Email from my missionary daughter in San Clemente

Hello everyone!!

It's been a great week here in the California Irvine Mission :) Thank you for all of your positive uplifting thoughts and prayers, I definitely felt them this week. I truly love being able to be a servant of God and have a front row seat in watching how He works in other people's lives. I don't really believe in coincidences anymore, but I do believe in divine design. I am able to see everyday that God has a plan for each and every one of us, and He wants to help us in our goals and desires as long as they are pure, honest, and in line with His will. He puts people in our lives that help us learn certain things, and I think that's the biggest way that I know He's there. We do have to ask, seek and knock - which isn't easy all the time- but we're promised that he'll answer us and never leave us without direction as long as we're keeping our promises we've made to him. We're just ordinary people, but we are also children of God, who is the most powerful being ever. But He chooses us to do His work, and I feel humbled by that. He has given me so much strength and faith and hope, that I cannot ever deny His existence. 

God also has quite a sense of humor haha.  Last week I had an experience at the gym where Sister Aebischer and I go to work out . We get up every day at 6:30 and go straight to the gym and usually there aren't very many people there, maybe one sometimes. But that day there were 5 or 6 people and so I was sitting on a bench reading the Book of Mormon waiting for a machine to open up, when this lady walks past and starts to use a weight machine behind me. I can hear her working pretty hard, when all of a sudden she puffs out between breaths: "Give me a verse!"

And I was like...." What?...." I think i was still trying to wake up, and then on top of that realize that someone was actually requesting that I read them a scripture haha. She repeated her question and I mildly panicked for a few seconds while I tried to find a good verse that would give her motivation, as she had requested. I flipped back a couple pages from where I was reading and read her Alma 26:12 which says: 

"Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; 

therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles 

we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name 

forever"

And then there was silence for a second while she absorbed what I had read, and then she asked if that was in the Bible, to which I readily replied that it was from another book of scripture called the Book of Mormon and that we read the Bible as well. She took the news well and so I asked her if I could give her a copy of the Book of Mormon, and she said yes! She was just visiting a friend who lives in our apartment complex, so I would never see her again, but we dropped by later and gave her a copy. I don't really know if she'll ever read it, but I hope she will. You never know when or where you'll be able to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with someone, so be prepared haha! 

Something that I've been thinking about the past couple of weeks is the hymn "Where Can I Turn for Peace". I love the last verse of this beautiful hymn which says:  

   He answers privately, 

   Reaches my reaching

In my Gethsemane, Savior and Friend.

Gentle the peace he finds for my beseeching.

Constant he is and kind,

Love without end.

I am always amazed at how much Jesus loves us all and how much he went through for each of us individually. His pain and suffering was for all mankind, but also very individual. I take great comfort in the fact that he knows how I feel in my best and worst moments. Sometimes I wonder why so many awful things happen in the world, but I am comforted in the knowledge that All that is unfair can be made right through Jesus Christ and his Atonement. 

I love the people here, even though they are very different than what I'm used to. I love being a missionary and I love having fun and finding joy in my service! I promise that in the next few weeks I will attach pictures! I love you all so much, thank you for being you and never be afraid to share the gospel with someone and how it has blessed your life. Everybody needs it, whether or not they know it ;) 

Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Torkildson