Draw Near To The Savior

 

Good morning family and friends, I sure love you all!!! Thanks for all of the comforting emails and help that you all have given me!:) You guys are the best!!! I got an awesome quote from my Nan that really helped me out this week "When pain, tests, and trails come in our life, draw near to the Savior. "Wait upon the Lord...look for Him' (Isaiah 8:17; 2 Nephi 18:17) "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint' (Isaiah 40:31) Healing comes in the Lord's time and the Lord's way; be patient."  I believe as we put our faith in the Lord, we need to endure our suffering or trails day by day. In the Liberty Jail the Prophet Joseph Smith struggled with his pain of feeling forgotten and isolated from the Lord. The Lord said "My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;  "And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes."

 

 

I read this on Monday and studied it Tuesday morning for my Personal study. It really is hard to do this but it is possible. Monday night we lost our ONLY investigator that we had. His name is Kevin. He has a HUGE testimony of the Book of Mormon but he decided to go to another church because he said that the parties were more appealing. It was really hard to see him progress so much and work so hard to then make this decision and not want us to come by any more. Tuesday mornings is when we have our weekly planning

session. It was really hard for me to see that we had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to plan for. I sat flipping through my planner over and over and over again. Looking at the pages of the area book I felt lost and frustrated. We have worked so hard to find people to teach but there was nothing there. We left lunch on Tuesday and talked to anyone we saw, bearing our testimony, trying to get a day that we could teach. We got into a few homes to give a prayer but there was no one who wanted us to come back. It was about 6 and we needed to find someone. My

patience and faith was running thin. We talked to easily 20 people in less than 5 mins and everyone was too busy or already had their religion or just didn’t want to stop and talk to us. We got a call from our DL and he asked how the day was going and I got more frustrated. I was ready to throw in the towel and go home, I was done. I then remembered the quote. "Look upon the Lord". In the middle of the road I prayed with all my heart. My companion and I were saying our own prayers asking God to put someone, anyone in our path. Not 15 seconds later we asked a lady for help and you won’t believe it but guess who accepted our message. Both she and her 8 year old son have baptismal dates for the 31st of May. We met other people as well which made this week go by so much better! The Lord really has blessed me and my companion to find those who are prepared.                                                                                    

We are teaching a lady named Marli who was not doing so well and I was able to give her a blessing of Health. It was the first blessing that I have ever said "Be cured"... With her unwavering faith this lady was cured of all infirmities. It was amazing!

What I have learned here on the mission is that at times, as my Aunt Kristen emailed me today, "SATAN SUCKS!!". There are times that we are allowed to be tempted to see what our reaction will be, to see what the consequences are going to be whether they are good or bad. If I would have not exercised my faith and put my trust in the Lord I don’t know what would have happened this week. I KNOW that we would not have had the success that we are having now. God allows Satan to tempt us but it is NEVER more than we can handle! God WILL provide if we just look and lean upon him! Just as this Poem:

One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord.

Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.

In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand.

Sometimes there were two sets of footprints,

other times there were one set of footprints.

This bothered me because I noticed

that during the low periods of my life,

when I was suffering from

anguish, sorrow or defeat,

I could see only one set of footprints.

So I said to the Lord,

"You promised me Lord,

that if I followed you,

you would walk with me always.

But I have noticed that during

the most trying periods of my life

there have only been one

set of footprints in the sand.

Why, when I needed you most,

you have not been there for me?"

The Lord replied,

"The times when you have

seen only one set of footprints,

is when I carried you."

Mary Stevenson

I know that the Lord lives and will always do what is best for us!!

In the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

LOVE ELDER STILSON!!!!

These are photos of Xavier's house with the sewer canal running right in his back yard...