Hallo!
I hope everyone is doing well! I am doing great. This past week was really good!
We have continued to prepare Charles for baptism! He is getting baptized this next Sunday! He is still doing awesome. An awesome story happened with Charles. So this last week we taught him about keeping the Sabbath day holy. We told him of the blessings and how keeping it holy is a commandment. He was blown away that we didnt shop on Sunday, but committed to keeping it. Well Charles lives in a very run-down apartment. He doesnt have much food...he usually buys his food daily. So yesterday he was really hungry. He told us that he borrowed a few euros from his friend and walked to the store. At the doors of the grocery store, he remembered the commandment. He turned around and went home. He gave the money back to his friend and asked for some food instead. Charles understood it. He got it. He could have made a million excuses to just simply buy a few things since he had nothing at home, but he didnt. He is such a great example to all of us. He said that it easy for him to follow God because He know God will bless him.
So his baptism is this Sunday...the bishop wanted as many people from the ward to be there as possible so we moved it to Sunday after church. Something really cool is going on here in Graz. The ward has came up with 3 goals for this year! The first is to increase the desire of the ward to go to the temple this year! The second is to say a family prayer each day. And the third is to introduce at least one friend to the missionaries. How cool is that?? This ward really sees the importance of missionary work. Missionaries can only do so much. Street contacting/knocking doors is necessary....but there is a much more effective and better way...through the members! Before my mission i didnt really realize how important the member referrals were. Anyways, i have such a testimony of member missionary work. People are in our lives for a reason. The Lord prepares people to hear the gospel..it is just up to us to open our mouths and share what brings us so much joy in our lives.
This work is so unique. I see the Lord`s hands here in Graz. What we focus our lives on will determine what we see and what we dont see. When we make a conscience effort to see the beauty and blessings from the Lord that is what we will see. How sad is it that we often miss things simply because we are not looking for them? The Lord is always there, but it is us that puts a barrier or doesnt acknowledge Him in our lives. I have such a strong testimony that Heavenly Father is in the details of our lives. He cares about us. No matter how trivial or simple the things in our life may seem, He cares about them. The little things are important to Him because they are important to us. The God of the Universe is the Father of our Spirits. We are created in His image. We are divine and have so much potential. The Lord sees us as the person we can become. Everthing he does is for our good and our progression. One thing that we like to do occasionally with our investigators is to place their name in the scriptures to apply the principle to them. As simple as it seems, it is really powerful. Try reading the following verse with your name in it.
"He doeth not anything savie it be for the benefit of [your name]; for he layeth [your name], even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw [your name] unto him...." 2 Nephi 26:24
I know that Jesus really did lay down His perfect life for you and for me. He is concerned for the individual. He knows and cares about us individually. When we seek to see Him more in our life, we will see Him and come to know how much He loves us.
I love this work. I love our Savior.
XoXo
Schwester Jaynes
No comments:
Post a Comment