Who's up for another random analogy from the life of a Tennessean missionary aka, me!?! Ok here goes, last night we were driving back from our last appointment, we were out in the country taking the twisty back roads home. It had been raining off and on, and it also has been warming up... hallelujah!!! BUT the combination of those two things created a dense fog that rolled in from seemingly no where. We were driving along and all of the sudden hit a patch of fog and the feeling that resulted was eery, definitely uncomfortable, and kind of on edge. Our dear sweet Corolla's lights are not very good as is and let me tell ya it most certainly does not have fog lights so all we could do was take it slow and watch the lines on the road as closely as possible. What was strange to me is there would be a huge patch of fog and then it would clear for a while and then we'd hit another bend in the road or go a few hundred yards and hit another patch. There was no predicting it, all of the sudden you were completely surrounded by it.
At one point as I was straining to see the lines in the road I said "How in the world would you get through this stuff without lines in the road?!" The thought of that made me literally sick to my stomach. Those lines were the only thing that was helping us make it through the winds and curves and bends and straightaways. I knew the lines ran behind us because I had seen them before and I trusted they were going to be in front of us as long as we kept focused on them instead of looking around and trying to navigate on our own. A few moments passed and I then said, "There has to be an analogy in all of this." And there was! There is! You see, sometimes in our winding journeys of life fogs roll in... Trials, difficulties, hard times, expectations of the world, leave us surrounded by a fog which can be eery at times, definitely uncomfortable, and on edge. No one likes to be confused or feel lost. And sometimes out of seemingly no where we feel that way. Much like our drive through the country we will be traveling through life and things are clear and then time passes, some distance is gained and all of the sudden we find ourselves in another patch of trial and hardship that cannot be predicted... so what gets us through? How do we navigate out of it? By focusing on the lines! The line upon lines and precept upon precepts of the Gospel. The basics of prayer, scripture study, and keeping the commandments. Yet I would also say another interpretation of what the lines in the road in this analogy represent is that they are: our experiences with Jesus Christ...
I will elaborate. I have had some thick fog roll in at random times this past week. We will be going along great and then all of the sudden hit a patch of difficulty that surrounds us and leaves us discouraged, confused, lost, and on edge. And I will tell you this much, there was one day that the only thing, the ONLY thing that got me through it, was remembering that Christ has helped me before and He will do it again. Like those lines I knew that He has been guiding me in the past, and I know if I keep looking for Him, keep focusing on those guiding experiences then I will see that He continues to guide me. Continues to guide each of us, but the moment that we look away and try to do things on our own, by our own navigation is the moment we get caught up in the fog get caught up in the "mists of darkness." It's like Peter walking on water, when his focus changed, when he looked at the storms around him instead of the Savior before him, he sunk. We've all felt that way. We've all been overwhelmed, feeling like we're sinking. But I know and I can testify that there is no such thing as too far gone, there is no such thing as too lost to be found, there is no such thing as too deep of waters. Christ goes the distance, Christ finds the lost sheep, Christ walks on water. He'll help us, and when we look for Him, when we reach out and up to Him we'll find He was already right there ready and willing to help and guide us only if we are ready and willing to receive that guidance.
And guess what? This morning when we woke up it was a bright an sunshiney day, we didn't know that was going to happen the night before when we were surrounded by fog. But it did it got better, the light came and it feels warm and happy and free. And that's life. Sometimes we get surrounded by mists of darkness and fogs of hardship and feel scared, confused, and on edge. But "joy cometh in the morning," there is always a new day ahead and when the sun shines we feel safe, aware of, and happy. But we have to have both to be able to fully appreciate the good. How would we know how good a clear bright day is without ever experiencing what a dark foggy day is like? We can't. So the reality is they are both going to happen, but decision that is ours to make is how are we going to respond? Will we focus on the lines, focus on Christ and keep a hope for the sunshine that lies ahead? Or will we give into the darkness and the fog and the confusion and become gloomy and sad and down? The beauty of this life is that we get to choose everything about life. Including and especially our reactions to what happens to us.
How many times have my dad's words echoed through my head over the years
"Only you can choose. Only you can change. And only you can make your situation better."
So let's choose happiness! Let's choose to focus on Christ, remember that He has guided us and will guide us, let focus on the lines and precepts of the Gospel! And let's trust and have hope in a bright future ahead!
To wrap up I want to share a couple of fog to sunshine, gloom to glory experiences we had this week.
On the particularly trying day we were out in the country contacting people who had formerly met with missionaries, many of them were not there and one house had even burned down and been abandoned so they were definitely not there. I sat behind the wheel on our way to yet another house feeling a little saddened, a little downtrodden, a little confused, and otherwise discouraged. I hit a foggy patch. That is when I prayed in my heart and put my trust in the Lord and reminded both He and myself that He has helped us before, He has guided us before, and I have faith He can and will do it again. As we prayed as a companionship we asked specifically that we could set up a return appointment for this week with this family. Guess what, they answered and agreed on the day we asked them for. In that moment the fog dispersed and sunshine shone.
It was a rough morning yet we were scheduled to go and have a lesson with a woman who comes occasionally to church but has a lot of health problems which prevent her from coming more regularly. She loves missionaries and adores when we come over. She had requested a month ago that we get a conference issue of the Ensign for her, I had my mom send one over, and we have been faithfully bringing it to church to give to her but she hasn't been. So we took it over with us and read from it with her. As we went to leave she hugged us with tears in her eyes and thanked us for taking time out of her day to come and spend time with her. It meant the world to her, and it changed my world. Gloom turned to glory and gratitude. From something so simple.
We were confused why our angel lady that I shared about a couple of weeks ago never reached out to us. Then one night wr found ourselves at a dinner appointment at a member couple's home that she had mentioned knowing. We were talking with this couple about the Book of Mormon and a challenge our stake President had given us to write our testimony in a Book of Mormon and give it to a friend in the coming year. They said they used to have a stack ready to hand out and they had given their last one to a man a couple of years ago. As they described who he was his story sounded familiar to us, we asked if he happened to be the son of our angel lady. And it was, we told them that we had been guided to her house and she had told us about her son and they were so excited. They said that she was formerly a member, and when we asked if they would be willing to write their testimony in a Book of Mormon for her and her husband they were ecstatic. We plan to go and deliver it to her and check in and see how she is doing. There again even in fogs of confusion there is sunshine to be found ahead!!!!
I know that Christ does guide us and He watches out for us. I know that no fog is too dense and no time is too dark that can separate us from his outreach and love. I am grateful for this knowledge and for the opportunity to share it with so many that we talk to each day.
I hope y'all have a blessed and sunshiney week!!!!
Love,
Hermana Hall
Monday, January 29, 2018
Wednesday, January 24, 2018
Get Real!!!!
So this week we went to go see a less active that is pretty homebound because she has chronic sinus infections and a weakened immune system so winter time cold and flu season is risky for her to be out in public. But she honestly is so sweet she has a powerful testimony and adores the gospel. She gets so animated and giggly when talking about it. She will start bouncing in her chair so excited to share her experiences. She says she has always loved testifying of Christ and His gospel especially when people "kick the door open" for her to insert her testimony. For example if she ever meets anyone who says they don't believe in God she says: "Oooh buddy you do not know what can of worms you just opened with me! What do you mean you don't believe in God where do you think you came from? You think your body, all the plants and animals on the Earth just happened??? GET REAL PEOPLE!!!" I lost it when she said that: GET REAL! There are so many people I would love to say that to. GET REAL!
This week I want to share a few experiences when things: "got real..." real: exciting, humbling, frustrating, humbling, cold and humbling again.
