February
11, 2013
Dear Family,
First off I have to say
how sad I am to hear about Sydney Bruning. I had a hard time believing it. I am glad to
hear that the ward is coming together even more than ever. These are the times
that we need the gospel more than ever. This week I have been learning a lot
about the fact that Christ is in our lives and that he is worried and concerned
for us. I have so many investigators that are going through such hard time. Things that I could not even imagine going
through and the only thing I know what to say is that God is aware of them and
that if we trust him all will be well in the end. We have the promise of God
that we will never go through something that we cannot handle and I, especially
in the mission, have trusted in that promise and know that God can not lie and therefore,
if we keep the faith, we will one day receive tears of joy for all the tears of
sorrow we experience on the earth.
We gave a lesson
on hope the other day in Moroni 7. 41 I am growing to love this scripture more
and more everyday. At the beginning it asks us what is it that we hope for. ......we
asked the family what is it that you hope for in your life..... Think about
that for a minute. What is it that we
want in life. We asked everyone and a 16
year old boy said a car. The father said
that he wants to provide for his family and have success materially and
spiritually. The wife said she wanted to be a better person and to have her own
business. After we asked everyone my companion
turned to me and asked what is it that you hope for and I had to think about it
for a second but then I realized that my deepest hope was to return to live
with my father in heaven in the celestial kingdom.....but not just me but to
raise a family and have my family now and future family with me in heaven for
all eternity. This is a great hope and because of what this scripture says we
all can achieve this if we want to. This scripture answers its own question “What
should we hope for?” ....Our hope should be in the atonement of Christ and in
the resurrection to receive eternal life according to the promise....sorry that
was from memory trying to translate it into English so if it is wrong sorry. But
I love what it is teaching. That through Christ we can and will achieve out
deepest and greatest hopes. As we were talking to this family, I said something
that impacted me after I said it. It was the coolest feeling. I read this
scripture and had the thought that we have hope in the atonement of Christ and Christ
has hope in us that we will use this great gift in our lives. Because it is our
choice, we have to choose to change our hearts. God has done everything…
everything to help us achieve our goal to return to live with him. He has
placed everything into our hands and is helping us, guiding us, inviting us to
come to him. Are we coming unto him? Are we choosing to have
hope in him? All missionaries in the world are trying to invite
everyone…..everyone to come to Christ. I love this gospel I know it is true. Christ
lives and loves each and every one of us. He lives to give us hope, to give us
joy and happiness.....if we but come to him. We do that through the small
choices that we make each day ....are we reading everyday and giving time for
god to teach us every day. Are we praying? ..... are we praying with intensity
and praying like we are talking to our father in heaven, this is something
I am realizing that I need to work on. This is one of the ways we show our
faith and diligence in the things of God through our prayers. My companion
right now, Hermana Caal, she has a gift that she can pray with power.
She prays like she is talking to her father. I admire her for that and I
am working to get to that point as well.
This
week has been really good we had zone conference and we talked about, wow, so
many things but one thing that really hit me was that we talked about
faith and how we can obtain more faith. And we read a talk that said if we
want to increase our faith, we must increase our obedience. We have seen this
time and time again that when we are trying to do our best and obey with
exactness God blesses us with faith and miracles.
I know
this gospel is true. We have been given a great gift out of the love of God
for each and every one of us and that is his son and it is only through him
that we can receive all our hopes all of our dreams. I know it is possible. I
have seen it. God lives. There is no greater work than this. Brothers do
all you can to get on a mission and better yet prepare now !!!! Learn the
scripture learn preach my gospel.
I love you all !!!
Never forget.
Hermana Stephanie Hale
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