At the Water Wall in Houston
Hermanas Tanner, Draper, Townsend and Koerner
10/14/2013
Buena Buena Mi Familia!
Well this really has been quite the
week to see how amazing the hand of the Lord is in our lives! He always
presents us with opportunities so that we can learn what we wouldn't be able to
learn in other situations! For example, like I said earlier, my first Sunday
here in Westgreen I bore my testimony in sacrament meeting, and that same day
the bishopric asked me if I would be willing to give a talk one of the
following weeks. My assigned topic was "sentir el deseo de servir una
mision"... to feel the desire to serve a mission. Well, that topic is
rather open, and I knew it could go in so many directions so I had really been
praying for inspiration so that I could share something with the members that
would get them excited about sharing the gospel. I had been brainstorming a
ton, but I just felt stressed, and came up with nada. After a few weeks of the
talk getting pushed back and back, last Sunday they told me that yesterday I
would finally give the talk. Well, last Sunday night after planning I just sat
down and decided to go for it. Write everything that came to my mind, then I
went to bed. I woke up and needless to say, it didn't make a whole lot of
sense. Well, then we came to email, and I read through the email from president
and it was easily the most clear answer to a pray, ever. He just talked about
how testifying of the Atonement is central to everything that we do in
missionary work. Without that, nothing else would even matter. Well then. It
was so interesting because before in my brainstorm all of the reasons were so,
light. For example, I felt the desire to serve because I felt like I always
would… or because I was blessed to have received it so freely (I did share in
my talk that I was a seventh generation Mormon and everyone gasped... one
hermano came up to me after and said "septima, primero, mucho gusto"
(seventh, first, nice to meet you)). But I realized that the topic was so much
deeper, it doesn't really matter what gave me the desire to serve a mission,
what mattered is why I had a desire to share the gospel! Why is it so important
to share?? In presidents email he talked about three ways that we can base our
testimony more in the Atonement, and that was 1: study it 2: use it 3: share
it. I shared the example of Alma the younger, how he was a rebellious young
man, but after the angel called him to repentance, he had remembered what his
father had taught about Jesus Christ and the Atonement, so he decided to use
it. After he received endless joy, he worked diligently so that every one of
his brethren could feel the same joy! Because that's how it works, first we
have to know what the Atonement is, so that we can use it, then how could we keep
the joy that we receive to ourselves?? Also, later in the week in district
meeting we talked a lot about the Atonement and we were studying an incredible
talk by Elder Bednar called "The Atonement and the Journey of
Mortality" (and I challenge all of you to read it because it will completely
change your perspective), but just how the Atonement has two parts, we
always focus on the cleansing power, which is incredibly important, but so is
the second part, the enabling power. That through the Atonement we receive the
power to pray not for a change of our circumstances, but rather that God will
give you the power and strength the change your circumstances, so that you can
learn what He wants you too. Read the talk, it explains it better, but I know
that is so true. The enabling power of the Atonement of Christ strengthens us
to do things we could never do on our own.
Okay, sorry, not much time, but one
quick miracle. So last Monday we had a super awesome night planned full of
lessons and noche de hogares. Well at 6:00 I kid you not, ever single
appointment called us and cancelled... aye. Well of course God always has
something in store for us for the cancellations, so we started trying out our
back-up appointments. Well, none of those were really working out either. We
said another prayer asking for God to let us know where we needed to go, and I
kid you not, one minute after the Elders that are serving in our ward called
us. *flashback: the week before we had visited a member and she gave us a
referral of another members friend, so we called the other member and set up a
noche de hogar, but they live in the Elders area so we handed over the
appointment to them. *flashforward. The Elders said they had just called to
confirm with the members family and the member said that actually her friends
husband is super against her friend being taught by elders and all sort of
things, so hermanas had to go, or they wouldn't be able to have the
appointment! Well, look at that. God is just so good. We hurried over as fast
as we could to their area and we got to the appointment just in time. We had a
super fun family home evening, and it went just great! I know that God listens
to our prayers. He not only listens, but he answers them too! I am so grateful
for the opportunity to be a missionary and share this great gospel! I invite
you all to take the challenge of President Pingree, and study the Atonement,
use it in your life (cleansing or enabling powers), and then share, because how
can you keep it to yourself??
I love you all so much! I hope you
have an awesome week, and always remember that God is there, you just have to
put your confidence in him! Reemplace miedo con fe!
Les quiero,
Hermana Draper
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