Exciting: we were trying to follow up with a lady where we couldn't find her address so we decided to knock on one of her neighbor's doors. Mind you this was a farming community so neighbors are pretty spread out, and the house we chose to knock on was on a gorgeous piece of property and was really nice on the exterior, had an outdoor fireplace and living area out back. It was niiiice, and so often missionaries avoid going to places like this because we assume instant rejection. But that is such a stereotype, proven by this experience. We said a prayer hop out of the car and walk the rest of the driveway to the front door but didn't make it there because as we did so the residents rolled up the driveway, which always makes for a nice awkward encounter, IF you let it be! Fortunately we didn't, we were friendly and introduced ourselves and to our shock and excitement they invited us RIGHT IN! We sat down in their living room shared a little bit about our basic beliefs and a lot a bit about what we do as missionaries and the organization of our church. We instantly connected with the mother of this family, she is the sweetest little southern belle, she showed us her scrapbook room (which made me think of my mom) and their indoor theater with movie posters and really cool ceiling lights (also made me think of my mom and family:). But towards the end of our visit she talked about how we should go and visit her neighbor who is in poor health. She said that she had been meaning to go and take her a Christmas present but hadn't made it over, to which we asked if we could schedule a time to come back and go with her next week to visit the neighbor. So basically we are going on a "non-mwmbee team-up" meaning we are teaming up with a non member to go and visit another non member, if you haven't heard of that before that's ok because I haven't ever, but we are really excited about it and this family. They would be such a strength to the church and the ward here. And she has a lot of concerns with other churches because of the way they argue over points of doctrine and are set up as ways to earn money and gain popularity. Everything in me wanted to just say "WELL WE HAVE THE MESSAGE FOR YOU!" And fix all of her concerns right there, but like on of my favorite scriptures in Corinthians says we have "milk before meat" little by little we learn and understand and change. But seriously this experience was so awesome, we walked out of there just in awe of God's goodness. Because it is real... He is real... GET REAL!
Humbling: we went to go find a woman who had been met by missionaries in the past but had the flu and asked them to come back later and they never were able to get back in touch with her. We had a driveway encounter with her as well she pulled up as we walked up and she also invited us in. This woman, oh my goodness, she is incredible. So wait, back up, as she pulled up in her car she had this huge dog in the back of her car and as she got out it got out too and it was the biggest Great Dane dog I had ever seen!!!! And get this... it is a service dog. She has MS and can't walk very well but there is a program in another state that raises and trains great Danes to honestly be like a cane. She described it like he is a piece of furniture that walks around with her to keep her steady and so she doesn't have to be in a wheelchair. And she has a meals on wheels route that she goes on with him to do service for others, and pay it forward. She is so Christlike! We shared the light the world video and she was very touched by it. She is moving to florida but we were able to get her contact info and will refer it to missionaries there so they can help her move in and hopefully teach her more. It was just so amazing to see people being humbled by weakness yet allowing it to help them reach out and serve those in weakened and humble circumstances as well. Like the classic scripture in Ether 12:27 says, her weakness is now a strength to many. Listening to her and being in her presence was so humbling, definitely got real.
Frustrating: all of our baptism dates dropped this week. We've been working with two little kids who are over the age of 8 but not quite 9 and neither of them were blessed as a baby. So our Bishop turned them over to us to teach and prepare for baptism, however we learned this week that they are considered ward baptisms so they don't "count" but at the same time they do. We are going to continue to work with them regardless of whether or not it "counts" in numbers we know for a fact it counts to Heavenly Father. And we know that she will provide a way for us to continue to meet people and work with them and help them to progress towards baptism, He has a plan I know that it's real.
Humbling: we went and followed up with a bunch of people in a low income housing apartment building. There was this one woman that was probably 50 and told us about how she was an orphan and it was so heartbreaking. We were able to testify that she was a child of God so loved and aware of and that even if her earthly circumstances were hard and she felt unloved she has a Father in Heaven who loves her so much. The spirit came and it definitely got real.
Cold: This week was full of snow and bitter cold. It was so dang cold! And our poor Corolla is not equipped for the icy roads. We still were able to do work even in the snow and meet and talk with a lot of people who thought we were insane for being out. Oh well the work does not stop for snowflakes or icicles. It's pretty wild that we are having a more severe winter than back home though, I was not expecting that! Get real!
I wrote about being humbled so much because I think that is ultimately the result of when things "get real" we are reminded how small we are in the grand scheme yet how much we matter in the grand scheme as well. Cue my favorite Mosiah 4 scripture again... Mosiah 4: 5-6
When we get real and realize what really matters or more importantly who really matters, it's humbling. It's so humbling to trust people, to trust Heavenly Father to give up your will and trust in His goodness and His plan. It's a strange phenomenon because we know He is good and aware of us and that He has a plan we say that all the time, but when it comes to acting on it, we hesitate... in sacrament meeting this week non-coincidentally our Bishop talked all about Faith and Trust. Gotta love it when Heavenly Father speaks exactly and directly to your concerns with a way to fix it, and that way is usually what...? Oh yes: HUMBLING! But... I know that so much of our experiences in life test and try us and are set up for us to learn how to trust. Trust in him trust others and trust yourself. This time is a time to prepare, a time to remember, and a time to trust. It requires a humble heart and a will and desire to follow more what Heavenly Father wants for us than what we want for ourselves.
I think Abraham 3:25 says it best:
25 And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them;
Proving that we will follow the Lord and His commandments is an ultimate goal of life, it requires humility and it requires trust. Many times there are situations that cause us to GET REAL. To reevaluate, and rethink, and realign ourselves with Him. It's humbling yes, but it is the way that we can become something so much more.
Stay humble and trust Him. He won't let us down.
Love y'all!
Love,
Hermana Hall
This week I want to share a few experiences when things: "got real..." real: exciting, humbling, frustrating, humbling, cold and humbling again.
Exciting: we were trying to follow up with a lady where we couldn't find her address so we decided to knock on one of her neighbor's doors. Mind you this was a farming community so neighbors are pretty spread out, and the house we chose to knock on was on a gorgeous piece of property and was really nice on the exterior, had an outdoor fireplace and living area out back. It was niiiice, and so often missionaries avoid going to places like this because we assume instant rejection. But that is such a stereotype, proven by this experience. We said a prayer hop out of the car and walk the rest of the driveway to the front door but didn't make it there because as we did so the residents rolled up the driveway, which always makes for a nice awkward encounter, IF you let it be! Fortunately we didn't, we were friendly and introduced ourselves and to our shock and excitement they invited us RIGHT IN! We sat down in their living room shared a little bit about our basic beliefs and a lot a bit about what we do as missionaries and the organization of our church. We instantly connected with the mother of this family, she is the sweetest little southern belle, she showed us her scrapbook room (which made me think of my mom) and their indoor theater with movie posters and really cool ceiling lights (also made me think of my mom and family:). But towards the end of our visit she talked about how we should go and visit her neighbor who is in poor health. She said that she had been meaning to go and take her a Christmas present but hadn't made it over, to which we asked if we could schedule a time to come back and go with her next week to visit the neighbor. So basically we are going on a "non-mwmbee team-up" meaning we are teaming up with a non member to go and visit another non member, if you haven't heard of that before that's ok because I haven't ever, but we are really excited about it and this family. They would be such a strength to the church and the ward here. And she has a lot of concerns with other churches because of the way they argue over points of doctrine and are set up as ways to earn money and gain popularity. Everything in me wanted to just say "WELL WE HAVE THE MESSAGE FOR YOU!" And fix all of her concerns right there, but like on of my favorite scriptures in Corinthians says we have "milk before meat" little by little we learn and understand and change. But seriously this experience was so awesome, we walked out of there just in awe of God's goodness. Because it is real... He is real... GET REAL!
