Aloha fam!
Picturing you on the island in your swimmies right now makes
me a tad jealous, but it's PDay so that's kind of like a vacation...haha
Anyways, this week has been so great. After I emailed last Pday, we went to
Costco to get some goodies and we ran into Mario and Suzette, my favorite
people! They took us to Cheesecake Factory for dinner so that was the best way
to end our Pday.
Thursday was awesome too because I got to meet with President
Poulsen. He's meeting with all the sisters in the mission this week and is such
an inspired man. I learned so much in just 15 minutes!
Friday was Humanitarian
Center and we took the sweetest 2 ladies on a tour. Sister Bellais gets really
bad headaches and has been wanting to go buy some essential oil and the lady we
took on the tour smelled like lavendar DoTerra oil so Sister Bellais asked her
where she got her oil and she actually ended up being someone who sells it! She
gave some to us for FREE. People are way too nice to missionaries in Utah. That
oil is pricey... She gave us a book/her card in case we want any more so that
was actually an answer to a prayer. I always feel so bad when she gets
headaches and there's really nothing I can do to help her.
Saturday I had probably the most spiritual experience of my
whole mission. In my interview with President last Thursday, he advised me to
spend 20 min in Preach my Gospel (PMG) each day, 20 min in the Book of Mormon, and 20
min in the Bible. I was super determined to finish the New Testament by Easter
so I was a little disappointed, but I decided to do what he advised. MIRACLES literally arise when you follow inspired leaders.
So, I opened PMG
Saturday morning and where I had left off in my last study sesh was in Lesson 4
about the commandments.
I wasn't really feeling like studying the commandments
because I felt like I already knew them, but I decided to do it.
So I was
reading along and one of the scriptures it asks us to read is Enos 1:1-12. I
have also read these verses multiple times on my mission so I didn't really
feel like reading them again, but for some reason, I did.
I was reading verses
4-8 and something stood out to me in those verses I had never realized before.
So, Enos is pouring out his heart to the Lord for forgiveness. He says
"his soul hungered" and he prays all day and all night.
In verse 5,
in the midst of Enos's prayers, a voice says to him, "Enos, thy sins are
forgiven." Right there I realized that when we pour out our hearts to God
and want to repent, he instantly forgives us.
Verse 6-8, I recognized myself.
Enos doubts God. I picturing him thinking, "Can it really be that
simple?" Verse 6 Enos says, "I knew God could not lie, therefore, my
guilt was swept away."
The moment Enos believes in Christ's promises, that
he can be healed and cleansed from his sins, the repentance process is
complete.
The hardest part about repentance is forgiving ourselves. The minute
we have the desire to change, God forgives. But, we of course have to do our
part and stop sinning. We also, have to believe that Christ's Atonement can
heal us. In that moment, our guilt can be swept away.
In verse 7, Enos asks
God, "How is it done?" God tells him, "According to thy
faith." When I first read all these verses, I interpreted it as, God
forgives Enos because he has enough faith. No, no! Enos is healed according to
his faith because he believes in Jesus's power to cleanse him and to wipe away
his guilt.
Anyways, the cool part about allll this is that later in the
day on Saturday, a less-active member we teach just randomly came to the Square. So, we
of course sat and chatted with her for a bit. In the middle of talking to her,
I just really felt like I needed to share my personal study with her. So I
explained to her what I just explained above.
It was crazy. She said that the
night before she had been reading those exact verses in Enos and had had a
friend interpret them for her. She said it was an amazing experience for her,
but she struggled with the faith aspect of it because she feels like she never
has enough faith to receive Christ's Atonement.
Her friend interpreted
these verses like I always had - that it is by our faith that Christ forgives us, when really it is according to our belief in Him that we actually allow his
free and infinite Atonement to work in us and change us. Anyways it was so
cool. It was just such an affirming experience that this is God's work. He
directs everything. He is in everything. Those new thoughts about Enos chapter
1 were in no way my own. God wanted to tell this woman whom we teach that she IS forgiven. She just needs to believe in Christ's atoning power and in his
ability to cleanse her.
I love being a missionary! Temple Square is such a
special place.
Yesterday, Sister Bellais and I went to get some Chinese
food at the food court in City Creek and these 2 ladies in line in front of us
bought our food. They left super fast before we even knew they bought our food
and so we didn't get to say thank you.
So, if either of them ever stumble
across my blog: Thank You so much from Sister Helton and Sister Bellais! You
made our day!
All my love,
Sister Helton
 |
| This is a pic of my zone this transfer! |
 |
| Sister Andrea Andrus visited me Monday and brought me a Valentine |
.JPG)
.JPG)
Tawnee Tidd's recent visit
PS. My days are really
fun. Too fun. Sister Bellais and I are really starting to understand how one
another works and so our tours are getting better and better. She's doing so
well on her English. She is seriously the sweetest. She told me last week
"Sister Helton, every time you talk during a tour, I pray and pray and
pray for you in my head that you will say what God wants you to say. Every
time, I feel the spirit so strongly." She is literally AN ANGEL. She's
helping me be better and be less focused on myself and use my prayers not only
for me, but for my companion since we are together in everything and need to be
united. It has worked wonders! I love her.
No comments:
Post a Comment