Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Forsake the World.................February 9, 2015

Hey everyone! I hope everyone had a fantastic week...this week was a little slower, but good and filled with the Spirit.  Always good in the mission. 

We had a lot of Family Home Evenings and taught the "bottle" concept, and it`s been really effective! I am so thankful for that women`s conference that we had last week. It seriously changed my life because I could just feel the love of God for all of His daughters, and I could see the power of these amazing women, Sister Burton and Sister Marriott. I hope to be the kind of woman that they are. So many women like that have surrounded me my whole life. My mom, my grandma, my aunts, my sisters, Hermana Smith, my fellow hermanas, my companions, my friends. I know God put them in my life to make me better, and I know they have. 

So on wednesday I got to do divisions! this time with Hermana Reed. she has one change less than me and we were facebook friends before the mission haha. and after that we`ve always seen each other at conferences but never in the same zone. and it FINALLY happened! and we got to do divisions and it was great. hna reed is just a bubbly ball of energy and i love her. i am grateful for the amazing hermanas that i get to work with here and learn from and for all the others that i`ve had the blessing of knowing my whole mission. they have all changed my life and i am so thankful for them! 

Let me just mention the coolest family ever. The family Piriz, who have been members for about 5 years. They have 11 kids between the ages of 23 and 2, and they live in this little cement box made for maybe 6. Their clothes have holes in them and they`re always dirty. And they all 13 of them are in church EVERY single week, and they are one of the happiest families i have ever met, and their parents say that it`s because they have the Gospel. we have family home evenings with them every week, and i always look forward to it. they are amazing. 

Uruguay did their EFY this last week so all of the youth 14 and older were there in southern uruguay all last week. it was about 10 from our ward went, and they each got to bear their testimonies. And as they each bore their testimony that they were able to gain of the Savior, almost every one of them, who were almost all young men, shed tears of the Spirit as it testified in their own hearts and the hearts of everyone in the congregation the truth of those testimonies. That He LIVES. That He LOVES us. And I just wanted to cry with them, because I know it`s true too.  And I am so, so, SO thankful for the opportunities that I have had in my mission to work with and see the youth. The youth of Uruguay, are literally my heroes. Life as a member of the church in your youth is not an easy one, and FAR less easy in Uruguay. Some of these kids go to church by themselves. Some take their little brothers and sisters with them. Almost none of their friends besides the ones in their own ward are members of the church. And yet they are there every week. Some go out with the missionaries. They lose or deny friendships because they choose the LORD. They are examples to everyone, including me. The Lord has such a bright future prepared, with such a bright, steadfast generation to lead the way. 

A little bit ago I read a scripture that one of my companions had mentioned to me. It has shaped the way that I want to live today, and forever. The disciple of Christ that I want to be even when i no longer have the nametag to guide me. It`s in Doctrine and Covenants 53:2, and it says : 

Behold, I the Lord, who was crucified for the sins of the world, give unto you the commandment that ye shall forsake the world.

The Savior turned His back on the world. He permitted Himself to be ridiculed, yelled at, spit upon, insulted, tortured, and crucified, and He did it for US. So we--I-- can and will turn my back on the world for HIM. We must turn to face HIM, to deny that which is unholy so that we can see His perfect countenance smiling, shining upon us until WE shine, just as the nephite people when He visited them soon after His resurrection. That is the commandment we have been given, and that is what we are to do, and as we do so, we too will  S H I N E. 

i love my Savior and what He did for me and continues to do every day. I am far from perfect and sometimes it seems like my weaknesses are thrown in my face. i often still feel like i have no clue what i`m doing, and i don`t know what the future holds, and i don`t always know why things happen when they do. but what i`ve figured out is, i know HE lives, and that`s all i NEED to know. 

What do YOU need to do to forsake the world? 

I love you, I love you, I love you! 

Hermana Dolan 




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