Humbling: we went to go find a woman who had been met by missionaries in the past but had the flu and asked them to come back later and they never were able to get back in touch with her. We had a driveway encounter with her as well she pulled up as we walked up and she also invited us in. This woman, oh my goodness, she is incredible. So wait, back up, as she pulled up in her car she had this huge dog in the back of her car and as she got out it got out too and it was the biggest Great Dane dog I had ever seen!!!! And get this... it is a service dog. She has MS and can't walk very well but there is a program in another state that raises and trains great Danes to honestly be like a cane. She described it like he is a piece of furniture that walks around with her to keep her steady and so she doesn't have to be in a wheelchair. And she has a meals on wheels route that she goes on with him to do service for others, and pay it forward. She is so Christlike! We shared the light the world video and she was very touched by it. She is moving to florida but we were able to get her contact info and will refer it to missionaries there so they can help her move in and hopefully teach her more. It was just so amazing to see people being humbled by weakness yet allowing it to help them reach out and serve those in weakened and humble circumstances as well. Like the classic scripture in Ether 12:27 says, her weakness is now a strength to many. Listening to her and being in her presence was so humbling, definitely got real.
Frustrating: all of our baptism dates dropped this week. We've been working with two little kids who are over the age of 8 but not quite 9 and neither of them were blessed as a baby. So our Bishop turned them over to us to teach and prepare for baptism, however we learned this week that they are considered ward baptisms so they don't "count" but at the same time they do. We are going to continue to work with them regardless of whether or not it "counts" in numbers we know for a fact it counts to Heavenly Father. And we know that she will provide a way for us to continue to meet people and work with them and help them to progress towards baptism, He has a plan I know that it's real.
Humbling: we went and followed up with a bunch of people in a low income housing apartment building. There was this one woman that was probably 50 and told us about how she was an orphan and it was so heartbreaking. We were able to testify that she was a child of God so loved and aware of and that even if her earthly circumstances were hard and she felt unloved she has a Father in Heaven who loves her so much. The spirit came and it definitely got real.
Cold: This week was full of snow and bitter cold. It was so dang cold! And our poor Corolla is not equipped for the icy roads. We still were able to do work even in the snow and meet and talk with a lot of people who thought we were insane for being out. Oh well the work does not stop for snowflakes or icicles. It's pretty wild that we are having a more severe winter than back home though, I was not expecting that! Get real!
I wrote about being humbled so much because I think that is ultimately the result of when things "get real" we are reminded how small we are in the grand scheme yet how much we matter in the grand scheme as well. Cue my favorite Mosiah 4 scripture again... Mosiah 4: 5-6
When we get real and realize what really matters or more importantly who really matters, it's humbling. It's so humbling to trust people, to trust Heavenly Father to give up your will and trust in His goodness and His plan. It's a strange phenomenon because we know He is good and aware of us and that He has a plan we say that all the time, but when it comes to acting on it, we hesitate... in sacrament meeting this week non-coincidentally our Bishop talked all about Faith and Trust. Gotta love it when Heavenly Father speaks exactly and directly to your concerns with a way to fix it, and that way is usually what...? Oh yes: HUMBLING! But... I know that so much of our experiences in life test and try us and are set up for us to learn how to trust. Trust in him trust others and trust yourself. This time is a time to prepare, a time to remember, and a time to trust. It requires a humble heart and a will and desire to follow more what Heavenly Father wants for us than what we want for ourselves.
I think Abraham 3:25 says it best:
25 And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them;
Proving that we will follow the Lord and His commandments is an ultimate goal of life, it requires humility and it requires trust. Many times there are situations that cause us to GET REAL. To reevaluate, and rethink, and realign ourselves with Him. It's humbling yes, but it is the way that we can become something so much more.
Stay humble and trust Him. He won't let us down.
Love y'all!
Love,
Hermana Hall
Monday, January 15, 2018
Angels Among Us
This email is going to have a pretty serious tone, I feel prompted to share about one of the most guided and incredible miracles I have witnessed in my mission and in my life. I pray that all who read it feel the spirit testify that they too are so very aware of and that there truly are as the song says and the verse testifies there are "angels among us," (Alabama) and who are "round about us to bear us up." (D&C 84:88).
I found it interesting that, that was something that was referenced at the funeral of President Monson. He loved and appreciated the verse in D&C 84:88 about guiding angels. He knew it to be true and President Uchtdorf explained that it guided him in all that he did and made him optimistic and gave him confidence. With that in mind I went about my day as a missionary leading up to a long conversation with my companion who is struggling with the thought of going home in 6 short weeks. The result of our conversation was a prompting for us to both receive priesthood blessings the following day.
Which we asked for, and we received. I am so grateful to be serving near worthy and willing elders who answered the call and provided the desired and needed blessings. I went into the experience hoping and praying that my companion's prayers would be answered, which they were. However, I was not anticipating the reminder and guidance that I received.
The elder who gave me the blessing said that I should remember that I have angels around me, some are even past family members, and they are guiding me. . . Wow.
A specific person instantly came to mind as he said those words. Someone who has passed away since I've been on my mission. Someone I was very close to, someone I still am very close to. This week marks the year mark of her passing and I have had her on my mind for quite some time, I just didn't realize that I was on her mind as well.
Because as we left the Church that day and went out to work, we had a good lesson with a member family who lived in a part of our area we don't go to very often. It was cold, it was windy, it was gloomy. And after that lesson we had 4 hours until the next one and we didn't know what we should be doing or where we should be going. We were pulled over on the side of the road, in the boonies, growing in frustration by the minute. Not wanting to just fill time, but to use it effectively. But we didn't know how. As we prayed both vocally and silently. I remember asking Heavenly Father, "Am I really guided? I don't feel so now." Soon after, my companion grabbed the GPS typed something in and said, "Ok I picked this road let's go." Off we went, to a road that had three trailers and a house on it. The first one, the very first one, yelled at us and told us to leave. The next one was busy, the third one was abandoned, and the last house we were able to talk to the guy who had never seen missionaries out that way, but was kind enough to chat with us in the bitter cold for about 15 minutes but still turned us away after explaining to us that he was always forcefed religion but that he appreciated we weren't there recruiting just inviting and if he was ever interested he would call.
We walked back to the car and pulled away and Sister Beare turned to me with a smile and said "Alright, your turn, pick a street." I pulled up my map, zoomed into where our next appointment was going to be, and found a street that stuck out to me above the rest: Swecker Rd... Problem was I had no idea where that was in relationship to us, I had no idea where we were in the boonies, we were just following the spirit. And our GPS didn't like Swecker Rd, it wouldn't pull it up. So I tried another but still felt like we needed to go to Swecker. I asked Sister Beare if she could pull up where we currently were to see if we could wing it and go based off of the map not our GPS. She did and non-coincidentally (because there is no such thing as a coincidence) we saw that we were going to pass right by Swecker Rd. on our way out to the main road...
So we headed that way, turned up the street, I scanned and prayed and chose a house, who had the cutest big black jumping dog that we played fetch with. Unfortunately his owner was not jumping up and down with excitement to see us and turned us away. As we walked back to the car I looked across the property and saw a cozy looking house tucked away next door. I knew we needed to go there next. There was no questioning, it was: we are going there, right now.
So we did. An elderly couple answered the door and thought we were representing a different church and quickly threw out three excuses as to why they couldn't talk to us long. But we clarified we were missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and to our surprise they said "Oh! Well step inside!" I was completely shocked. And even more shocked when the woman explained that she had a son that was a member, and a grandson on a mission in California. I will openly admit that sometimes I get skeptical about people when they talk about how they have family members out on missions as well because a lot of the time their "mission trips" aren't LDS missions so they aren't really that familiar with the Church or missionaries. But this lady was... as we continued to talk to her it was evident that her son really was a member of our church and that her grandson really was a missionary for the Church in California. This woman was really familiar with our beliefs and even knew a lot of the local ward members, and asked for us to tell them hello. It finally occurred to me to ask her, as she was speaking... how she knew these people.
