10/20/14 Faith and Hope

Dear Family and Friends,

So this past week has probably been the hardest week of my whole mission. I won't go into details, but I have learned a lot, A lot.

I went on exchanges with Sister Afoa this week. She is amazing. That day was the best day out of the whole week! She has been struggling with a brother at home being critically sick, but she is still really positive and loving towards the work. She is a great example to me, and I learned a lot from her during the exchange about faith, especially when plans fall through. She is so wonderful.We told everyone we saw that God loved them. It was so fun.

I think it has been hard for me the past little while. Last Monday our investigator Lynn, a friend of our recent convert, Eli, texted us out of the blue and said that she didn't want to feel pressured into doing something that wasn't right. The last time we had seen her, we had set a baptismal date with her, and it was an amazing lesson. We have been teaching her since July, and she has prayed and asked if Joseph Smith is a prophet, and she said she knows he is a prophet of God. She has loved going to church, and she had talked about being baptized many many times. We have tried to stop by, call, and text her all week long. No response. It's breaking my heart. I think something is up between her and Eli, because he avoids our calls also. He just moved to Fairfield this past week, and so we are trying to get in touch with him as well so that we can transfer his records and make sure everything is taken care with him, but nothing seems to work. He always answers our phone calls with texts saying that he will call us later, but nothing ever comes of it.

I'm worried, and that, on top of all my family things, have made me really down, and I think that that has been affecting Sister Andreasen. I really do love her, but it's been a little hard this past week.

But I have learned a lot.

I have read and reread Ether 12 almost every day this week, and I'm learning about faith. It's still hard to have faith when things are going good as a missionary, but the true test of faith is when things are not going good. This week I have found that I have come to better understand verse 27

"And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."

Moroni trusts the Lord and is comforted by these words. This is then his response to the Lord in verses 31-34:
"For after they had faith... thous didst show thyself unto them in great power... thou hast prepared a house for man... in which man might have a more excellent hope; wherefore man must hope, or he cannot receive an inheritance in the place which thou hast prepared... And again, I remember that thou hast said that thou hast loved the world, even unto the laying down of thy life for the world, that thou mightest take it again to prepare a place for the children of men...And now I know that this love which thou hast had for the children of men in charity.."

From those verses we learn about the Savior, and how we must be like Him. We have to have faith in Him, do things in His name, and we must also hope, and then we have to lay down our lives-- or whatever the Lord asks us to lay down-- and have charity. We must receive grace (enabling power of the Atonement) so that we can have this charity.

I love what the Lord then says to Moroni after that: "And because thou hast seen they weakness thou shalt be made strong."

It takes a lot to recognize when you are doing something wrong, or when you could be doing something in a better way, but when we are open and honest with those things, that is when we can really change. Then the Lord will make us stronger, despite our weaknesses.

I have learned a lot about faith and hope this week. So I will keep hoping. Because even though a lot of hard things happened this week, I had a wonderful week, and I would still rather be here on His mission than anywhere else. I love Woodland, and I want to see it grow. We have worked a lot with Less-Actives lately, especially ones that are converts. Sister Andreasen is here for a reason, no doubt. Doors of these Less-Actives are being opened to us, and one of them even attended church yesterday. Yay!

This morning a Less-Active called us and we spent all morning talking to her. Miracles.

It all comes down to faith. Do we have faith, and are we willing to show God the evidence of our faith?
I know that this gospel is true. I know this Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true. I know that Jesus Christ lives and leads it. He loves and His Atonement covers everything.
Love,
Sister Darby Eleyce Miller