YES!!!! Great emails this week!!! Oh my gosh! I just got so excited for my wonderful family and all of their adventures! It sounds like Jackson Hole was just wonderful! Plus the picture of Daddy and Jare* is sooo precious! I want a copy of that to carry with me. Then I could show everyone how blessed I am with the best family ever. Oooh... And the cute one of Jare and Taryn**... You two are just totes adorbs! haha :) Hahaha and Dad I just look forward to receiving my ripped apart Ensign ;) You are the best :)
****** SPECIAL INSERT ******* DADDY!!!!! Happy Father's Day!!! I am so sorry that I am a horrible daughter and didn't remember it! Why is it that Father's Day always gets neglected while Mother's Day gets a huge shebang!? I am going to write you your own email. Because I love you :)
Ooook! GUESS WHAT?!? Guess how many weeks I have been in Greenhills? Hahaha! Don't worry! Just 10! Guess who is getting transferred again? Haha! Yep! That's right! Little miss me! I am getting transferred to the Bellevue ward- which happens to be the ward right next to the one I am in. They had some visas come in and some visa-waiters left. So they had to do some shuffling. BUT I get to stay with my amazingly wonderful companion Sister Munafo!!! YAYAYAY!!!! I almost cried with joy because I love her and I don't want to lose my favorite companion at 4 weeks like last time. So with transfers coming up in 2 weeks, I am going to guess that I will be staying put with my companion. Yes! But, the Lord has a way of shaking the tree (once you finally get to tree status). It is really funny because we had made a LOT of progress with the ward, our area book exploded with lessons and investigators and we were finding people left and right. So. We got moved. Haha! Great huh? I love missionary work!
This week I went on exchanges to the YSA branch area. Oh man. I am so grateful to be in a family ward! It is cool working with young single adults but they hardly have any investigators-because where do you find them?! One blessing I had was the opportunity to go to institute. We were studying Elder Robert D. Hales. He is pretty inspirational. Back to the shaking tree thing- I got the metaphor from one of his talks. He talked about whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies. He doesn't qualify us first. So if we feel like we can't do something, it is probably because we really can't! Cool, huh? So we will begin as acorns. We will be put in a hard situation that we think we can't handle. But, with time and experience, the acorn will grow and flourish. It will become large and strong. It will become an oak tree. Then, after we are comfortable, the Lord will shake our trunk. The oak tree will drop an acorn and we start all over. What a blessing that the Lord continually gives us opportunities to grow. Can I tell you a secret though? Just because we get shaken doesn't mean our faith has to be shaken. As a matter of fact, if we are firm in our faith and humbly submit to the will of the Lord, no amount of shaking will rock our worlds. We CAN trust that the Lord knows what he is doing. And it is a lot easier to trust his will rather than our own. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't plan for the future, but don't be surprised if the Lord has something else in store for us.
I am learning a lot here on my mission. I am learning a lot about people and about life. I am learning a lot about faith and about the gospel. I really love it! There has been a shift within me. I loved my mission before, but I wake up excited everyday to share the gospel with others. I can already picture myself as an awkward RM! Yes! And my responsibilities seem to have grown immensely. As the Lord continues to put his trust in his servants and we in return trust in him, our capacity grows.
I love powerful Spiritual experiences as well. This week we had a meeting with our District. I have felt over and over that we just need to have more powerful spiritual experiences in our meetings to help us in our work. I was able to do a training on prayer. After the training, we all went of into individual rooms and took the time to pray and pour out our hearts to God. We took about 15 minutes. Then we did a roleplay of a church tour. The power in that building was indescribable. Especially the chapel. I will never look at the chapel the same. It is truly a dedicated room where sacred ordinances are performed. And the power of personal prayer- WOW! If there is nothing else I learned on my mission, I am SO grateful that I learned how to communicate with my Heavenly Father. It has wrought within me a mighty change. I am truly a new person every time I humbly submit to my Father. I just wish that everyone could understand that power.
My wonderful family, I hope that your trees have been shaken and that God is giving you opportunities to grow. And I implore you, get on your knees. We CAN'T do it! But the Lord can. I pray that you are all doing well. I love you so much! Have an incredible week!
LOVE YOU ALWAYS!!!
Sister Alicia Johnson
*/**
No comments:
Post a Comment