Her response was almost amusing as she said, "Oh I used to go to that church a little bit about 21 years ago..." Again we were shocked, she said that she wasn't sure of her schedule but wanted to give us a call and have us come back and share a message and a meal with her and her husband. She then gave us her name which had changed since she was coming to our church because she had been remarried in those 21 years. We took down her information and she asked if we would say a prayer with her, which we did, and we headed out back into the cold. We knew we had been guided there, there was no denying it. Yet as I was plugging her information into my tablet as we sat in their driveway I turned to my companion and asked her if I had the right last name, she said it was and asked why I was questioning it.
Her name was the exact name, first and last, of my angel.
I said a heartfelt and tearfilled prayer of thanks to my Heavenly Father for showing me, in my frustrated and doubtful state, that He is aware. That He meant what He said when He shared with me in that blessing that I really do have angels guiding me. He knows us, He cares about us. He wants us to be happy. He wants us to feel loved. He wants us to help each other. And He gives us every opportunity to do so. He answers prayers, He is patient when we doubt, patient when we lack. He blesses us when we don't deserve it.
A scripture a missionary once shared with me sums my feelings up perfectly
Mosiah 4: 5-6
5 For behold, if the knowledge of the goodness of God at this time has awakened you to a sense of your nothingness, and your worthless and fallen state—
6 I say unto you, if ye have come to a knowledge of the goodness of God, and his matchless power, and his wisdom, and his patience, and his long-suffering towards the children of men; and also, the atonement which has been prepared from the foundation of the world, that thereby salvation might come to him that should put his trust in the Lord, and should be diligent in keeping his commandments, and continue in the faith even unto the end of his life, I mean the life of the mortal body
7 I say, that this is the man who receiveth salvation, through the atonement which was prepared from the foundation of the world for all mankind, which ever were since the fall of Adam, or who are, or who ever shall be, even unto the end of the world.
I have been awakened to my own sense of nothingness in relation to God. I have come to a knowledge of His goodness, His matchless power, His wisdom, His patience, and His long-suffering towards each of us, but especially towards me. I also have learned about the Atonement, through which grace is provided that if I put my trust in the Lord, be obedient and have faith in His promises and the promptings of His Spirit, this is the way to salvation. And not just salvation in the next life. But this is how I'm saved on a daily basis, from doubt, from despair, from concern, worry, regret, hate, and temptation.
He guides us through all of the elements of a fallen world, and He shows us that we are not alone.
I've always loved the quote by Spencer W. Kimball:
"God does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs."
This week I have come to a faith and a knowledge that those people that "meet our needs" and answers our prayers are on both sides of the veil. There are so many around us, there are so many who love us, who want to help us. We shouldn't ever feel alone, humbled yes. Alone, never.
I know this is true, there are angels among us, they go forth paving the way of happiness before us, showing us how we can more fully follow the Savior, follow Him home to live with Him, with Heavenly Father, and with them.
I'm so grateful for the Plan of Salvation, for the miracles I witness on a daily basis and for the ones I don't even recognize because I know they are there. I know He is there, I know They are there.
I love and pray for y'all and thank you for your prayers. I'm sure many of the experiences I have are an answer to your prayers in my behalf. My heart is full and I know I am loved.
Thank you.
I hope you each can have experiences this week and into the future which leave you unable to deny that Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost, and your own army of angels know you and help you, guide you and bear you up.
Alma 26:37 He is oh so very mindful.
Have a great week!
Love,
Hermana Hall
I found it interesting that, that was something that was referenced at the funeral of President Monson. He loved and appreciated the verse in D&C 84:88 about guiding angels. He knew it to be true and President Uchtdorf explained that it guided him in all that he did and made him optimistic and gave him confidence. With that in mind I went about my day as a missionary leading up to a long conversation with my companion who is struggling with the thought of going home in 6 short weeks. The result of our conversation was a prompting for us to both receive priesthood blessings the following day.
Which we asked for, and we received. I am so grateful to be serving near worthy and willing elders who answered the call and provided the desired and needed blessings. I went into the experience hoping and praying that my companion's prayers would be answered, which they were. However, I was not anticipating the reminder and guidance that I received.
The elder who gave me the blessing said that I should remember that I have angels around me, some are even past family members, and they are guiding me. . . Wow.
A specific person instantly came to mind as he said those words. Someone who has passed away since I've been on my mission. Someone I was very close to, someone I still am very close to. This week marks the year mark of her passing and I have had her on my mind for quite some time, I just didn't realize that I was on her mind as well.
Because as we left the Church that day and went out to work, we had a good lesson with a member family who lived in a part of our area we don't go to very often. It was cold, it was windy, it was gloomy. And after that lesson we had 4 hours until the next one and we didn't know what we should be doing or where we should be going. We were pulled over on the side of the road, in the boonies, growing in frustration by the minute. Not wanting to just fill time, but to use it effectively. But we didn't know how. As we prayed both vocally and silently. I remember asking Heavenly Father, "Am I really guided? I don't feel so now." Soon after, my companion grabbed the GPS typed something in and said, "Ok I picked this road let's go." Off we went, to a road that had three trailers and a house on it. The first one, the very first one, yelled at us and told us to leave. The next one was busy, the third one was abandoned, and the last house we were able to talk to the guy who had never seen missionaries out that way, but was kind enough to chat with us in the bitter cold for about 15 minutes but still turned us away after explaining to us that he was always forcefed religion but that he appreciated we weren't there recruiting just inviting and if he was ever interested he would call.
We walked back to the car and pulled away and Sister Beare turned to me with a smile and said "Alright, your turn, pick a street." I pulled up my map, zoomed into where our next appointment was going to be, and found a street that stuck out to me above the rest: Swecker Rd... Problem was I had no idea where that was in relationship to us, I had no idea where we were in the boonies, we were just following the spirit. And our GPS didn't like Swecker Rd, it wouldn't pull it up. So I tried another but still felt like we needed to go to Swecker. I asked Sister Beare if she could pull up where we currently were to see if we could wing it and go based off of the map not our GPS. She did and non-coincidentally (because there is no such thing as a coincidence) we saw that we were going to pass right by Swecker Rd. on our way out to the main road...
So we headed that way, turned up the street, I scanned and prayed and chose a house, who had the cutest big black jumping dog that we played fetch with. Unfortunately his owner was not jumping up and down with excitement to see us and turned us away. As we walked back to the car I looked across the property and saw a cozy looking house tucked away next door. I knew we needed to go there next. There was no questioning, it was: we are going there, right now.
So we did. An elderly couple answered the door and thought we were representing a different church and quickly threw out three excuses as to why they couldn't talk to us long. But we clarified we were missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and to our surprise they said "Oh! Well step inside!" I was completely shocked. And even more shocked when the woman explained that she had a son that was a member, and a grandson on a mission in California. I will openly admit that sometimes I get skeptical about people when they talk about how they have family members out on missions as well because a lot of the time their "mission trips" aren't LDS missions so they aren't really that familiar with the Church or missionaries. But this lady was... as we continued to talk to her it was evident that her son really was a member of our church and that her grandson really was a missionary for the Church in California. This woman was really familiar with our beliefs and even knew a lot of the local ward members, and asked for us to tell them hello. It finally occurred to me to ask her, as she was speaking... how she knew these people.
Her response was almost amusing as she said, "Oh I used to go to that church a little bit about 21 years ago..." Again we were shocked, she said that she wasn't sure of her schedule but wanted to give us a call and have us come back and share a message and a meal with her and her husband. She then gave us her name which had changed since she was coming to our church because she had been remarried in those 21 years. We took down her information and she asked if we would say a prayer with her, which we did, and we headed out back into the cold. We knew we had been guided there, there was no denying it. Yet as I was plugging her information into my tablet as we sat in their driveway I turned to my companion and asked her if I had the right last name, she said it was and asked why I was questioning it.
