Hello family! :)
It has been an amazing
week! I'm excited I get to tell ya'll all about it! :) I feel like I can never
adequately cover the feelings that I feel...but I can tell you that I LOVE
being a missionary and that I am SO happy! I love my Savior so much, and I love
you!!! :)
So, let’s see...where
do I start?! Well we went on exchanges this week with Sister Elton and Sister
K! Sister Elton came to Chambers Creek with Dean and I, and Packard went to
Lincoln with Sister K (her name is really long...she's thai and she's adorable!
:) so we just call her sister K ) Sister Elton is going home in December! She's
from Oregon and she's 23. Her and Sister K have been struggling a bit so we
knew this would be an important exchange. It was not easy. haha! But it was
very, very good. I can't really tell you a whole lot of details but I can tell
you that I love Sister Elton very much. :) I learned a lot from her! She gave
me a lot of advice on how to be a good missionary at the end of my mission :)
And Sister Elton read 2 timothy 2:1-10,21 which says:
1 Thou
therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
2 And
the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit
thou to faithful men, who shall be able toateach others also.
4 No
man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life;
that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.
7 Consider
what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.
8 Remember
that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was araised from the dead according to my bgospel:
9 Wherein
I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of
God is not bound.
10 Therefore
I endure all things for the elect’s sakes, that they may also obtain the
salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
21 If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be
a avessel unto honour, bsanctified, and cmeet for the master’s use, andprepared unto every good
work.
and
she read 4:7 with me! :):
I
love these scriptures. :) I'll let you take what you want from them, but they
have great meaning to me :) It was really fun! I love learning things from the
other Sisters :) It's crazy, I love being an STL, I get to serve my Sisters! It's
awesome!
I am learning a lot about selflessness this
transfer, and a lot about how selfish I am. It's very hard to have balance
because you can't be 100% selfless because you will die. You have to take care
of yourself! haha :) But it is extremely important to help others. Serving
others, is loving others! The 2 greatest Commandments is to love God and to
love your fellow men. :) I have been learning a lot about that this transfer
too. :) How loving God is the most important thing that we can do :) Because If
we are strengthening our relationship with God everything else will fall into
place :) So that is what I am working on right now! I think I told you about it
last week, but I am working very hard to come closer to Christ! :) That's why
the title of this e-mail is "more holiness give me." That has been my
theme song this week...that is what I am working on! :) In
Matthew 19:16-26 talks about a man who comes to Jesus and asks him how he can
inherit eternal life and Jesus tells him to keep the commandments and the man
says in vs 20 "all these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I
yet?" So Jesus tells him to go and sell everything that he has, and the
man went away being sorrowful. In Jeremiah 7:24 it talks about how we
need to continue to move forward! Living the gospel is like walking up a down
escalator, you have to keep moving forward, or you will go backward, I promise
you. So I am trying to continue my growth, by asking Heavenly Father "what
lack I yet?" it has been a very good experience for me. The first
night I asked was Thursday night, that night I was an emotional
wreck, it had been a spiritually draining day! I loved it! But I also felt very
humbled by my weaknesses.
Let’s
talk about Ether 12:27, "If men come unto me I will show unto them
their weakness" I have learned how true that statement is! haha...The
closer we come to God the more we realize our own nothingness, and how weak we
truly are. Then it says "I give unto men weakness that they may be
humble" God GIVES us weakness so that we can be humble, because
truthfully, we are pretty awesome! We are made of the stuff that God is made
of! We are His spirit offspring! We're awesome! But we must be meek and lowly
in heart. That is a Christ-like attribute! Which means that we must know of our
nothingness and not be discouraged but rather, we must become humbled by
it. Thus we become more like Christ! Then
it says "my grace is sufficient for those who humble themselves before me
and have faith in me, and if they have faith in me, then will I make weak
things become strong unto them" (I'm paraphrasing because I don't have my
scriptures with me) So Christ's grace is amazing! He has the desire and ability
to save us! SWEET! :) and it is sufficient, it is ENOUGH. We don't need
anything else. Then we have to have faith in that. I have learned about this a
lot on my mission, The atonement. It is able to cover us completely. I think
one of the hardest parts about the repentance process is forgiving ourselves.
I
have also learned about how if we come unto Christ our weaknesses CAN and WILL
be made strengths. Which reminds me of Alma 26:12 (i think that's what it
is...) " Yea, I know that I
am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I
will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land,
for which we will praise his name forever." Which brings me back
to Thursday night when I felt very humbled by my many weaknesses :)
And I knelt down and asked God "what lack I yet?" And the very next
morning I received an answer! I opened up the binder that all the new
missionaries get and it has some talks in it. which I never open up to...but I
felt that I should this day. I opened up to a talk I had never read before.
It's called "settle this in your hearts" by Neal A. Maxwell. It talks
a lot about consecration and it talks a lot about not "keeping back
part" in Acts chapter 5 it says:
2 And akept back bpart of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and
brought a certain cpart, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
3 But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan
filled thine heart to alie to the Holy Ghost, and to bkeep back part of the price of the land?
4 Whiles it remained, was it not thine own?
and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived
this thing in thine heart? thou hast not alied unto men, but unto bGod.
5 And Ananias hearing these words fell
down, and agave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard
these things.
6 And the young men arose, wound him up,
and carried him out, and buried him.
