Mi Familia!
It's been raining SO hard this morning and thunder is cracking outside. I LOVE it. Reason #784 why this is the greatest mission in the world.
It's been a good week. We haven't had a lot of action going on, but we work hard anyway. And yesterday we got a ton of referrals from Erika's family. Apparently her sister wants to meet with us and already wants to get baptized. And her brother, who just got out of jail, is turning his life around and was at church yesterday. His "wife" and daughter want to learn more, too. And Erika's husband's heart is softening a lot. Also, Yoanna and Melvin fasted with us yesterday to be able to get married soon so she can get baptized. Since she's 17 (yep.) her dad has to be present, I guess. And they don't know when he'll be able to come down here. But she's so ready and it's totally going to happen.
I've learned so much these past couple days. Somehow the weekends are always my time for epiphanies. I've praying for help with a lot of things lately. They're righteous desires, and I've had complete faith that there can be immediate change. But..it just hasn't happened that way. I've learned that faith is more than a confidence in seeing miracles. It's also being confident in the Lord and His timing. Sometimes I can't see a good reason why He wouldn't answer my prayers right away and in the way I want. But then I look back and I can see the wisdom in it. He truly knows. He gets it. And He gives us what's best for us.
This morning I was re-reading David A. Bednar's talk from this Conference. It hit me hard then, but it meant just that much more reading it this morning. I love this quotation: "Most of us know that when we do things wrong and need help to overcome the effects of sin in our lives, the Savior has made it possible for us to become clean through His redeeming power. But do we also understand that the Atonement is for faithful men and women who are obedient, worthy, and conscientious and who are striving to become better and serve more faithfully?"
And then when he says, "The Savior has suffered not just for our sins and iniquities--but also for our physical pains and anguish, our weaknesses and shortcomings, our fears and frustrations, our disappointments and discouragement, our regrets and remorse, our despair and desperation, the injustices and inequities we experience, and the emotional distresses that beset us.
"There is no physical pain, no spiritual wound, no anguish of soul of heartache, no infirmity or weakness you or I ever confront in mortality that the Savior did not experience first. In a moment of weakness we may cry out, 'No one knows what it is like. No one understands.' But the Son of God perfectly knows and understands, for He has felt and borne our individual burdens. And because of His infinite and eternal sacrifice, He has perfect empathy and can extend to us his arm of mercy. He can reach out, touch, succor, heal, and strengthen us to be more than we could ever be and help us to do that which we could never do relying only upon out own power. Indeed, His yoke is easy and His burden is light."
He talks about us learning to pray for strength to "learn from, change, or accept our circumstances rather than praying relentlessly for God to change our circumstances according to our will," thus becoming "agents who act rather than objects that are acted upon." The Atonement is not meant to magically wipe away all sorrow and responsibility. It is meant to change us, to enable us to reach our potential. Christ literally went before us when He descended below all things. He has already been there, He experienced it first. And as we take His yoke upon us by making and keeping sacred covenants with Him, we are only joining Him, and He will see us through.
I love my Savior more now than I ever have in my life. I know His Atonement is real. There have been several times on my mission when I have literally called down His strength from His Atonement. And every time I have received it, in that very moment. It is real, it is always there, for every person and in every moment.
I'm so grateful to be a missionary. It's exactly what I need at this point in my life. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
I love you all!
Hermana Lund
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