Her name was the exact name, first and last, of my angel.
I said a heartfelt and tearfilled prayer of thanks to my Heavenly Father for showing me, in my frustrated and doubtful state, that He is aware. That He meant what He said when He shared with me in that blessing that I really do have angels guiding me. He knows us, He cares about us. He wants us to be happy. He wants us to feel loved. He wants us to help each other. And He gives us every opportunity to do so. He answers prayers, He is patient when we doubt, patient when we lack. He blesses us when we don't deserve it.
A scripture a missionary once shared with me sums my feelings up perfectly
Mosiah 4: 5-6
5 For behold, if the knowledge of the goodness of God at this time has awakened you to a sense of your nothingness, and your worthless and fallen state—
6 I say unto you, if ye have come to a knowledge of the goodness of God, and his matchless power, and his wisdom, and his patience, and his long-suffering towards the children of men; and also, the atonement which has been prepared from the foundation of the world, that thereby salvation might come to him that should put his trust in the Lord, and should be diligent in keeping his commandments, and continue in the faith even unto the end of his life, I mean the life of the mortal body
7 I say, that this is the man who receiveth salvation, through the atonement which was prepared from the foundation of the world for all mankind, which ever were since the fall of Adam, or who are, or who ever shall be, even unto the end of the world.
I have been awakened to my own sense of nothingness in relation to God. I have come to a knowledge of His goodness, His matchless power, His wisdom, His patience, and His long-suffering towards each of us, but especially towards me. I also have learned about the Atonement, through which grace is provided that if I put my trust in the Lord, be obedient and have faith in His promises and the promptings of His Spirit, this is the way to salvation. And not just salvation in the next life. But this is how I'm saved on a daily basis, from doubt, from despair, from concern, worry, regret, hate, and temptation.
He guides us through all of the elements of a fallen world, and He shows us that we are not alone.
I've always loved the quote by Spencer W. Kimball:
"God does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs."
This week I have come to a faith and a knowledge that those people that "meet our needs" and answers our prayers are on both sides of the veil. There are so many around us, there are so many who love us, who want to help us. We shouldn't ever feel alone, humbled yes. Alone, never.
I know this is true, there are angels among us, they go forth paving the way of happiness before us, showing us how we can more fully follow the Savior, follow Him home to live with Him, with Heavenly Father, and with them.
I'm so grateful for the Plan of Salvation, for the miracles I witness on a daily basis and for the ones I don't even recognize because I know they are there. I know He is there, I know They are there.
I love and pray for y'all and thank you for your prayers. I'm sure many of the experiences I have are an answer to your prayers in my behalf. My heart is full and I know I am loved.
Thank you.
I hope you each can have experiences this week and into the future which leave you unable to deny that Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost, and your own army of angels know you and help you, guide you and bear you up.
Alma 26:37 He is oh so very mindful.
Have a great week!
Love,
Hermana Hall
Tuesday, January 9, 2018
Demo Day
Wowwwwww. It has been quite a week. Quite a: bitter-cold-work-our-tails-off-see-loads-of-people-clean-up-lots-of-records-and-count-your-many-blessings-week. It has been wonderful, and tiring, and so bitter cold. It was 8 degrees one day... 8, with humidity and wind chill it felt like 8 below. My hands went numb whenever I took off my gloves, ay ay ay hace mucho frío aquí!!!!
Oh and that's another thing, I've been able to practice my Spanish more this week which has been AMAZING, we have given time to studies and received some Spanish referrals from the nearby elders, most of them haven't been home... love that... ugh. BUT there was one guy that nearby Sisters had referred us and Hermana See and I had tried to go see and were never able to meet him but struggled HARD CORE through a conversation with his mom who knew absolutely no English. She did accept a pamphlet though, but then told us she couldn't read small print. Darn. But we went back this past week I was u-turning to park and caught a glimpse of a guy getting in His truck, which is when you pray a quick prayer with your eyes open, and jump out of the car to try to get him before he leaves. Which is exactly what happened. We were able to talk to him, actually both of us were because he spoke really good English so Sister Beare isn't a Spanish missioanry but she was still able to teach and testify as well, and I was able to use a nice mix of Spanish and English and talk to him too. He preached to us for a while about the Bible and Paul and dropped the word Gentiles which is basically like kicking the door open for us to be able to take hold of the reins and steer the conversation straight into the Book of Mormon, El Libro de Mormón. Which we did, and we gave him a copy, and he said that he would like to read it. We so hope and pray he does! It was great, and even though I lost my brand new gloves in the hopping out of the car excitement, it was worth it. So worth it. And I have reason to believe more Spanish opportunities are headed my way, so that's scary exciting. Scary because I feel like my Spanish is still MTC level, because it is, I lack faith that I'll ever understand conjugation anything. But the Lord has a plan and He'll help me even if He humbles me to the dust first.
BUT anyway, back to our week here. I titled this thing "demo day" in honor of one of my all time favorite and dearly missed home remodeling tv shows on HGTV: "FIXER UPPER" oh if I could be a missionary in Waco Texas I would march straight to Chip and Joanna Gaines' house and share the gospel, and then I'd go to all the their cute houses they have built and share it with the cute families that live in them, and anyone else who would listen. Oh boy, I must be a missionary... rereading that... hahaha oh well I'm leaving it, because it's so true, I think they would be the greatest little LDS family. And I heard that she is pregnant!!!! Yayyyy!!!! Ok I'm getting off track again, soooo on this fixer upper show, they have during their remodels and reconstructing what is called "demo day" when they go to town tearing apart, tearing down, and otherwise demolishing and gutting rooms and areas that need to be cleaned up and rebuilt. And that accurately and perfectly describes what Sister Beare and I have been doing in Greeneville. You see we have our area book, it's on our devices and contains the record and history (I sound like a writer in the Book of Mormon right now ;) of people that missionaries have contacted in the past but often haven't made it back to, for anywhere from 3-300 days! Actually scratch that, there was one lady that hadn't been seen for 1,200 days. That is over 3 years. Goodness. So we demolished our records. We went and tried to see sooo many of these people, got a feel for who they were and how much they knew and remembered about missionaries and the message we share, and if they wanted to learn more. A lot of the time the answer was not right now, a lot of the time they didn't even live there any more, so we were able to talk to the new people that lived there and see if they were interested.
It's so interesting to see how different missionaries work, being with different companions you see how many different perspectives and ways of doing missionary work there are. And the best part is there isn't one perfect way. There isn't one right way or one wrong way, the key is finding a good balance of what works for both of you and then going out and doing it. And that's what we have done. Sister Beare has taught me that there is value and importance in "dropping people" Which means we change the status of their records so it shows we aren't actively teaching them at this time but their records are still there for future missionaries to see and go follow up when prompted. She also has taught me there is value in deleting people's records. This one was shocking to me. If people haven't been taught very much or really aren't interested she has taught me that we can delete there records so 1: they don't clutter up our area book, 2: don't get pounded by missionaries who keep going back when they really aren't ready and 3: (this is my favorite one) it puts them back in the Lord's hands trusting that He will lead missionaries back when they are ready. I love that one. There have definitely been times I have gone to a house and talked to the person knowing a lot about them and they have been pretty rude, sometimes I wish that I could have gone into it not ever knowing that they had met missionaries before, not playing dumb but really just not even knowing anything about them... but trusting that the Spirit knows where they are and will lead us there. So this way allows for that. There have been some amazing miracles as a result two people that haven't been seen in months all of the sudden when we dropped them either called us, or a few days later we ran into them and reschedule an appointment. One guy literally 10 minutes after dropping someone, texted us and we have an appt with him tonight.
