Hsinchu - Week 66 - New companion from Lehi!
Last Thursday, I welcomed in my adorable new companion, SISTER LYMAN, who I actually sang and danced with in junior high and high school! Everyone in our ward thinks it's crazy and amazing that my companions here are both my classmates from Lehi. Pretty fun! Sister Lyman is super awesome and super excited to double and triple our goals and demand more of ourselves than we think we can do! It's my Transfer 12. As I come closer to the finish line of my mission race, I've been sprinting as fast as I can!
At some point in my former life I read somewhere that good art "comforts the disturbed and disturbs the comfortable." I remembered that this week and realized that the gospel of Jesus Christ does the same thing. If we are seeking peace, and I think it's safe to say we all are, we can and will find it through reliance on Jesus Christ and His Atonement (see John 16:33; John 14:27). But on the other hand, when we feel like everything is going fine and we don't need to change, we need the reminder that God has a plan for us that's bigger and better than the plan we have for ourselves. We have the potential to become like God! What a beautiful truth. By obedience and repentance through the Atonement of Christ we can become that person that God wants us to become. I love sharing that with people.
And so there's a feeling that's hard to describe, but it's the feeling that comes when you leave your comfort zone. Even though I don't believe any part of a mission could be considered as "comfortable", I was kind of at that point where I forgot what it was like to go through a major change. I had been with Sister Phillips for four-and-a-half months. That is a long time to be with a mission companion. I think we'd gotten past the "forming, storming, norming," phases of new companionships, and we were striving to stay in the "performing" phase. But recently finding has been getting difficult, and everyone we were teaching kind of quit meeting with us. With so little people left to teach as my companion packed up and said goodbye to Xinzhu last Thursday, I was admittedly a little melancholy, and I began to be filled with a little nervousness, even fear.
I know that when there is fear, there is a lack of faith. So during my personal studies I dived into Preach My Gospel and the Book of Mormon tried to absorb as much as I could. I studied in 1 Nephi 7 about Nephi making a new bow and seeking for direction from the Lord when his bow broke. I read about how faith in Jesus Christ leads us to action; it leads us to accomplish what the Lord wants us to accomplish. Miracles come by faith, but faith is not produced by miracles. In order to develop faith, we just gotta KEEP GOING and doing what the Lord has commanded just like Nephi did. God always provides a way. I also came across a scripture in Alma 8:10 that says this:
"Nevertheless Alma labored much in the spirit, wrestling with God in mighty prayer, that he would pour out his Spirit upon the people who were in the city; that he would also grant that he might baptize them unto repentance."
As I read that I felt inspired. This is what I must do this transfer! Be FULL of FAITH, pray hard and with real intent, make solid plans as led by the Spirit, and then go to work and find and teach and invite the people God prepares in our path to come unto Christ! Sister Lyman have been working hard to do this. President Ballard said somewhere that the elect are found when serving and blessing others. As we continue to visit and bring the Spirit to returning members, talk with everyone on the street, build the members' faith, ask for referrals of more people we can bless, I have faith that we will see miracles!
I invite you all to seek answers and guidance in the scriptures this week and then ponder about what God needs to you do, then go do it!
I love this work so much. I love it so, so much. I love Taiwan. I love these people. I love my Savior and my Heavenly Father. I love you all.
At some point in my former life I read somewhere that good art "comforts the disturbed and disturbs the comfortable." I remembered that this week and realized that the gospel of Jesus Christ does the same thing. If we are seeking peace, and I think it's safe to say we all are, we can and will find it through reliance on Jesus Christ and His Atonement (see John 16:33; John 14:27). But on the other hand, when we feel like everything is going fine and we don't need to change, we need the reminder that God has a plan for us that's bigger and better than the plan we have for ourselves. We have the potential to become like God! What a beautiful truth. By obedience and repentance through the Atonement of Christ we can become that person that God wants us to become. I love sharing that with people.
And so there's a feeling that's hard to describe, but it's the feeling that comes when you leave your comfort zone. Even though I don't believe any part of a mission could be considered as "comfortable", I was kind of at that point where I forgot what it was like to go through a major change. I had been with Sister Phillips for four-and-a-half months. That is a long time to be with a mission companion. I think we'd gotten past the "forming, storming, norming," phases of new companionships, and we were striving to stay in the "performing" phase. But recently finding has been getting difficult, and everyone we were teaching kind of quit meeting with us. With so little people left to teach as my companion packed up and said goodbye to Xinzhu last Thursday, I was admittedly a little melancholy, and I began to be filled with a little nervousness, even fear.
I know that when there is fear, there is a lack of faith. So during my personal studies I dived into Preach My Gospel and the Book of Mormon tried to absorb as much as I could. I studied in 1 Nephi 7 about Nephi making a new bow and seeking for direction from the Lord when his bow broke. I read about how faith in Jesus Christ leads us to action; it leads us to accomplish what the Lord wants us to accomplish. Miracles come by faith, but faith is not produced by miracles. In order to develop faith, we just gotta KEEP GOING and doing what the Lord has commanded just like Nephi did. God always provides a way. I also came across a scripture in Alma 8:10 that says this:
"Nevertheless Alma labored much in the spirit, wrestling with God in mighty prayer, that he would pour out his Spirit upon the people who were in the city; that he would also grant that he might baptize them unto repentance."
As I read that I felt inspired. This is what I must do this transfer! Be FULL of FAITH, pray hard and with real intent, make solid plans as led by the Spirit, and then go to work and find and teach and invite the people God prepares in our path to come unto Christ! Sister Lyman have been working hard to do this. President Ballard said somewhere that the elect are found when serving and blessing others. As we continue to visit and bring the Spirit to returning members, talk with everyone on the street, build the members' faith, ask for referrals of more people we can bless, I have faith that we will see miracles!
I invite you all to seek answers and guidance in the scriptures this week and then ponder about what God needs to you do, then go do it!
I love this work so much. I love it so, so much. I love Taiwan. I love these people. I love my Savior and my Heavenly Father. I love you all.
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