Miracles, Faith, and Hard work
This week has been nuts. You know those fancy nuts that you can get at the stands at carnivals and such? Add 2 more sticks of butter and sugar and you get this past week...
Haha, but seriously, this week was awesome! It was crazy in the sense that everything that we had planned didn't happen. Everything was scrambled. The beauitful thing though, was that to us, with a more limited perspective, it was scrambled and confused, but to the Lord, we did want we needed to do. We were where we needed to be (is this sentence even grammatically correct?).
We have this family in our area that only the mom is a member and the husband has been through the discussions about 2-3 times and has had at least one baptismal date. For whatever reason, it fell through. So he's a little closed off with missionaries, but right now, we're just loving him. We're stopping by here and there to try to catch him and to simply talk. Not about baptism, not about anything specifc, just trying to get to know him and love him. We knock on their house and we felt we needed to be there, no answer. We go to their cousins house 4 houses down, and their cousins come out and invite us in for lunch! At first we were hesitant, but we felt we needed to just do it. So we did and their mom was in the hospital because of kidney stones, so their grandpa was there, helping out. We're eating lunch and some of their cousins (from the part-member family) come over! They were at the house we tried to knock! We get talking and it was one of his kids! What's cool is that even though the dad isn't a member and none of their kids are members either, their oldest son wants to go on a mission. Dang! He's not even a member, but he wants to go! It was a miracle. We learned that his dad talked to another family and said that his son wanted to go on a mission, so we asked him right as we were leaving lunch and he said that it was part of his plan! We need to be straight up with him, once we have a good relationship, and say, "Hey we heard you want to go on a mission, but we need to do some things to get you ready". Haha, like being baptized. If his son got baptized to go on a mission, that would definitely soften his dad's heart. He's a freshman, so he's still got a little bit, but we're building foundation.
A lot of other experiences like that happened this past week and it was amazing! Tiring, but a very productive week. Before my mission, I wasn't the most faith fulled person. I knew miracles could "probably" happen and that they "might" happen for other people, but not me. And it was funny because the Apostles and Prophets say this all the time, "Don't look to the side and say that miracles and blessings happen to other people, but not you". Even with that in my head, I still didn't have that real and trusting faith that I could be a part of and see miracles! So I've been growing my faith and trusting in the Lord that miracles will happen. Another part or half to that is following promptings. If you don't follow a prompting, how can the Lord work with you and be where the Lord needs you at that moment? You can't! So I've been working on following the first prompting. To the natural man, the first prompting is so easily dismissed. I've done this so many times before and thought, "I just thought that, this isn't from the Lord, this is my thought" and then you rationalize and then the prompting passes, you missed the oppotunity! What brings me a lot of comfort is that if you try to always follow the first prompting/thought, the Lord will trust you and He will give more of those promptings to you. When the Lord knows you are trying to follow the first prompting, He will make the first thought a prompting, He will use how YOUR mind works and how YOUR mind processes. He works through each of us differently. That's why we recieve different promptings at different times. This happens a lo in a companionship. A prompting that Elder Merrell recieves, I might've never even considered that. Heavenly Father made us, the Spirit speaks to each of us differently. If He knows us perfectly, wouldn't He know howour brain processes information? Wouldn't He know the perfect person and way to prompt you? He does! So pray and build your trust in the Lord that miracles and promptings are real! Seek with real intent and you will find!
Another amazing thing I learned this week: Christ is the perfect example. Period! The covenant path is the perfect path, because Christ walked it! The iron rod is the path that Christ took through His mortal life. That's why it's straight, that's why we're commanded to walk it. What happend when you walk a perfect path? You fail! We are imperfect! But through baptism and the Atonement of Jesus Christ we can repent and change! So that's how we stay ON the path, through the cycle of repentance, the sacrament, and a change of heart. As we stay on a perfect path, we as imperfect people, CHANGE! When we walk that path, the iron rod, the covenant path, whatever you call it, it's the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When we follow Christ's example because of out love towards Him and our Father in Heaven, we change! Of course just going through the motions won't produce a change, because we're doing it with the wrong intent! When we do it with love and devotion for Christ and Heavenly Father and the work, we will change. God commanded us to be perfected in Christ.
Moroni 10:32, "Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God."
That's how we are perfected in Christ, because when we follow that path, when we follow His example, when we repent with a broken hear and contrite spirit and truly change, we are slowly being perfected. Through and in Christ! Hopefully that makes sense. I know the command to be perfect like Christ and the Father can be daunting, but it makes so much sense to me now.
I love you all! If you want to email me back, you are welcome to at any time of the week! I'll just respond on Mondays :).
イエス～キリストは私たちをあいしていますよ！ 末日聖徒イエス～キリスト教会はイエス～
ロバートソン長老
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