The culmination of this week, and miracle of miracles was on Sunday, of course. It seems that tender mercies always abound on Sundays. This one, wow this one goes down in the books. This guy we met last week at church came with a member family. He has had a rough upbringing but this family always took him in and helped him out. He knows a LOT about the church and made some really good comments in the gospel principles lesson we gave on the sacrament. We asked everyone in the class to ponder something they could sacrifice and bring it to the sacrament table the next week and offer it up. They said they would but honestly we weren't sure if anyone remembered, but this guy did. In fast and testimony meeting he got up and bore a sweet and sincere testimony of his experiences learning about the church and being in the member family's home. He then came up to us after gospel principles and said that he had thought a lot about what we asked the class to do last week, that he offered up his cigarettes this week, he is going to quit smoking. And then he said, "I've decided I'm committed and I've been thinking about baptism and going to the temple and I want to get there." Ummmm yeah, so we have never even taught this guy before! He is so amazing! And let me also say through all of our cleaning out we have been doing in our area book we found his information and have been able to update it and hopefully start teaching him! We are so excited!!!!
Overall it has been such an incredible week, I've learned a lot, worked a lot, laughed a lot, and come home so tired every day. It's great. That's what I want to do every day is come home tired, and at the end of my mission come home tired, and at the end of my life: come home tired.
I had a random song pop into my mind as I was doing laundry this morning... It's by the Mowgli's and it's called "I'm Good" the chorus says something like: "I'm good, I'm good, I'm good, I'm good, living life just like I should, wouldn't change it if I could I'm good I'm good I'm good!"
I'm so good, and hope y'all are too! Keep sharing the gospel by living the gospel, work hard, play hard, demo what needs to be cleared and cleaned away and come home tired!
Love y'all
Love,
Hermana Hall
P.S.
This is a random funny story that I wanted to include... we were over at a member's house and they were talking about how they tried to space having their kids apart by 2 or 3 years and the mom turned to their daughter and said "We wanted you to come sooner but you must have gotten lost somewhere and taken a detour or something" without missing a beat the little girl goes "I took the stairs!" Hahaha! Oh how I love little kids!!!!! The youngest boy in this same family threw something at Sister Beare giggled and yelled "LEGENDARY!!!!" Hahahahahaha again, so funny!!!!
Oh and that's another thing, I've been able to practice my Spanish more this week which has been AMAZING, we have given time to studies and received some Spanish referrals from the nearby elders, most of them haven't been home... love that... ugh. BUT there was one guy that nearby Sisters had referred us and Hermana See and I had tried to go see and were never able to meet him but struggled HARD CORE through a conversation with his mom who knew absolutely no English. She did accept a pamphlet though, but then told us she couldn't read small print. Darn. But we went back this past week I was u-turning to park and caught a glimpse of a guy getting in His truck, which is when you pray a quick prayer with your eyes open, and jump out of the car to try to get him before he leaves. Which is exactly what happened. We were able to talk to him, actually both of us were because he spoke really good English so Sister Beare isn't a Spanish missioanry but she was still able to teach and testify as well, and I was able to use a nice mix of Spanish and English and talk to him too. He preached to us for a while about the Bible and Paul and dropped the word Gentiles which is basically like kicking the door open for us to be able to take hold of the reins and steer the conversation straight into the Book of Mormon, El Libro de Mormón. Which we did, and we gave him a copy, and he said that he would like to read it. We so hope and pray he does! It was great, and even though I lost my brand new gloves in the hopping out of the car excitement, it was worth it. So worth it. And I have reason to believe more Spanish opportunities are headed my way, so that's scary exciting. Scary because I feel like my Spanish is still MTC level, because it is, I lack faith that I'll ever understand conjugation anything. But the Lord has a plan and He'll help me even if He humbles me to the dust first.
BUT anyway, back to our week here. I titled this thing "demo day" in honor of one of my all time favorite and dearly missed home remodeling tv shows on HGTV: "FIXER UPPER" oh if I could be a missionary in Waco Texas I would march straight to Chip and Joanna Gaines' house and share the gospel, and then I'd go to all the their cute houses they have built and share it with the cute families that live in them, and anyone else who would listen. Oh boy, I must be a missionary... rereading that... hahaha oh well I'm leaving it, because it's so true, I think they would be the greatest little LDS family. And I heard that she is pregnant!!!! Yayyyy!!!! Ok I'm getting off track again, soooo on this fixer upper show, they have during their remodels and reconstructing what is called "demo day" when they go to town tearing apart, tearing down, and otherwise demolishing and gutting rooms and areas that need to be cleaned up and rebuilt. And that accurately and perfectly describes what Sister Beare and I have been doing in Greeneville. You see we have our area book, it's on our devices and contains the record and history (I sound like a writer in the Book of Mormon right now ;) of people that missionaries have contacted in the past but often haven't made it back to, for anywhere from 3-300 days! Actually scratch that, there was one lady that hadn't been seen for 1,200 days. That is over 3 years. Goodness. So we demolished our records. We went and tried to see sooo many of these people, got a feel for who they were and how much they knew and remembered about missionaries and the message we share, and if they wanted to learn more. A lot of the time the answer was not right now, a lot of the time they didn't even live there any more, so we were able to talk to the new people that lived there and see if they were interested.
It's so interesting to see how different missionaries work, being with different companions you see how many different perspectives and ways of doing missionary work there are. And the best part is there isn't one perfect way. There isn't one right way or one wrong way, the key is finding a good balance of what works for both of you and then going out and doing it. And that's what we have done. Sister Beare has taught me that there is value and importance in "dropping people" Which means we change the status of their records so it shows we aren't actively teaching them at this time but their records are still there for future missionaries to see and go follow up when prompted. She also has taught me there is value in deleting people's records. This one was shocking to me. If people haven't been taught very much or really aren't interested she has taught me that we can delete there records so 1: they don't clutter up our area book, 2: don't get pounded by missionaries who keep going back when they really aren't ready and 3: (this is my favorite one) it puts them back in the Lord's hands trusting that He will lead missionaries back when they are ready. I love that one. There have definitely been times I have gone to a house and talked to the person knowing a lot about them and they have been pretty rude, sometimes I wish that I could have gone into it not ever knowing that they had met missionaries before, not playing dumb but really just not even knowing anything about them... but trusting that the Spirit knows where they are and will lead us there. So this way allows for that. There have been some amazing miracles as a result two people that haven't been seen in months all of the sudden when we dropped them either called us, or a few days later we ran into them and reschedule an appointment. One guy literally 10 minutes after dropping someone, texted us and we have an appt with him tonight.
The culmination of this week, and miracle of miracles was on Sunday, of course. It seems that tender mercies always abound on Sundays. This one, wow this one goes down in the books. This guy we met last week at church came with a member family. He has had a rough upbringing but this family always took him in and helped him out. He knows a LOT about the church and made some really good comments in the gospel principles lesson we gave on the sacrament. We asked everyone in the class to ponder something they could sacrifice and bring it to the sacrament table the next week and offer it up. They said they would but honestly we weren't sure if anyone remembered, but this guy did. In fast and testimony meeting he got up and bore a sweet and sincere testimony of his experiences learning about the church and being in the member family's home. He then came up to us after gospel principles and said that he had thought a lot about what we asked the class to do last week, that he offered up his cigarettes this week, he is going to quit smoking. And then he said, "I've decided I'm committed and I've been thinking about baptism and going to the temple and I want to get there." Ummmm yeah, so we have never even taught this guy before! He is so amazing! And let me also say through all of our cleaning out we have been doing in our area book we found his information and have been able to update it and hopefully start teaching him! We are so excited!!!!
Overall it has been such an incredible week, I've learned a lot, worked a lot, laughed a lot, and come home so tired every day. It's great. That's what I want to do every day is come home tired, and at the end of my mission come home tired, and at the end of my life: come home tired.
