November 23, 2015

Email No. 45

Heeeeellllloooooooooo people that are reading this!!!!!!

I feel really goofy today (when do I not?) and so I might be a little weird. Wait. That is every week. LOLZ.

First things first. Guess who our new sister training leader is??? SISTER DUNCAN!!!! I think I blew out her ear when I heard her on the phone. We are going to be going on exchanges tonight until Wednesday after district meeting. We will be staying here in Ellsworth, so I am pretty excited about it.

On Thursday, we went to Food for All, like we always do. But this past week was their Thanksgiving celebration. Here is a summary of what I learned:
#1- Your hands get really wrinkly and oily after washing dishes for 8 hours.
#2- I like lamb.
#3- I do not like lamb with mint jelly which is apparently a delicacy here. Blech. Never again.
#4- I will never complain about doing Thanksgiving dishes again because #300 people. Enough said.

Thankfully (see what I did there? Lolololol), I love all the people there, so the company was good and entertaining.

I think I said this a week or so ago, but Sister Hoopes and I felt very strongly that we needed to drop all of our investigators that are not progressing. The sisters had been teaching them for a while and it was keeping us from having finding time. The investigators that were progressing have both been baptized, so we now do not have a teaching pool. But! We have made some very good, inspired goals and plans to meet with less-actives and to find through them. We are both going to strive to be more exactly obedient, especially when it comes to planning and our companionship studies. We ask you if you could pray that the Lord will put in our path those who are searching for truth.

I wish I could tell you all that happened this week, but honestly, it doesn't matter. All I can say is that this week was one for the books and I learned a lot. I learned a lot about faith and doubt this week. This past week, a sister in the branch told us a story that taught me a lot. It went a little something like this:
Satan was having a yard sale. One of his minions was shopping around and came upon a table that was filled to the brim with weapons of all kinds: an ax was anger, a ball with chains was malice, a sword pride, and so on and so forth. All of these were 10 cents, 5 cents, a dime a dozen. But then the minion got to the end of the table and there was a solitary triangle- shaped wooden block. This one was $50. The minion asked what this was and why it was so much more expensive than all the others. Satan replied, "That is a wedge, meant to split wood. And that is doubt. With that, you can destroy souls."

Never ever doubt. Through personal experience, I have seen what it does to someone. It stops you. It allows fear to come in and fog and haze any spiritual prompting that comes to your heart. You begin to wonder if you ever really even knew; you begin to drift from the truths that you knew; you suddenly become petrified and are unable to continue. And it can be the most frightening experience that a person can go through.

So we must gear ourselves with the equipment that will combat this wedge of doubt. The equipment is a knowledge of the gospel. We must "put on the whole armor of God." I am reminded of the scriptures in Doctrine and Covenants that says:

  "Wherefore, lift up your hearts and rejoice, and gird up your loins, and take upon you my whole armor, that ye may be able to withstand the evil day, having done all, that ye may be able to stand.  Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, which I have sent mine angels to commit unto you;  Taking the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all
the fiery darts of the wicked;  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of my Spirit, which I will pour out upon you, and my word which I reveal unto you, and be agreed as touching all things whatsoever ye ask of me, and be faithful until I come, and ye shall be caught up, that where I am ye shall be also. Amen."

Hold to truth. Cling to the gospel. Remember the Lord and our Heavenly Father love you. You are watched over. He has been, is, and forever will be here for you and me. I know this to be true. I know that Jesus Christ suffered for us and that He is cheering for us. But more than that, He will always be by our side, but we need to take the hand that is "stretched out still".

I know I usually end my email with hymn lyrics, but there are few other things that help me feel of the love of Christ, than listening to, and studying hymns. So I leave you with one that describes my week:

Jesus, Savior, pilot me
Over life’s tempestuous sea;
Unknown waves before me roll,
Hiding rock and treach’rous shoal;
Chart and compass came from thee;
Jesus, Savior, pilot me.

As a mother stills her child,
Thou canst hush the ocean wild;
Boist’rous waves obey thy will
When thou say’st to them, “Be still!”
Wondrous Sov’reign of the sea,
Jesus, Savior, pilot me.

When at last I near the shore,
And the fearful breakers roar
’Twixt me and the peaceful rest,
Then, while leaning on thy breast,
May I hear thee say to me,
“Fear not; I will pilot thee.”

Love,
Sister Grace Sewell

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