holy cow!!! I love your picture!!! What the heck!!! thanks for the picture!!
i am sooooooooo glad that you can write again every week. When i got your letter that you would go to the island without electricity, i totally started crying!! and every letter that i read while you were there i cried more! it was just crazy! but now it is great that you can email again. those little things i sometimes take for granted... and all the other things that i can´t even imagine you are going through. the mission is like a dream huh. i totally feel like that. And, it was so weird talking to family, it was good to hear that you are doing well. it would have been super sweet to talk to you but at least we both talked to the family. they said you are doing well there.
Man, it is so crazy! but so cool too, and what a blessing to be serving the Savior. What a neat experience to see 10 baptisms all at once! It is the greatest thing when people change their lives to follow the Savior!! If i could sum up everything i am learning right now into one word it would be: esperança (hope) The Savior gives us hope. It is through Him that we can become clean. it is through His atoning sacrifice that we overcome our weaknesses and trials. It really hit me a while ago when you went to the other side of heaven island and you wrote in your letter, "don´t worry about me i have the Savior´s name on my front and that is all i need right now."
that really hit me and made me think about our calling as missionaries. we have been called to serve the Lord. And by serving His people, we are serving Him.
My mission president is always talking about how we need to be close to the Savior so we can say to investigators "come here, the Savior is right here with me, He is the light you need in your life." It is so true!
he uses a lot 3 nefi 18:24-25. Christ is the light that we are to bring into the lives of the people. It is only Christ that can change them. Many times i thought that if i just taught better or if i said something different, people would change and accept. But really it is not about us at all. It is all about the Savior, and each individual has the choice to make whether or not they will accept the gospel. We just have to do our part and bring all the light that we can. Be as obedient, diligent, faithful, loving, hopeful, patient, humble as we can and then the Spirit can be with us. And then we can discern what are the needs of the people. And then they will begin to understand and then they will want to be baptized and change their lives.
As i write this, things are clicking. I have been going through a hard time, well with doubting my abilities and doubting the abilities of others. I have seen so many times where i didn´t think i was capable of doing what Heavenly father reveals to me. But the times that i have actually trusted in Him more than the arm of flesh (2 nefi 4), i have seen miracles. When i doubted too much, they miracles didn´t happen in ways that they could have. Christmas morning i was reading the letters from the book and i read Sarah Bickford´s and it hit me, one more time. "doubt not Fear not" Fear does not come from God, but from Satan. Satan is trying really hard to destroy this work, but when we are built on the foundation of Christ, we cannot fail, nor fall. And as mom always says, you were not sent here to fail. With Christ as our foundation we cannot fail.
Sorry this is so long, i think it´s more me trying to figure out my thoughts, but Jacob, i am so grateful that you are faithfully serving the Lord and His people on the other side of the world! I feel like our family is being so blessed! I got to skype and they all look so good too!
Just keep pressing forward with steadfastness in Christ, and that tongan love for God and all men!!!
Merry Christmas! Feliz natal!!! Feliz ano novo também! Até logo!
com muito amor e gratidão,
Irmã Michael
i am sooooooooo glad that you can write again every week. When i got your letter that you would go to the island without electricity, i totally started crying!! and every letter that i read while you were there i cried more! it was just crazy! but now it is great that you can email again. those little things i sometimes take for granted... and all the other things that i can´t even imagine you are going through. the mission is like a dream huh. i totally feel like that. And, it was so weird talking to family, it was good to hear that you are doing well. it would have been super sweet to talk to you but at least we both talked to the family. they said you are doing well there.
Man, it is so crazy! but so cool too, and what a blessing to be serving the Savior. What a neat experience to see 10 baptisms all at once! It is the greatest thing when people change their lives to follow the Savior!! If i could sum up everything i am learning right now into one word it would be: esperança (hope) The Savior gives us hope. It is through Him that we can become clean. it is through His atoning sacrifice that we overcome our weaknesses and trials. It really hit me a while ago when you went to the other side of heaven island and you wrote in your letter, "don´t worry about me i have the Savior´s name on my front and that is all i need right now."
that really hit me and made me think about our calling as missionaries. we have been called to serve the Lord. And by serving His people, we are serving Him.
My mission president is always talking about how we need to be close to the Savior so we can say to investigators "come here, the Savior is right here with me, He is the light you need in your life." It is so true!
he uses a lot 3 nefi 18:24-25. Christ is the light that we are to bring into the lives of the people. It is only Christ that can change them. Many times i thought that if i just taught better or if i said something different, people would change and accept. But really it is not about us at all. It is all about the Savior, and each individual has the choice to make whether or not they will accept the gospel. We just have to do our part and bring all the light that we can. Be as obedient, diligent, faithful, loving, hopeful, patient, humble as we can and then the Spirit can be with us. And then we can discern what are the needs of the people. And then they will begin to understand and then they will want to be baptized and change their lives.
As i write this, things are clicking. I have been going through a hard time, well with doubting my abilities and doubting the abilities of others. I have seen so many times where i didn´t think i was capable of doing what Heavenly father reveals to me. But the times that i have actually trusted in Him more than the arm of flesh (2 nefi 4), i have seen miracles. When i doubted too much, they miracles didn´t happen in ways that they could have. Christmas morning i was reading the letters from the book and i read Sarah Bickford´s and it hit me, one more time. "doubt not Fear not" Fear does not come from God, but from Satan. Satan is trying really hard to destroy this work, but when we are built on the foundation of Christ, we cannot fail, nor fall. And as mom always says, you were not sent here to fail. With Christ as our foundation we cannot fail.
Sorry this is so long, i think it´s more me trying to figure out my thoughts, but Jacob, i am so grateful that you are faithfully serving the Lord and His people on the other side of the world! I feel like our family is being so blessed! I got to skype and they all look so good too!
Just keep pressing forward with steadfastness in Christ, and that tongan love for God and all men!!!
Merry Christmas! Feliz natal!!! Feliz ano novo também! Até logo!
com muito amor e gratidão,
Irmã Michael
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