Sunday, December 5, 2010

Hoping for a White Christmas

November 23, 2010

Well, it seems like all of the new missionaries in the zone have gotten settled into their new areas, and it has brought NO shortage of miracles! The work has been progressing so well, and we are looking to having a VERY white Christmas, even though we won’t be seeing a single snowflake.
We have been working as Zone leaders a lot closer with the stake leaders. We have a representative from the High Council who is the Mission Leader. He has been helping us out a whole lot making sure that we all have communication. We hope to have a stake baptism activity with Christmas. It will be very beautiful to see so much white! I think we will plan some sort of other things after the services that have to do with Christmas. We are planning on doing it on the 23rd, Joseph Smith’s birthday. Just to make it even more special!
Last week was quite a challenge, but the Lord blessed us with some really amazing people to teach and guide. There is a family who is part member. The wife, well partner, is waiting for her husband’s divorce papers so she can marry him, and get baptized. She has a super strong testimony, and has been waiting patiently for months and comes to church every Sunday, with her daughter and husband, who is a member. But anyways, they gave us a reference. A woman who has gone through a whole bunch of trials in her life. She recently lost her second wooden house to a fire, but her children were alright. But that’s not the half of what she told us. It’s a story too sad to relate, but she came to the family’s house for the lesson. We just listened, and through her tears, she just related all. I couldn’t understand at all what she must have been feeling, but the husband shared the scripture from Doctrine and Covenants 121. We talked about Jesus Christ and how he suffered all pains and sins and that through Him, we can be healed. After the prayer, there was a huge calm that came over the whole room. There were a few families participating. I felt so humbled by the experience. I thought ¨How did He do it?¨ Its just SOOO MUCH weight to carry! But, as He said, ¨Glory be to the Father, I partook of my preparations...¨ The next day, we talked about the Gospel. She has a lot of faith in God and Jesus Christ. She accepted the invitation to be baptized. She said she felt like something entered into her heart and broke the chains binding her. She slept better that night than she had in years, and felt an overwhelming peace. She felt as though it were God saying ¨Enough!¨ It was a remarkable miracle, and she came to church yesterday, with a leg cast, and her son, who also wants to get baptized.
We also found another family who is part member. The wife had just been thinking of her children and the world they were going to grow up in. She was a little worried. We knocked on her door. Her husband answered. We went in and shared about how the gospel blesses families. They were really happy, and excited to receive us. After the discussion, she expressed feelings that now was the time for her to return and for them to build their family on the principles of the Gospel she had heard years before. It was really touching.
The Lord has been blessing us so very much. Just when we think we can’t go any further, we turn the corner and find that the Lord was there all along. Like it says ¨Be still, and know that I am God.¨

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