Hi all!
I would like to start this week's post with this article; please
read the whole article before continuing to read this blog post :)
http://www.lds.org/new-era/1973/01/the-currant-bush
I
love that story; every time I read or hear it, I always tear up a
little.
I'm not gonna lie, the life of a missionary is hard. Life in
general is hard. But what it all comes down to is what are you going to do
about it? How are you going to be PROactive instead of REactive? How will you
*trust* in God that He will lead you the right way & help you in your
struggles?
I would like to tie the currant bush story to my
own:
The first week of the year was a bit of a rough one; we had gone
through 2-3 weeks that were seemingly unproductive. Appointments had fallen through,
some people were sick, and others were busy. While we did have bits of success
in each week, I was still very frustrated that so many things weren't working
out right. You could say I was very much like the little bush, cut down &
feeling rather upset. Negativity constantly came at me, and I had to stop
myself & remember that being in that frustrated, negative state of mind is
exactly where Satan wanted me.
Like verse 4 of the hymn "The Time Is Far
Spent" goes:
"Be fixed in your purpose, for Satan will try you;
The weight of your calling he perfectly knows."
and boy, he sure
does! He definitely does not want any of us to succeed in finding happiness
through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, nor does he want us to succeed in helping
others come unto Christ. But the last part of the same verse is
this:
"Your path may be thorny, but Jesus is nigh you;
His arm is sufficient, tho demons oppose."
How true it is that
Christ can help us through any hardship, if we will "trust in the Lord with all
[our] heart[s]" (Prov. 3:5-6)!!
Last week, I tried to lighten up my
attitude more, & I truly feel like Heavenly Father helped me in doing so,
and that I could not have done it myself. As the week went on, we had our visit
from the Traveling Sisters, who came to train & help us in different areas
of our work. It helped SO much, & they gave us awesome pointers. We had
scheduled multiple appointments for that day & were able to get to almost
all of them, and they became new investigators! We had a great lesson with
another investigator later in the week, & the Spirit was there so strongly
as we testified.
On Saturday, we spent a good amount of the day doing
service for a lady who was taught by the previous Elders & was almost not
wanting to meet with missionaries anymore. While we were there, she became much
more comfortable with us & as we were talking with her about prayer, her
neighbors came over. The husband had seen us outside shoveling snow &
chipping ice and asked if we were Sister Missionaries. Turns out he was an
inactive member & his wife was not a member--they both wanted to start going
to church, & she wanted to learn from missionaries! As we talked with them
& the lady we were visiting (I'll call her Lindsay), Lindsay shared with
them her experience with missionaries so far: at first she was afraid that we
would just try to force her to do something, but that day realized that we truly
want to help her & care about her. It was the best experience ever!!! I
have a testimony that if we are striving to do our best in doing what Heavenly
Father would have us do, He WILL put good things in our paths, and will let all
things come together for our good. We ended the week with 12 lessons (4 times
as many as the week before), and 7 new investigators (blowing away our average
of 1 or 2)!! I am so grateful that we were finally able to have a lesson with
so many people we were struggling to get a hold of for a while--it was really a
miracle!
Well, I gotta run now, but know that God is there & he is
mindful of you. He hears every prayer & answers with what is best for us.
I say that in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Love you all, may you have
an awesome week!
Be strong & faithful because Jesus
was!
~Sister San Diego
