October 13 letter

Dear family and wonderful friends,

This week was crazy! It started off with helping an Evangelic man wash his car and to tell us thank you, he blessed us in the name of Jesus Christ and ended with 15 or more people getting up with ten minutes left in sacrament meeting to share their testimonies. We ended our meeting when the other ward was supposed to START theirs. Oops. Needless to say the Evangelic man in every sense did NOT have the power to bless us in the name of Christ and my companion and I both had really really weird feelings afterward. Not good ones. That’s not okay to do. If you don’t have the permission, o sea, the priesthood, that’s NOT okay. We testified of the restoration of the gospel and that he didn’t have the power to do things in the name of Christ, he said he did and we quickly said thank you for letting us help him with his car and almost ran away from him. Poor guy. He doesn’t know anything.
My companiong and I have had a lot of really good companion studies this week. We've been wondering why we're not getting the results promised from our diligence. Then yesterday my companion told me that she was thinking about Abinadi vs. Shadrak, Mishak and Abednego. Abinadi said he would do the Lord's will and if the Lord saw fit to spare his life, so be it, but if not, he would preach His word anyway. What happened with him? He got burned to death and saw no fruits of his labor. For all he knew, the priest (Alma) who stood up for him in front of the king was caught and killed. He was faithful and dilligent. Shadrak, Mishak and Abednego said the same thing and were just as faithful and dilligent and baptized a ton of people and when they were thrown into the fire, they weren't burned. We thought it was interesting because we thought, "the situation in the mission is the same. We have just as much faith as the other people in the mission, but we may not see the fruits of our labors like they have seen. But as long as we are obedient and dilligent, if the Lord sees fit to bless us, great, if not, we're going to work just as hard and act like we already have the baptisms or the "fruits of our labors". That comforted me because I sometimes get a little frustrated, but as long as I'm worthy to have the blessings of the Lord, if He blesses me, great, if not, it's okay, I'm going to stay worthy of His blessings.
My companion has read and I am reading right now about a man who wrote a letter to a mission president about what he learned in his mission about faith and covenant making. About making deals with the Lord, which is completely okay to do in the mission because we KNOW the Lord wants us to find people. We KNOW He wants us to have success. So, instead of saying, “Heavenly Father, we’re willing to do this IF you’ll give us this…” we say, “Heavenly Father, we’re willing to do this SO THAT you’ll give us this.” What a difference, no? Basically saying, Father, this is what we are going to do to have a baptism, so we’re going to work like we know you will give us one. If not, it was a really good growing experience and some changes are required to get the next one.
I love being a missionary. I love what I have learned up until this point. I learn something new every week. The Lord has blessed me so much and I’m so thankful to be His full-time servant at this point of my life. I look at things so differently now and my life will be lived in a different way when I get back home.
We had a really amazing experience with an inactive family on Sunday. We watched To This End Was I Born (thank you Race so much for giving me those movies, they are an amazing tool), and when I bore my testimony of the Savior afterwards, I started to cry a little bit. It was the first time in a long time I’ve felt the spirit so strong while testifying of Jesus Christ. I know He knows me and knows everything I feel. He is living my mission with me and knows everything. I’m so eternally grateful for His love for me. He had the power to stop everything that happened to Him, but He loves me so much that He knew He couldn’t. I was more important, you all are more important. He suffers with you, He laughs with you, He knows it all. I love Him, I know He lives and He’s every day trying so hard to influence us to choose the right so we can live with Him again. Please don’t ever forget that. Don’t forget who you are, because He never will.
I hope you all have an amazing week! I love you all sooooooooo much! Chao!

Hermana Shumway



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