Hello everyone!!
Yet another beautiful week here in San Clemente :) Sometimes I have to pinch myself because it doesn't seem real that I get to serve a mission here in Southern California, of all places. The members here are so good to us, always trying to feed us snacks and get us water and let us know of anyone that we can teach. We depend on them a lot in our work as missionaries, so make sure that you're friends with your missionaries! You don't have to go around preaching repentance to people or pushing copies of the Book of Mormon on people, but be a friend to all those around you. Show them by your example what it means to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. People watch what we do and say, and they notice when we don't do what we say we stand for. And it's totally okay to mess up, I do it all the time even as a missionary, and somehow God works it all out. We just have to put our best foot forward, and He will show us what we can do and say to others that will help them know God and Jesus Christ even more.
This week we had the opportunity to teach Cathy, a woman of incredible faith and strength. She has been through a few different types of hell in her life. She's been kidnapped, pimped out on the streets of Las Vegas, abused as a child, and kidnapped again but she's come out of all those experiences with an unshakable faith in God and Jesus Christ.
A member ( the Westbrooks) of the church found her one day walking on the sidewalk to one of her jobs and felt that they should give her some help. Little did they know, but Cathy was feeling quite discouraged about her situation in life and was silently praying to God to show her that He was still there, when Brother Westbrook stopped her and gave her an envelope that had $200 in it and a Christmas card that said : "Dear friend, I woke up this morning wondering who needed to feel God's love today, and god told me that that person was you. God loves you, Merry Christmas!" Cathy chased Bro. Westbrook down after that and thanked him for the card, because it let her know that God truly was watching out for her and the money helped her make rent for the month. Brother Westbrook introduced us to her and Shortly after that is when we started to teach her, and we've been teaching her ever since. She is so ready to devote herself to God, it's so wonderful to see someone who honestly wants to know Him better and is ready to change. Yesterday she bore her testimony in Sacrament meeting and half the congregation thanked her afterward for sharing her story of how she knows that God is real and how Jesus Christ has walked by her side every day. It's experiences like these that are why I'm serving a mission. I get to see the hand of God in every single person's life and how much He truly loves them.
If you ever feel like He isn't there, then go find Him! He never walks away from us; it's us who choose to walk away from Him. I know He's there for all of us every day, and I know that He's aware of His children. Life isn't about taking the easy way, because then we'd never learn anything! God desires to help us, but we have to "ask, seek, and knock" first. He loves you so much, it's beyond comprehension.
I love all of you very much, and I thank you so much for your sweet responses to my letters! They are the highlights of my Mondays ;) I hope you all have a great week, keep moving forward in faith!
Love,
Sister Torkildson
No comments:
Post a Comment