7 And
it was about the space of three hours after, when his wife, not knowing what
was done, came in.
8 And Peter answered unto her, Tell me
whether ye sold the land for so much? And she said, Yea, for so much.
9 Then Peter said unto her, How is it that
ye have agreed together to atempt the Spirit of the Lord? behold, the feet of them which have
buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out.
10 Then fell she down astraightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost: and the young men
came in, and found her dead, and, carrying her forth,
buried her by her husband."
This
is a very intense story :) And it won't happen to you :) haha but I figured out
that I need to give more of myself :) It's very very easy to be in the
background in a tri-panionship :) which, I don't let happen often, I hold my
ground and share my testimony...but there are a select few times that I don't
give it my best. Days that I feel sick, days that I feel tired (which is every
day ;) ) I am not giving it all, I am keeping back part! And the more we do
that the more we slowly spiritually die! I don't know about you, but I never
want that to happen :) Consecration is very important! So that's what I am
working on right now :) I also read my patriarchal blessing which told me
"be of good cheer!" haha which ya'll already know I am working on :)
The gospel is so cool! Because it's true! I love truth!
John 8:32 says "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall
make you free" The truth is not relative, it is going to be true over
and over and over again. No matter what. And the truth sets us free! And
the gospel Is true as I said...the gospel includes Faith, Repentance,
Baptism, Receiving the gift of the Holy ghost and Enduring to the end. It's
that simple. It's simple, but by all means it's not easy....but every day we
have to build our faith and repent! We have to take the sacrament every week! We
have to receive the Holy Ghost into our lives and let Him change our hearts. We
have to Endure and build up our endurance! :) Then that is when we will
find our joy :) that is when we will find rest in God's eternal kingdom! Joy is
wonderful! I am going to attach a talk about joy :)
Read
it cuz it's great!
Anyways
moving on! I have a lot to talk about! :) haha Also on Thursday half
of the mission got to go up to Zion's camp! IT WAS AMAZING!!! I love being an
STL because I had the opportunity to sit back and watch the sisters build
their testimonies. It was the coolest thing ever! I will tell ya'll about
some of my favorite parts :) The trust fall...Sister Fowkes was so afraid to
fall! She didn't want to do it. But Sister Olsen (the coordinator) had her get
up on the log and just stand there with the Sisters behind her encouraging her
and ready to catch her. She was crying, I was crying..haha and it was so
precious. Those sisters were just standing there and telling her how much they
loved her and how she could do it. Then we started to sing "amazing
grace" and tears filled everyone's eye's. And then she fell. This happened
over the space of probably about 20 minutes or so...I’m not sure because it
felt like hours! haha But it was so sacred! We all took away what it really
means to rely on Christ. Sometimes we have to let go of ourselves, our fears,
our feelings of inadequacy etc. and just fall, let Christ help you, His grace
IS sufficient! Wonderfully, amazingly completely enough! :) And He will always
be there to catch you. ALWAYS. It is our choice to fall! SO FALL! I am telling
you this in part to share my testimony but I’m only giving part of it because I
want you to think about it and do with it what you will :) I want you to think!
And go away from reading this e-mail determined to be a better person. :) I
think my favorite part about the entire day is watching those beautiful sisters
come closer to their Savior. With tear filled eyes and dirt all over
themselves, they gained testimonies of eternal principles. That is probably
my favorite part about missionary work, watching people gain and grow their
testimony. Watching people change and become. I LOVE IT! At the end of the
night we had a little testimony meeting. Sister Weaver bore her testimony last
and she talked about this scripture: Alma 23:7:
7 For they became a righteous people; they did lay down the
weapons of their rebellion, that they did not fight against God any more,
neither against any of their brethren.
So
each of us thought about "our weapons of rebellion" or the sins that
hold us back from being converted to the Lord and we wrote them down on a piece
of paper and we burned them. Never to be seen again. It was very very cool. I
know that each of us can lay down the "weapons" which chain us down
and hold us back. I have an example of that, Terrance! TERRANCE IS GETTING
BAPTIZED TODAY!!!!!! It's a miracle! We’ve been workin on him for 3 months now,
and he is finally willing to fall. He is finally willing to lay down his
weapons of war, his sins, his weaknesses and forgive himself. That's what he
really struggles with. Terrance has accessed a part of the Atonement by laying
down the things in his life and letting God help him. It took him a while but
he's doing it today! I AM SO EXCITED and SO PROUD of him! :) He is ready to
fall! :)
I
also wanted to tell you again how much I have learned about love from my
companions! I just love them so much! :) haha I am pleading that we can stay
together next transfer but I think that Sister Packard has run out of time in
chambers creek :( I have enjoyed every second though! AH! I never have enough
time to adequately tell you how amazing my life is :) haha but I think you get
the picture!
I
want to attempt to express to you how much I love my Savior, He is everything
good. When I think of Him I think of infinite love, I know that He would do
anything for me, and I also know that He has the power to help me. I Know that
He loves ME and is there for me. I know that He lives. I know that if I
let Him he will catch me, He will make my weaknesses become strong. He is there
always caring always loving. I love Him very much! He is my best friend! I am
eternally grateful for Him.
Time’s
up! gotta jet!
Love
you all SOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!! have a great week!
Love
always,
Sister
Wilkins :)
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