Dear family and friends,
What a week!
So a couple of cool things:
1. The pears here are SO good. I have never had such amazing pears in my life. Bryce - you would love it here haha.
2. I can't remember if I told you all yet, but I tried pomegranates for the first time in a salad a couple of weeks ago and I am HOOKED! They are so good! I bought a pomegranate for the first time and am trying to figure out what to do with it now...supposedly you just cut it in half and dig out the seeds. Also, a Hawaiian family fed us last night and gave us the 2 largest pomegranates I have ever laid my eyes on. So I'm eating pomegranate for lunch today...once I figure out how to get the seeds out.
3. Many of our less-active members are coming back into activity!! We've really been working hard to help them feel loved on all sides - loved by God, by us missionaries, and by the ward. And it's working:)
Sad news: Ray's baptism has been postponed...again. We found out that he drank a cup of coffee, but lots of interesting stuff has been happening besides that. So the night of his baptismal interview, he came out of the interview and the elder who interviewed him, Elder Mair, looked very hesitant and nervous. He told us, "I mean, he answered all the questions right, but keep a close eye on him." The next day, Ray came to dinner with the ward mission leader, us sister missionaries in the Redwood Single's Ward, and the ward mission leader assistant. He was telling us about his day and slipped that he had a cup of coffee...what was weird was that Elder Mair told us that he said he totally understood the Word of Wisdom - that he knew it was no alcohol, cigarettes, illegal or addictive substances, coffee, tobacco, and tea, and yet he drank the coffee the very next day.
It wasn't just the coffee that pushed us to talk to him - both Sister De Rurange and I have been feeling like this is premature. We talked to our mission president and he felt the same way, as well as our bishop. And if he DOESN'T understand the Word of Wisdom entirely, then what else doesn't he understand? We've been prompted to go back to the very beginning and teach him all over again, so that's what we are going to do. Also, I had a dream Friday night that he was baptized, but the whole baptism didn't feel right...things weren't working out, Ray was getting upset just before, and it felt WRONG. Even if Ray is upset about not getting baptized tomorrow as he originally planned, we would rather he knows exactly the covenant he is making with God and know and have a strong testimony of the principles we teach so that when the storm comes, he will be built upon a strong, solid foundation (See Helaman 5:12).
Even if Ray didn't technically MEAN to tell us about the coffee, it was a God-send that he did. Otherwise, we might've proceeded with the baptism and found out the holes in his testimony later, when he was under a covenant and held to a higher standard than he understands and knows how to live up to.
I have faith that Ray will be just fine, though. He has a solid testimony of the Book of Mormon - now it's all about helping him apply his faith in the Book of Mormon to knowing Joseph Smith is a true prophet, and thus that the Word of Wisdom is also of God because it was revealed to Joseph Smith, one of God's prophets.
Another rather sad thing occurred this week: one of our other investigators, Anthony, had a lot of family in the Phillippines, and with the typhoons and earthquake, he found out that all of his family over there were killed except for his aunt and 3 of his cousins. Wow. Sister De Rurange and I have really been emphasizing the Plan of Salvation and the importance of temple ordinances to Anthony this past week - that he will be okay, and his family will be to, because of God's incredible Plan of Happiness that is in place for us. He is now more determined than ever to be baptized, receive the Holy Ghost, receive the priesthood, and enter the temple to do work for his ancestors to have the chance to receive the Gospel.
It's incredible how tragic things happen on this Earth, but because God loves us so much and has given us Christ to overcome all, including physical and spiritual death, we can come back. And because He has given us the Priesthood once again, we have the authority to bind families together forever (Matthew 16:19).
The Plan of Salvation (Or Redemption, Exaltation, Happiness) is a pure, simple, sweet, beautiful, perfect plan. I know that it is God's plan, and that Jesus Christ is central to that plan. That God gives us prophets to show us the way, and the way has always been, now is, and will continue to be through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.
Some people feel like living the Gospel is hard. Well of course it is! The Gospel is in place for us to become like God (Alma 34:32-34).
We are essentially in God-training.
Do you think God-training will be easy? I think of a talk from General Conference (and forgive me - I can't quite remember who gave it) where the man was talking about boot camp for the Army. Do you think training to be a soldier will be easy? No, it will not be. But is it worth it? Ask any person who has gone into any branch of the Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, etc. if it was worth it. I have yet to hear of anyone saying it wasn't. I've heard the complete opposite - that they were taught self-respect, discipline, hard work, diligence, faith, trust, humility, and numerous other qualities. Just as going into an Army boot camp will be hard, and becoming a soldier will be hard, yes, training to be a soldier of God, training to eventually become like God and enjoy the blessing He has, will also be hard. But you know what? In the words of my little brother Bryce, "We can do hard things."
This week from all my studies and from the experiences with Anthony and Ray I came to really realize that that statement, "We can do hard things" is so true. Remember what Paul said in Philippians: that "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Philippians 4:13). We can do hard things. I can do hard things. You can do hard things. Don't give up. Don't give up. Don't give up.
With love,
Sister Nikole Decker :)
No comments:
Post a Comment