Dear family and friends,
This e-mail will be brief today - sorry about that!
This week I've really been going through the refiner's fire - I've rarely legitimately cried out here, but this past week I think I cried almost every day. All of a sudden, probably mid-week, I realized that I have a much larger potential. I can work harder. And so I have been working - even harder, and I just feel GOOD, like I truly am fulfilling my purpose out here: to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the Restored Gospel.
I also struggled this week (and the past 3 weeks) to get over feelings of regret and shame for things I've done in the past. Then I read my now-favorite talk "The Best Is Yet to Be" (Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, January 2010 Ensign - look it up, it is beautiful) and finally accepted and let some things go. That night while I was praying I broke down and started crying because I just felt FORGIVEN. But it was pretty intense, too. I heard a voice inside my head say, "You've been forgiven. Let it go."
So that's what I want to focus on in this e-mail. When you are forgiven, just let it go. Write down somewhere that you are forgiven, and when the thought comes to mind again, read what you wrote that day you felt forgiven.The Savior has told us in Isaiah,
"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool" (Isaiah 1:18).
I don't fully understand the Atonement, and I don't know if I'll be able to understand it in this life, but I do know that it is so real. So tangible. So simple. So possible. The price has already been paid. Believe in Him, follow Him, repent sincerely, and He can take away that guilt, that shame, that sadness, that heartache, that pain.
I felt the power of the Atonement so strongly this week.
I am truly starting to FEEL for people, and it makes my heart just ache when I see people reject the truth. Even though it is hard sometimes to feel that heartache, it has really helped me to be a better representative of Jesus Christ, because I'm sure that Jesus feels the exact same way when one of His brothers and sisters rejects things they agreed to before this life on Earth. Don't get distracted from why we are here on this Earth:
"This life is for men to prepare to meet God..." (Alma 34:32).
"...men are that they might have joy" (2 Nephi 2:25).
The way we can have joy is by preparing to meet God - by keeping His commandments. "If ye love me, keep my commandments" (John 14:15).
Remember this Christmas season why Jesus Christ came to Earth, and how we can come back to our loving Heavenly Father. What will YOU give to the Savior this Christmas?
Merry Christmas, I love you all!
Love,
Sister Nikole Decker
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