Week 58

9/4/17

It always seems like so many things happen and that I just can't wait to email all about it and then I realize that I really don't even know how to write about my experiences. I just hope you all know that my writing does not do a mission justice. 

Brian is still doing absolutely great! We sent an email out to the ward this last week, inviting them to fast and pray for Brian. We also invited them to get up and bear their testimonies of how the gospel has blessed their lives. Brother Filips, who just got released from his calling as Bishop, got up and made sure everybody knew that Brian and Pam were there, that he is investigating the church, and that he is doing great! We really appreciated that because it made Brian feel good and it got a lot of people to come up and talk to them afterwards. 

I can't even express how important it is that members do their part in missionary work. That is something that Sister Blair and I are really working on is helping the members here really understand their role in missionary work and to help them see how easy it is. We have been talking to one of our ward missionaries about how she can talk to her neighbors and invite them to church. She was scared to go talk to them, but then we bore testimony of how simple it can be for her and how the Lord will fill her mouth if she will show her faith. So she talked to her neighbors on the faith that what we said was true. She shared her experience in ward council and said that it was just as easy as we told her it would be and then she invited everyone else in there to try it! That was so exciting for us because, even with other members, member missionary work is so much more effective.

We are working with a less active boy in the ward. He has a hard time grasping everything and so he asked if we could teach him to help him better understand. I have really been enjoying that because he truly has a desire to learn. He is very quiet in the lessons but because his heart is open the Spirit is ALWAYS so strong! We had an incredible lesson on Sunday as we finished up the Restoration. I absolutely love teaching people about Joseph Smith's experience. Every time I teach it, I feel the Spirit testify to me that it truly did happen. Joseph Smith really did see God, the Father and Jesus Christ. They really did call him to be the Prophet to open up this last dispensation. This isn't just a cool story, this is real and when people get to feel that for the first time, it changes their lives. The gospel of Jesus Christ truly is here to bless each end every one of us, as individuals and as families. I can honestly say that when people put forth the effort to read and pray, come to church and find out for themselves that this is true, it changes them, inside and out. People just LOOK different when they allowed God to work in their life.

THE CHURCH IS SO TRUE!!

I was studying the talk, "Then Jesus Beholding Him Loved Him" from the April 2017 Conference. I love how he points out in this talk how when Jesus invites us to change and repent, it isn't because we are terrible people or that he is angry with us, it is because he absolutely loves us!

"Because He loves us, the Lord expects much of us. If we are humble, we will welcome the Lord’s invitations to repent, to sacrifice, and to serve as evidence of His perfect love for us. After all, an invitation to repent is also an invitation to receive the wonderful gift of forgiveness and peace. Therefore, 'despise not … the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him: for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.'

"My dear brothers and sisters, now anytime you feel you are being asked to do something hard--give up a poor habit or an addiction, put aside worldly pursuits, sacrifice a favorite activity because it is the Sabbath, forgive someone who has wronged you--think of the Lord beholding you, loving you, and inviting you to let it go and follow Him. And thank Him for loving you enough to invite you to do more."

Love,

Sister MacKay