10/13/2014 The Shoes Given Away

Sister Andreasen has been teaching me so much about the why of missionary work. I truly love her and she has found a special spot in my heart. I'm excited for this next week. This past week was a little rough in our area, but I feel like we are starting to get into the groove of this transfer though. I've learned a lot about compromise, and sincere and loving compromise at that. I think that she is doing rather well, although she was feeling a little under the weather for a few days.
I want to share an experience I had this past week. I'm one of those missionaries that doesn't mind talking with people, even if it is outside the car window. I've had a lot of companions who weren't big fans of this, and I don't blame them. Well, Sister Andreasen this past week had talked to me, and we had come to an understanding about this. It was interesting, because we were getting back into the car to head to a different part of our area and out of the blue Sister Andreasen tells me to "LOOK!"

There was this woman, walking on the other side of the street, coming down the sidewalk. She looked very very sad.

"Yell out the window at her, will you?"

I was more than delighted to. I unrolled my window, leaned my face on my arm and said hello. She looked up a little startled, and crossed the street to come and talk to me. As she came closer I identified us as servants of Jesus Christ and asked her if there was anything that we could do for her. She began to cry, and through the muffled words I heard that she had just been beaten by her boyfriend and dropped off at a nearby park with not even a pair of shoes. We both got out of the car. I will never forget what happened next.
Sister Andreasen looked down at her new shoes that she had asked her mom to send her from home. She had worn out her other shoes so that they had holes in the bottom almost, but rather than buying a new pair the last transfer of her mission, she had just asked her mom to send her her nice new ones from home that she was saving for after her mission.Without a moment's hesitation,  she took these beautiful black flats off and placed them before this lady's bare and worn feet. The lady refused, obviously touched and startled. "I can't take your shoes."
"Yes you can." Sister Andreasen said kindly, yet boldly. I could feel her holding her breath, brave and determined. The lady slipped the shoes on, crying into her hands. We gave her a Book of Mormon, said a prayer for her, and set up a return appointment.
The lady never showed back up for her return appointment, but I've not heard one complaint from Sister Andreasen about wearing her old, falling apart shoes. Thank you for sending me this companion. She is an angel, and a disciple of Christ. And you can tell her that I said that, too.
Well, other than that, we have had a hard time setting up appointments, but we were able to teach a couple really really good Less-Active and Recent-Convert lessons.
I'm doing well. I love being a missionary, and I love being here in Woodland. I've learned a lot about faith this week, and about sowing seeds.
I love this His mission, and "I'm trying to be like Jesus."

This past week I learned this:

1) You can never guess what a companion is going to be like until you actually get them as a companion. Sister Andreasen is awesome. It's completely amazing. I'm so excited to work with her. I'm ready for those miracles!
2) You can't punish yourself for your sins and expect that to be repentance. You have to turn to the Lord, repent His way, and then forgive yourself because He forgives you. You can't continue to punish yourself either, because then you are not actually recognizing His power and authority and love and mercy and justice. If you hang on to the guilt from past sins that you have truly repented for, then you are denying the power of His Atonement. You are saying that it is limited.
3) The Atonement is not limited. I had a letter sent to me last week by an old seminary teacher of a talk by Elder Bednar. Funny enough, I had saved the same talk from highschool seminary and it was already hanging on my wall above my desk, but it was interesting how as I read through it again, I realized that I need to take better advantage of the Atonement. It was an infinite sacrifice, so it covers everything. There is literally nothing that God will leave us alone on. We must accept His Atonement by acting on it, but as long as we are acting on it continually, it will continually have an influence in our lives.

4) Heavenly Father gives us weaknesses to humble us. He also gives them to us as an opportunity for us to grow in our faith.

5) He never leaves us. We leave Him.

So if you are struggling, here is my suggestion:

Apply the Atonement of Jesus Christ by living the gospel of Jesus Christ:
Faith
Repentance
Baptism by priesthood authority of God and renewing that covenant by worthily partaking of the sacrament
Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost... this is of utmost importance because we CANNOT make it without the Holy Ghost. If we are not living to qualify for the companionship of the Spirit, then we need to go through the above steps and fix it.
Endure to the End (refer back to President Alba's definition... I like that definition.)

"Fear not though the enemy deride. We must COURAGE for the Lord is on our side. We will heed not what the wicked may say for the LORD alone WE WILL OBEY."

With utmost love and prayers,
Sister Darby Eleyce Miller