Happy Winter! November,
18, 2013
I got my first cold as
a missionary this week. It was quite a sacred experience :) It's hard to be
sick and do missionary work! But it's possible. Sister Dyer reminded me,
"If you don't take the time to be well, you will most definitely take the
time to be sick later." I'm better now, but it was a rough couple of days!
I've been thinking a lot about these wise words from Sister Dyer. This advice
can apply to us in so many different ways. Physically as well as spiritually.
If we don't take the time to be spiritually well, our testimonies will become
sick, and it take effort, determination, humility, and desire to build up our
spiritual immune systems again. I am so grateful for my physical and spiritual
health. It's something I sometimes take for granted. I'm also grateful for a
Heavenly Father who loves me enough to remind me how blessed I am.
Juliana came to church
this week and loved it! She is doing well and progressing towards baptism on
the first of December! We're excited for her. Since she is from Ghana we're
working on getting a Book of Mormon for her in her native language, Twi, and we
should be getting that this week. So I'm excited about that as well. When she
says the prayers at the end of our lessons, she says them in Twi, and I feel
the spirit. So strong. Every time. The language of the spirit amazes me with
it's universal influence and penetrating power.
On Wednesday we had
our first district meeting in our new district, and we talked about finding.
Elder Orr talked about the importance of the spirit in finding. He said we
should use prayer in our finding as much as possible. In that spirit, we went
finding! Later that day we were had an appointment fall through and had picked
out two streets that we could tract. We weren't sure which one we should go to,
so we decided to pray. Right there at that bus stop on Fife road. After the
prayer we felt like we should take that bus and go to the other street we had
decided on. It would be about a seven minute wait. As we waited, a lady came
walking by pushing a stroller and Sister Dyer handed me a mormon.org card and whispered, "Do it." :) I took the card
and started up a conversation with this young mom about the purpose of life and
came to realize, she was the one we had been waiting for at that bus stop. The
bus came and left while we talked with her on the sidewalk. We asked if we
could teach her some more of our message right then and she accepted. We walked
for about five minutes to her home and we went in and taught her about God's
love and repentance. It was one of those moments when you knew that the spirit
was working through you and you could literally feel God with you. She told us
about her hard past. HARD past. And told about the changes she had made already
so she could give her little girl a better life. She said she wanted a new
start and was looking for a church to go to. Talk about an answered prayer! We
had to catch the next bus, so we left her with a pamphlet and set up a return
appointment for the next day. She called and had to cancel the next day, and we
haven't been able to get a hold of her since... It breaks my heart because I
know how much she needs the Gospel. We think she got anti-ed, but we're not
sure. I know she felt the spirit though. She knows there is something different
about the message we share and the peace that came into her home as we talked
about repentance. I know she felt it. I have no doubt she will be baptized
someday. Whether it be while I'm here, or when I'm not, in that day, I will
rejoice!
I read Elder Bednar's
talk about conversion this week from a few conferences ago. This time as I read
it, five words stuck out to me. All of them are verbs. And all of them are
progressive toward the next. It is the process and pattern in which conversion
happens. Believing. Exercising. Repenting. Experiencing. Becoming. LOVE IT! We
need to first believe. Have faith that Jesus is the Christ and only through Him
can we truly and fully be cleansed and healed from anything mortal life throws
in our face. We need to exercise that faith. Act on that belief. How do we act?
We repent. Repentance is such a merciful word. I'm ever grateful for the
opportunity I have to change. We also need to experience the doctrine of
Christ. We need to learn from repentance and continually change so we can
become. Become who God wants us to be. Become who God intended for us to
become. Become the person we decided we wanted to be in the premortal life.
Become more like Jesus Christ. Man. I love the Gospel :) It's so true. All of
it. And it makes sense. It's such a beautiful thing when I can see a light bulb
of understanding turn on in an investigators head. That doesn't mean they
always are willing to exercise that faith and repent, but I know the spirit spoke
understanding to their heart. I know that living the gospel is the only way to
be truly happy and find peace in this life. I'm so grateful for the experiences
and decisions in my life that have put me where I am now. I'm grateful for a
merciful and loving Heavenly Father who knows my potential and who's purpose is
to make sure I achieve it.
Have a great week! Love and Prayers, Sister Felix
"When we
sacrifice for the good of others, we get heaven within us."
No comments:
Post a Comment