard to get a hold of, and that the sister missionaries that replaced me stopped visiting or calling. She also shared with me a scripture verse that I had never shared with her, so she must have been studying. It was Alma 32:13, very similar to Ether 12:27, which she really enjoyed. But I was dismayed to hear that she was slipping back into old habits, and that she felt farther away from God than she did when we were teaching her. I decided to text the sister missionaries and ask them to try to visit her again. Again, I was amazed to find out that they had followed up on a similar spiritual prompting and they had visited this woman, taught her, and set a return appointment. I should have more faith in my fellow missionaries, it seems! But it's so great to hear about how they are bringing her back into the fold.

The mail has picked back up again, with everybody sending me Christmas wishes and holiday cards. It's good to know that I'm not completely forgotten. Spending Christmas as a missionary was a little bit lonely, but I was never really alone. I imagine Moroni must have felt terribly lonely as one of the last remaining survivors of an exterminated race of people, but as he followed the promptings of the Holy Ghost, he was able to fulfill his mission and feel the love of God no matter what the circumstances.

 

I'm hoping that I will continue to faithfully serve without whining and being trunky throughout this brand new year. So far, 2013 has been pretty fun, and full of invigorating missionary experiences. As I continue to learn and grow, God blesses me more and more. 

"The more faithful service you give, the more the Lord asks of you. Your smile is a happy one because you know that He increases our power to carry the heavier load. The tough part of that reality, however, is that for Him to give you that increased power, you must go in service and faith to your outer limits." Henry B. Eyring 

Love you guys, have a fun holiday. I'll be emailing again on Monday.