This week was a little bit of a harder week, but that's okay! I hope you are all doing well, and that you had a good week!
Thursday: We were at President's all day for interviews and training! The training turned out pretty good. Elder Armstrong and Elder Hardy trained the zone on how we can make sure our return appointments with our new friends are solid, and Sister Shumway and I did a training about why we all came on a mission and why we all stayed on a mission. It was pretty powerful for me to reflect on why I came on a mission, and ultimately why I chose to stay. But I'll talk about this later in my email... 😄 My interview with President was good. It was my departure interview, so it was less focused on missionary work and more focused on life, and the future. Lots of decisions to make haha! But it's exciting.
Friday: This morning we tried stopping by Joanna to see if she would let us in... We think she was home, but she wouldn't open the door, which is so sad, but one day hopefully she will want to learn again! This evening we read the Book of Mormon with Sister Senior, and she understood really well! I was so proud of her.
Saturday: Today we had Finding and Food with the Crawley District. We went to the Hayward's Heath Elders area, and did some High street contacting for about and hour and a half, and then we had lunch with the district. We met a really cool guy named Michael from Ireland. He was just visiting the area for a couple of days, and he was looking for directions to a pub so he could go and watch a Rugby game. But we got chatting to him for a little bit, and shared a brief overview of the Restoration, and talked with him about the Book of Mormon. He was like, I don't believe that Christ came back to Americas to see the people there. So sweet Sister Shumway being the amazing person that she is pulled out John 10: 16 where it says "And other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd". And Michael was like "wow I have never heard this before, how can I learn more?" So we gave his information to the missionaries in his area! That was a really cool miracle. After Finding and Food, I asked for a priesthood blessing from Elder Armstrong. It helped me so much. The whole blessing was amazing, but there were two parts in it specifically that really stuck out to me: "He wants you to know that you have done your best, you should have no regrets, and no remorse". That hit my heart so much, it just showed me how much my Heavenly Father knows me. And the next part was "Sister Lund, there are no limits to what you can and will accomplish with His help". Ahh, it was just what I needed to hear from my Heavenly Father. I am so grateful for the priesthood.
Sunday: Today was hard... Peter and Jo and Hannah dropped us. They are struggling with a lot right now, and they just felt they couldn't cope with it all. I just wish they could see how much the gospel would help them.
Monday: Today really tested me haha. Oh my golly days. SO... We had accounting like normal. But sweet Izzy texted us and said she couldn't skype us today and that she was going to be staying with her Sister for an indefinite amount of time. Also earlier this week she called us and told us that she got cold feet and that she wasn't ready to be baptized. SO SAD!! So we are really trying to help her understand that she can find peace through the Savior. We will see what happens. But all of our appointments cancelled today, like our whole schedule fell through, so we did finding the entire day. Let me just say I am so grateful for Sister Shumway she had such a positive attitude. But I said a little prayer and humbled myself and we saw lots of miracles.
Tuesday: We did finding all day today as well, because we are trying to find some solid friends. It was good, I mean we found some friends... We will see how interested they are though! And then this evening we had correlation and ward council. So that was good.
I have been reflecting a lot on this past week. I kind of struggled this week, which is okay... It's normal to struggle at times. But I was amazed at how Heavenly Father prepared me. I was studying my call letter this past week, and a part of it says that on a mission "I will experience miracles and be happier than I have ever been before"... and when I first read it I was like "hmm...I don't know.. Missions are hard, what are they talking about!" 😂 But as I have gone through my week this week, this statement has made a lot more sense. Missions are not easy, life is not easy, we are meant to be stretched. That is part of our purpose here. Something I have gained a strong testimony about is the fact that truly some of the hardest times bring us closer to God and therefore these hard times are what will bring us ETERNAL JOY, because they are bringing us closer to our loving Heavenly Father. Ultimately this is why I stayed on a mission. It's because I know that through my choice to serve that I will be eternally blessed, but also that the amazing people that I have met here will be able to have that ETERNAL JOY because they can come closer to their Savior, and if I get to see that change in others now or even after this life, then serving a mission was completely worth it. I am so grateful for that!
I hope you have a fabulous week! I love you so much! We can do hard things! We got this!
Love,
Sister Lund
It's Freezing!!!
Richard got the priesthood!!!
Belief is the reason we go on a mission. It is the motive for preaching about Christ and sharing/Proclaiming his love. Faith is understanding we are children of God and our Heavenly Father. May this definition of faith bless you in your life. Faith is defined again and because faith has an inherent joy it gives us a solid foundation that we finally have the peace we have been searching for.
ReplyDelete"Many believer's feed themselves on what God hasn't done. When I dwell on what hasn't happened, I create the atmosphere for the spirit of offense to arise and to thrive. When I dwell on what hasn't happened, I legitimize unbelief. I live with a sense of justification, for not believing God.
Faith in the purest sense is the ceasing of resistance. even when there's no physical evidence, when the other evidence is present. Not feeding ourselves on what God hasn't done Faith in it's purest form is the absence of resistance
Heaven is a place where everyone is celebrated, some are more honored but everyone is celebrated. All men and all women shall be judged on the light which they have received. Heaven is a permissible culture. God's nature is eternally permissible. These statements protect us from credit.
Faith in the purest sense is the ceasing of resistance, even when there's no physical evidence, when the other evidence is present. Not feeding ourselves on what God hasn't done. Faith in it's purest form is the absence of resistance. Faith doesn't deny a problems existence, it denies it's influence. He or she was someone whom aridity and desolation never disturbed for he or she had a deeply rooted, and a vigorous faith.
Now we can act as we have always dreamed. Now we can act as we have always been. Now we can step into the light and gather the sunlight instead of blocking out our possibilities. Instead of blocking out our joy. Variety will bloom in/under the sun. We can show off our best, we can enjoy other people's gifts. We can blossom where we stand upon the joy that faith provides us. Upon the joy that faith inherently has, which blossoms the entire field of flowers"
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDYaxabUfkA - The Definition of Faith