Ok... hi! (big sigh)
It is 8:15 p.m. It has been such a long day, but I have my new companion!
Her name is Sister Kemple and she's from SEATTLE. So crazy. haha. She's so cool.
We had been companions for like 30 minutes and all of a sudden an Italian
sister came up to her and they started speaking Italian to each other.
I was
like, "You speak Italian?!" Yes! She lived in Prussia, which is like the funnest thing
ever. Just picture 2 little blonde Americans and one speaks fluent Italian. Too
fun.
I can't believe I have been with Sister Bellais for 6 weeks.
I will miss her so much.
I think this past week has been a week of questions
answered.
I have had several questions on my mind recently and it is so amazing
how God does answer your prayers - no matter how long it takes.
My first question has been: "Why do bad things happen to good people?"
The second is just a two-part question that is asked so frequently on Temple Square and I was tired of not
being able to answer it well: "If you believe that God is the same
yesterday, today and forever, how can you possibly believe that God once was as
we are?" and also "How can you believe you can attain all God
has?"
The answer to my first question came this week in district meeting. Our
district leader asked Sister Bellais and me to be in charge of the lesson. We
did it on "The Role of the Book of Mormon in Conversion."
In Preach My Gospel,
there is a section that discusses how the Book of Mormon answers questions of
the soul with references to different verses. Sister Bellais and I printed out
the questions with the scripture verses that accompany them. We gave different questions
to sisters and invited them to study.
We did it too. I randomly grabbed the question "Why does God allow evil and suffering to occur in the world?" The
verses that accompany this question are 2 Nephi 2:11,13 & 14.
When I read
those verses I just felt like this light bulb turned on in my head. I've read these
verses before that there must be "opposition in all things," but as I
continued reading verses 13 and 14 it just became so clear in my mind that God
has a perfect plan. He knows what we need. Even if we don't understand why
difficult things have to happen, he does. He created all things and has a
purpose behind every opposite that he created.
It is the coolest thing ever
because this happened on Friday. On the following day, we took a man and
woman on a tour. The woman ended up really opening up to us and sharing that
she is just unhappy and most days she doesn't want to live. She doesn't
understand why she feels the pain she does or why her life hasn't turned out
the way she pictured.
We were able to share these verses to her and help her
feel that she can find peace in the gospel of Jesus Christ and that The Book of
Mormon can be a source of light in her life. It never ceases to amaze me how
God times everything perfectly. Sometimes he waits MUCH longer than we want to
answer our prayers, but he does answer them in his perfect timing.
The answer to my second question is kind of small, but it was
significant for me.
I've been studying this doctrine for a while now because a
few of our investigators have questioned this teaching.
A quote I absolutely
love is something Joseph Smith said:
"If men do not understand the character of God, they do not understand themselves."
I think this is
really beautiful for 2 reasons. The first being, you know how when people find
God and Jesus Christ, they say they've found meaning in their life, they've found their purpose?
This relationship/knowledge/meaning doesn't make life any less challenging, but it increases
our capacity to cope with trials. That is because when we understand God, we
understand more fully our potential because we understand we've been created by
something divine.
The second reason I love this is because it brought to my
memory a verse that has always kind of bothered me. haha
When Christ says in the
Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:48: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your
Father in Heaven is perfect," I was always like "Are you serious?"
If Christ
said that, then it's a commandment - but physically impossible. I felt like He was
basically setting us up for failure!
But now I realize that it's so
beautiful.
Christ is telling us to be like God and telling us that He is the way. Why would Christ tell us to be perfect like our Father if God doesn't
intend for us to actually be able to accomplish it and become all that he
is?
Anyways, I just love being a missionary.
I'm SO excited for
this transfer! I'll send a pic next week of my new companion:) We both look
kind of crazy right now because it's been quite a long day, so we'll take a pic
when we're cute.
I love you so very much.
Sister Helton
P.S. Sister Isaksen comes back from her 3 months in California tonight!!!! I am dyinggg to
see that Norwegian!
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