I had a random song pop into my mind as I was doing laundry this morning... It's by the Mowgli's and it's called "I'm Good" the chorus says something like: "I'm good, I'm good, I'm good, I'm good, living life just like I should, wouldn't change it if I could I'm good I'm good I'm good!"
I'm so good, and hope y'all are too! Keep sharing the gospel by living the gospel, work hard, play hard, demo what needs to be cleared and cleaned away and come home tired!
Love y'all
Love,
Hermana Hall
P.S.
This is a random funny story that I wanted to include... we were over at a member's house and they were talking about how they tried to space having their kids apart by 2 or 3 years and the mom turned to their daughter and said "We wanted you to come sooner but you must have gotten lost somewhere and taken a detour or something" without missing a beat the little girl goes "I took the stairs!" Hahaha! Oh how I love little kids!!!!! The youngest boy in this same family threw something at Sister Beare giggled and yelled "LEGENDARY!!!!" Hahahahahaha again, so funny!!!!
Wednesday, January 3, 2018
Dropping Burdens
Once upon a time last week I mentioned that we traveled to Bristol Virginia for a meeting with our Stake President. I shared a couple of experiences about that meeting but I didn't share about an adventure we had on the way up there. For months Sister See and I had wanted to take a picture by the "Welcome to Virginia" sign when we went there for meetings. But we always, without fail missed the exit. However this time, this time... we were going to make it. We watched for it the entire time, were in the right lane and successfully made the exit and parked at the rest stop. We were able to take a picture for a family in front of a sign that spelled out L-O-V-E, because apparently Virginia "is for lovers" whatever that means... Anyway then we walked along this muddy field to get to the "Welcome to Virginia" sign. As we did so a man jumped out of his van with his family and volunteered to take our picture if we took one of him. He was traveling to New York to be with extended family for Christmas. He and his family live in Dallas but originate from somewhere in Asia, I'm not sure where. He was so friendly though, and wanted to take a picture with us, so we agreed. Always great when you can pretend to be a celebrity. Anyway we took pictures with him and he was just the funniest guy, had a Christian background and accepted a light the world card from us. Which had our number on it, but we didn't think that would matter because no one actually ever calls us.
Fast forward to this past Sunday a week later. Sister Beare, my new companion (more to come on her later) and I are traveling back from trying to find a new move in that Bishop asked us to find. Side note, recent move in my foot, the grumpy old guy that answered the door said that he has lived there for 35 years, knows no one with that name, but that people from our church have been coming by randomly for a couple years looking for that family and that we need to get a new approach and he isn't interested in oír religion. Whoa... note taken... sorry to bother you Sir. Maybe in the next life you'll know who we are talking about and we can all sit down together and have a discussion about the gospel. But back to the story at hand... Sister Beare and I are just about to get out of the car, when the phone rings. We answer it on speaker phone and not going to lie I thought it was a brother in the ward who is from Mexico, he has a thick accent and was asking if he was talking to Hermana See or Hermana Hall. I said it was Hermana Hall and after about a minute and a half of talking to him and asking about his vacation (because the ward member was traveling back from vacation that day) it finally occurs to me this isn't who I think it is and I ask who it is we are talking to. I was floored when he said his name and says "we met at the rest stop in Virginia and you gave me your card, I wanted to call and wish you and Hermana See a Happy New Year!" HAHAHAHAHAHA! Someone actually called our number YAYYYYY!!!! As funny and shocking as it was he said a few things that I found profound and I want to share.
After realizing who we were now talking to I remembered that he had been on his way to NY so I asked him how it was and asked if he was going to see the ball drop in Times Square. He said yes he and his family were planning on it and that he was pondering on the concept of the ball dropping and came up with a spiritual application. He said that "I was thinking about a good symbolism about the dropping of the ball, I thought about how the ball is slowly dropping, not going up, but down, and it signals the end of 2017, and the beginning of 2018 and for me that means that we have to drop, applying it to our lives, we have to drop our baggages, the loads, the heavy burdens that we had in 2017 so when we move on to a new year we will be lighter. And it reminded me of the biblical passage, "Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11: 28"
Don't you just LOVE that?! Isn't that what a new year is all about? A fresh start. And opportunity to drop baggage and move forward with faith. As I've contemplated my previous year and all that lies ahead I am excited for what the future holds and the hope that awaits each one of us. Too often we tend to get caught up in the past. Whether it be past mistakes, past memories, or past regrets. It is easy to look back with longing or remorse when really we should be looking forward to the future, knowing that it really is "as bright as our faith" (Thomas S. Monson).
Because of our Savior Jesus Christ we have a future of new beginnings and possibilities, we have the ability to repent, to change.
I think I can safely say that in the year 2017 I have done more repenting and changing than any other year before, and it is all because I am drawing closer to our Savior Jesus Christ and helping others to do the same. That is where true joy comes from, and there's a whole lot more of it to be had, in the FUTURE! There are opportunites all around us in right now, and tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and the next day. FOREVER, so just like my Virginia buddy said, we need to drop our baggages, drop our regrets and just move forward. Don't look back. A favorite Mormon Message of mine uses the experience of Lot's Wife to illustrate this point. Imagine this woman, they lived in Sodom and Gomorrah, a wicked place, they were surrounded by temptations and lusts of the world and they were commanded to leave. They probably left a lot of baggage there, they left their home, their lifestyle, their friends, their social life, their extended family, their habits, their routines, their normal. And they followed the Lord. Trusting that His will for them was to leave and to journey to a new land, a protected land, a holy land, a holy and protected life. And He asked them to not look back at what they had left. And for the most part they didn't.
All except, Lot's wife. Now we don't know in full what the situation was, what she was like. She could have been longing for home for family and for her normal, we have all felt that way before. But when following the Lord we need to trust Him and to look to Him and none else. And that is exactly what she didn't do, she looked back. And it halted her progression, it turned her into something different, salt. If only she hadn't looked back she could have kept moving forward with her family and been able to receive all that the Lord had in store for her.
So how does that apply to us? I'll apply it to myself and then let each of you apply it to yourselves. The Lord asked me to leave, to leave my life, my home, my lifestyle, my friends, my social life, my extended family, my habits, my routines, and my normal. And to follow Him. Trusting in His will for me was to leave and journey to a new land and receive protection and become more holy. And He has asked me to not look back. For the most part I don't. But sometimes I do, sometimes I worry, sometimes I wonder, sometimes I miss my past memories, sometimes I worry about past mistakes, or missed opportunities. And each time I get caught up in looking back... I, like Lot's wife am stunted in my growth and my perspective. I become something that I'm not intended to be. I become sad, worried, and lack confidence. None of those things are what Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ want me to be and feel. That's what Satan wants me to be.
That's how he wants me to feel. And that isn't ok.
So guess what the beautiful part of this is? Is every 24 hours we get a new chance to have a new day and be better. A woman in that video I mentioned says it best, "Each day is the beginning of a new year, and it's the first day, literally the first day of the rest of your life." A man concludes the video by saying, "Just live for it. Live for the future."
I can testify that living for the future, looking ahead is so much better than looking behind. Sure it is scary, trust me when I can say I relate to having a fear of the unknown. But that has changed a lot in the past year as I have been on my mission. I was talking to Sister Beare about this, which by the way I remember I said I would tell y'all more about her so let me take a sec and do that right now... She is from Sacramento California, she has been on her mission for 16 months, she is an incredible missionary, we get along great, I have been so blessed by amazing companions who have all taught me so much and influenced my life for the better. Ok but I was talking with her about this, about how so many things that we encounter on a daily basis would have stressed me right out, back at home. Miscommunications, ridicule, failure to plan, failed plans, etc. Those things would have weighed me down back home, back in 2016... but in 2017 I got over that. I learned how to trust the Lord. I learned how to find His will. I learned how to pray like I hav never prayed, to trust like I have never trusted, and to live like I have never lived before. And you know what? I am excited for the future. It is full of possibilites both for me, for the people I meet on a daily basis, and for each of you.
