Know. Live. Love.

It's Been a Really Amazing Week!

 I can feel my heart changing more and more as I continue in the Lord's service, and am truly humbled that I have the privilege and opportunity to be here serving Him. 

The highlight of the week was definitely Elder Andersen's visit. It's always special to be in the presence of an apostle of the Lord, and I was reminded of President Wheeler's admonition last zone conference that, "Every time you're in the presence of an apostle, if it doesn't change you, it's your fault." So I went there with the intention to change and striving to have a humble heart and follow the counsel he was going to give us. He talked a lot about having the faith to find, and about how faith is a real power that can cause things that normally wouldn't happen to happen. He told us we needed to raise our expectations, especially in a place where people are already so familiar with the church and generally have a lot of friends and family who are members. It was very inspiring, and he gave us a few ideas about what to do to increase our finding.

 At the end of the meeting, he focused on how we can have a bedrock foundation in Christ, and about how if we have that bedrock foundation - if we really believe and know that Christ is our Savior, the Son of God - that we will never fall from the church. He made us a lot of promises relating to that, and told us to take a few steps to strengthen our testimonies not just for our missions but for the rest of our lives. They're steps I would like to invite you to take as well. 

1) Take some time to sit down and write what you really believe about Christ. Not what's always been taught to you, not the rote answers, not just quotes from the scriptures and apostles. What you really believe. When I did this exercise, I started with, "I believe that Christ is my elder brother," and went on from there. Before writing down each item, I paused and thought, "Do I really believe that?" And each and every time, I felt the spirit confirm to me once again that it's all true. It was an amazing experience. 

2) Read the New Testament, and constantly ask yourself, "Do I believe Christ did this? Do I believe He said this?" 

3) Search for scriptures that are the essence of your testimony, scriptures that cause you to feel the spirit testify of their veracity each time you read them. Elder Andersen invited us to choose ten from the New Testament and ten from the Book of Mormon, and then to memorize them, so that we could always have them in our minds and call upon them at a moments notice to share with other people and to support ourselves in moments of doubt. That's a lot of scriptures to memorize, so my invitation to you is to choose three from the New Testament and three from the Book of Mormon. He promised us that as we did these things we would never fall away, we would have more opportunities to share the gospel, and we would be happier in our lives and gain more and more knowledge of the gospel. 

 The testimony he shared at the end of the meeting was especially powerful. He said, "I never thought I'd have the opportunity to look beyond the veil." As much as this statement brought the spirit and filled us with some awe, what he said next was even more powerful to me: "I didn't think I needed that to stay faithful." The reason he and the other prophets and apostles throughout the dispensations have been granted the privilege to look through the veil is because of the greatness of their faith, and that they didn't need to see through the veil to believe and know it was true. And we don't either. I can know it's true with certainty without that great privilege, and know that one day all things will be revealed and we will have the opportunity to see our Savior face-to-face. 

So now for how we've tried to apply the things we've learned this week. We've had a lot of service opportunities with members and non-members (Sister Showalter was praying for service all week). Friday was the biggest one - we were in the middle of weekly planning and one of the other companionships announced in a bit of a panic that they had a part-member family who needed help moving - they had to be out of the house by 7:00PM that night, and only had the moving truck until 5:00. It was noon. So we finished up our planning and got there as soon as we could.  Sister Showalter and I somehow ended up in charge of packing up the master bedroom, We were happy we were able to serve, we were able to be the Lord's instruments in helping His children who were overwhelmed and stressed. 

while tracking they came upon a
star wars themed party

We haven't been able to get in touch with a lot of our investigators, but we've been working really hard with Jimmy. We saw him almost every day this week. He's really struggling, and is feeling discouraged about his smoking and unsure of whether or not he can actually do it. Every time we talk to him he feels a little better, and motivated to continue, but it's been really, really hard for him. We're praying for him a lot and doing what we can.  Just keep him in your prayers - he's earnestly striving to change his life.

 As a side note, I'm starting to work on the Christmas concert, which is exciting and fun. I'm really enjoying the opportunity to use my musical and directorial talents to bring the spirit and bless lives.

D&C 18:13 - speaking of the Savior, it says, "And how great is his joy in the soul that repenteth!" It hit me so much just how much the Lord rejoices when we turn to Him and leave behind the sorrow of sin. I feel that too as a missionary when I see people changing their lives. The Savior has so much love for us, and this work is so important to Him!

Love,

Hermana Garner