I hope all is well with you! Chiang Mai is so fruitful right now, and I'm so ๆ grateful so be serving up here in the north! Sister Reedy is such a hard worker and makes me want to push harder in regards to finding more people.
I made some phone calls this past week, and I thought I'd decide I'd contact some of my old contacts. Amazingly some of the people came to church and have a baptismal date. I'm trying to believe that practically everyone we teach at the church will be baptized and I'm trying to have faith in them that they'll commit to the gospel. It makes me sad when I see other missionaries don't have that much faith in their investigators, and doubt that they'll actually follow through.
I want to share with you, something that I shared with Sister Hughes. We were talking about relationships, and I shared with her that instead of always thinking of what if it goes WRONG in the relationship, think instead of what if... it goes RIGHT? Then what? IF is a very strong word. I know that everyone has doubts, but from an email that I read, "Doubt is something that comes before the miracle" or something like that. We have to push through that doubt, block it out, and keep on going in what the Lord asks of us. "We receive no witness until after the trial of our faith." Well anyways I told Sister Hughes, that if we think that the relationship can go bad, then we will NOT put in our full heart and effort, because we'll think we'll fail anyways.
This applies the same way to our investigators. If we doubt they'll come to church or how many of our investigators will actually be baptized, how many of them will actually be baptized? We need to have more faith and trust in them and that the Spirit will help guide them.
Here's a quote that I really like that Jax shared with me. I think it can relate to a lot of different aspects of life and the gospel.
"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes into rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting up an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage; but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself."
I really like this quote, because often times we don't understand what God has in store for us. We don't understand the reasons why He puts certain people in our paths, or gives us certain challenges. I feel like I'm learning a lot more about Christ, God, and myself. I know I don't know a whole lot, but I know that God gives us trials because He knows 3 things. A.) We can overcome it. God doesn't tempt us above that we are able. B.) He's molding us to become the person He sees in us. C.) He likes to test our faith. I like to think of trials as either learning experiences or "pop-quizzes". He wants to see if we're willing to put forth our trust and effort in Him. It's also a humbling experience too, when you realize that as a natural man, you can't do it all by yourself. You need divine help. I feel that right now my faith is really being tested. I'm trying to continue onward, and I know it's hard. It requires patience. I always like to think though, especially when I'm out running, that "Thine afflictions shall be only but a small moment".
No comments:
Post a Comment