So let's all live for it. Let's ring in this New Year with hope!
Oh and one more thing, before I left on my mission my sweet sweet younger brother brought to my attention: "You won't ever set foot in our house in the year 2017." Ouch. Well that may have been true but we can't say that about 2018!!!! Woooooo!!!!
BUT. There's more to do before then, so much to look forward to.
I am so grateful!
Love y'all, Happy and Blessed New Year!
Love, Hermana Hall
Saying "See you later" To Sister See! Best Wishes at BYUI!!!!
Also "See you Later" To Sister Yauney-Trainer Best wishes at USU!!!
Coordinated and Matching tights! Sister Yauney trained her well!!!
Oops... The vehicle coordinator told them they were going out with a BANG! literally! (neither of them were at fault...)
Its A Small World.... Elder Anderson's mom and Sister Hall's mom were mission companions (LAVC AQUI)
Love,
Hermana Hall
Fast forward to this past Sunday a week later. Sister Beare, my new companion (more to come on her later) and I are traveling back from trying to find a new move in that Bishop asked us to find. Side note, recent move in my foot, the grumpy old guy that answered the door said that he has lived there for 35 years, knows no one with that name, but that people from our church have been coming by randomly for a couple years looking for that family and that we need to get a new approach and he isn't interested in oír religion. Whoa... note taken... sorry to bother you Sir. Maybe in the next life you'll know who we are talking about and we can all sit down together and have a discussion about the gospel. But back to the story at hand... Sister Beare and I are just about to get out of the car, when the phone rings. We answer it on speaker phone and not going to lie I thought it was a brother in the ward who is from Mexico, he has a thick accent and was asking if he was talking to Hermana See or Hermana Hall. I said it was Hermana Hall and after about a minute and a half of talking to him and asking about his vacation (because the ward member was traveling back from vacation that day) it finally occurs to me this isn't who I think it is and I ask who it is we are talking to. I was floored when he said his name and says "we met at the rest stop in Virginia and you gave me your card, I wanted to call and wish you and Hermana See a Happy New Year!" HAHAHAHAHAHA! Someone actually called our number YAYYYYY!!!! As funny and shocking as it was he said a few things that I found profound and I want to share.
After realizing who we were now talking to I remembered that he had been on his way to NY so I asked him how it was and asked if he was going to see the ball drop in Times Square. He said yes he and his family were planning on it and that he was pondering on the concept of the ball dropping and came up with a spiritual application. He said that "I was thinking about a good symbolism about the dropping of the ball, I thought about how the ball is slowly dropping, not going up, but down, and it signals the end of 2017, and the beginning of 2018 and for me that means that we have to drop, applying it to our lives, we have to drop our baggages, the loads, the heavy burdens that we had in 2017 so when we move on to a new year we will be lighter. And it reminded me of the biblical passage, "Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11: 28"
Don't you just LOVE that?! Isn't that what a new year is all about? A fresh start. And opportunity to drop baggage and move forward with faith. As I've contemplated my previous year and all that lies ahead I am excited for what the future holds and the hope that awaits each one of us. Too often we tend to get caught up in the past. Whether it be past mistakes, past memories, or past regrets. It is easy to look back with longing or remorse when really we should be looking forward to the future, knowing that it really is "as bright as our faith" (Thomas S. Monson).
Because of our Savior Jesus Christ we have a future of new beginnings and possibilities, we have the ability to repent, to change.
I think I can safely say that in the year 2017 I have done more repenting and changing than any other year before, and it is all because I am drawing closer to our Savior Jesus Christ and helping others to do the same. That is where true joy comes from, and there's a whole lot more of it to be had, in the FUTURE! There are opportunites all around us in right now, and tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and the next day. FOREVER, so just like my Virginia buddy said, we need to drop our baggages, drop our regrets and just move forward. Don't look back. A favorite Mormon Message of mine uses the experience of Lot's Wife to illustrate this point. Imagine this woman, they lived in Sodom and Gomorrah, a wicked place, they were surrounded by temptations and lusts of the world and they were commanded to leave. They probably left a lot of baggage there, they left their home, their lifestyle, their friends, their social life, their extended family, their habits, their routines, their normal. And they followed the Lord. Trusting that His will for them was to leave and to journey to a new land, a protected land, a holy land, a holy and protected life. And He asked them to not look back at what they had left. And for the most part they didn't.
All except, Lot's wife. Now we don't know in full what the situation was, what she was like. She could have been longing for home for family and for her normal, we have all felt that way before. But when following the Lord we need to trust Him and to look to Him and none else. And that is exactly what she didn't do, she looked back. And it halted her progression, it turned her into something different, salt. If only she hadn't looked back she could have kept moving forward with her family and been able to receive all that the Lord had in store for her.
So how does that apply to us? I'll apply it to myself and then let each of you apply it to yourselves. The Lord asked me to leave, to leave my life, my home, my lifestyle, my friends, my social life, my extended family, my habits, my routines, and my normal. And to follow Him. Trusting in His will for me was to leave and journey to a new land and receive protection and become more holy. And He has asked me to not look back. For the most part I don't. But sometimes I do, sometimes I worry, sometimes I wonder, sometimes I miss my past memories, sometimes I worry about past mistakes, or missed opportunities. And each time I get caught up in looking back... I, like Lot's wife am stunted in my growth and my perspective. I become something that I'm not intended to be. I become sad, worried, and lack confidence. None of those things are what Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ want me to be and feel. That's what Satan wants me to be.
That's how he wants me to feel. And that isn't ok.
So guess what the beautiful part of this is? Is every 24 hours we get a new chance to have a new day and be better. A woman in that video I mentioned says it best, "Each day is the beginning of a new year, and it's the first day, literally the first day of the rest of your life." A man concludes the video by saying, "Just live for it. Live for the future."
I can testify that living for the future, looking ahead is so much better than looking behind. Sure it is scary, trust me when I can say I relate to having a fear of the unknown. But that has changed a lot in the past year as I have been on my mission. I was talking to Sister Beare about this, which by the way I remember I said I would tell y'all more about her so let me take a sec and do that right now... She is from Sacramento California, she has been on her mission for 16 months, she is an incredible missionary, we get along great, I have been so blessed by amazing companions who have all taught me so much and influenced my life for the better. Ok but I was talking with her about this, about how so many things that we encounter on a daily basis would have stressed me right out, back at home. Miscommunications, ridicule, failure to plan, failed plans, etc. Those things would have weighed me down back home, back in 2016... but in 2017 I got over that. I learned how to trust the Lord. I learned how to find His will. I learned how to pray like I hav never prayed, to trust like I have never trusted, and to live like I have never lived before. And you know what? I am excited for the future. It is full of possibilites both for me, for the people I meet on a daily basis, and for each of you.
So let's all live for it. Let's ring in this New Year with hope!
Oh and one more thing, before I left on my mission my sweet sweet younger brother brought to my attention: "You won't ever set foot in our house in the year 2017." Ouch. Well that may have been true but we can't say that about 2018!!!! Woooooo!!!!
BUT. There's more to do before then, so much to look forward to.
I am so grateful!
Love y'all, Happy and Blessed New Year!
Love, Hermana Hall
Saying "See you later" To Sister See! Best Wishes at BYUI!!!!
Also "See you Later" To Sister Yauney-Trainer Best wishes at USU!!!
Coordinated and Matching tights! Sister Yauney trained her well!!!
Oops... The vehicle coordinator told them they were going out with a BANG! literally! (neither of them were at fault...)
Its A Small World.... Elder Anderson's mom and Sister Hall's mom were mission companions (LAVC AQUI)
Love,
Hermana Hall
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