This last week was great! We just got back from the Sacramento Temple and it was pretty much amazing. I was so ready for that! In the Celestial room, I sat and pondered life and the mission and what it has taught me. It was really amazing, because I am serving around my MTC companion, Sister Day, and she came up to me and sat next to me as I was deep in thought. Slowly, everyone else left, and it was just her and I. She turned to me and we started talking. What she said really was an answer to my prayers. We talked about what we have learned and how even thought a mission isn't for you, it kind of ends up being so.
I love serving a mission! I realized the other day how short of a time it really is... and I don't really know how I feel about it. It was so good to talk to the family... I realized just how much I do miss them and how much I do fit in. I am excited to see them. And that just made me want to work harder, and go stronger, and reach higher than ever before.
I love what I have learned over the course of my mission. There are definitely times that are hard, but they are so worth it. The experiences where you feel the spirit are so worth it.
Something that I have learned from my mission is that I always want to live the gospel. Before my mission, I didn't really believe in myself. I didn't really know if I could make it to the Celestial Kingdom. I hope that I could, and I wanted to be able to, but I wasn't too sure if I could actually
make it. Looking back, I realize that the mission has taught me that I can do hard things, and that especially those things that are hard yet help us live the gospel.
That is another thing that I have learned. The gospel is always worth living. I know and have learned from experience that repentance is real, that it is hard, but that it is so worth it. Repentance require us to have a broken heart and a contrite spirit, to be humble and full of charity and love and submissive to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I have also learned that Heavenly Father loves me. That I belong. I belong in His presence. That part of me will never change.... That's what I want and that's other thing that I have learned.
I want to live the gospel.
It is so engrained into who I am, and I have chosen that, a little bit everyday. There are some that would look at missionaries and say that we are being brainwashed, indoctrinated, and forced into living the gospel. To them I say this: I have chosen this every day I have been out here. I have chosen to live the gospel, to teach and testify, and to share what I know to be true. At any point, I could have turned back, I could have come back home, but for me that was never an option. Has the mission been hard. Definitely there are hard days, but in the long run, I look back on every transfer with sweetness. I have loved being out here.
It is the thing which has been of most worth to me.
Okay.
So .
A quick snapshot of the past week.
So last Monday we taught Liz the Restoration. The Spirit was so strong. She is awesome. I don't even know what to say about her lesson because it was perfect. So we taught about how God called prophets and how when people reject a prophet they are then in an apostasy. We taught her about how Jesus Christ called twelve apostles and gave them the priesthood and the authority to lead His church. She took it all in, having perfect questions and then she asked us "Okay, so then what about this Joseph Smith guy, tell me about him?" I literally thought she was a member, just playing a joke on us, pretending to be a golden investigator. Well, long story short, we share the Restoration with
her, and the Spirit is so strong. She understood everything so perfectly. She then came to church on Mother's Day and she absolutely loved it! She said as we met with her again last night that she felt
so many answers. Last night we talked about the Spirit, and the Gift of the Holy Ghost. She said she doesn't know if she has ever felt the Spirit, but then we explained what it felt like, and how she could
recognize it. The feeling in that room was so real. Liz really is a perfect investigator. She has definitely been prepared. We have asked her to pray about being baptized this week, and she said she would. She said that she has always believed that there were more testaments than one, and so she is excited to continue to read the Book of Mormon.
Also, this past week, we picked up another investigator! Yay! She was referred to us by another person we are teaching, and it was really cool. She is going through a lot of lifestyle changes with her housing situation, and is working really hard. She is open to meet with us again, but we are hoping that it sinks in a little deeper. She kind of believes in God, but she isn't sure. Yet, she did open up a lot with us. We are going back to see her tomorrow.
Also, I was sick this past week. Food poisoning. That wasn't fun. Then Sister Eyden has been having massive headaches, and then I caught a horrible cold. I don't know what it is, but we have just been sick a lot. Not fun. Pray for us. But other than that, we really enjoy each other, and we organized our whole area book and are ready to get better and go out and find the elect!
Well.... I'm not sure what else to say, so I'll just leave it at that for now. Just know that the Gospel is true and that Jesus Christ is always there for us. He never lets us go! He will never give up on you! There is no hardship that is too great to have the true Gospel of Jesus Christ in your life! There is no person, no career, no hobby, no fear, nothing, literally nothing, that can get in the way of us living the Gospel in our hearts and in our homes if we set our mind to it. Choose.
We always have the choice. That is, and will forever be ours. The Gospel is always a choice.
Another thought that I kept having this week is that it is so much easier to live the Gospel 100% than to live it only in part. It is so much easier to give things 100% than to only give a portion of the
effort. It is so much easier to repent 100%, to contact 100%, to be obedient 100% and to love 100%.
Although we are not perfect, the Savior still loves us and can help us, even when we don't have it in us, and even when we do.
He is and will always be the only way back home.
John 14: 15,18,21
John 15: 9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
John 16:21-24 as well.
Love,
Sister Darby Miller
P.S. My goal for the rest of my mission is to live my 100%! No holding back! No saying tomorrow, or next time, but really enjoying it and giving it my all.
<authors note: Holy frijoles, her hair is so long!!!! She was quite persistent that she wasn't going to cut it on her mission...looks like she stuck to her word>
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.