Hermana Shepherd and Hermana Miller are both leaving.
My new companion will be Hermana Brown!
Wow. What a week. I'm sure things happened. But my brain is sort of turned to mush. Okay. Thinking hard. Thinking hard.
As a missionary, you learn about a lot of the hard things that happen to people. And it's hard because it happens to people that you come to love more than anything. I have met some of the strongest people on my mission.
Yesterday I was thinking about a lot of them at church--because a lot of them came to church! Yay! As I was
Anyway, it's the story of a man who prays to Heavenly Father and asks Him what He should do. Heavenly Father tells him to go outside and push on this big boulder. So he obeys. For days and weeks and maybe even years this many goes outside and pushes on this boulder. But the boulder never moves. After some time, Satan gets into his mind and starts whispering to him. "You are a failure. You can't do it. This rock is never going to move." The man gets discouraged and begins to question God and what He has been asked to do. He prays again and says, "Heavenly Father, I've done what you have asked me to do. I've pushed with all my might, day in and day out, and nothing has happened. I'm exhausted. Why have you asked me to do this?" Again, he gets an answer. "My son," Heavenly Father calls out, "Look at yourself. You have not failed. You have become strong and mighty. Your muscles are firm and solid. You have become what I knew you could." All of this, because the man chose to push.
It's true that life isn't easy. And it's easy to question why. But I know that God does not ask us to do anything that will cause us to fail. His purposes and His plans for us are so much grander that we can imagine. And he doesn't leave us here to suffer and moan and groan all the time. He blesses us (well, at least me) with plenty of reasons to laugh. Many of which include embarrassing myself.
For example. This week I was inviting someone to chose a baptismal date. Well, my mouth got a little ahead of my mind and my ability to translate my thoughts and instead of asking him "when" he wanted to get baptized, I asked him "where". And I didn't just ask him once, I asked like three times. Oh dear. Poor Rigoberto looked back and said, "Pues, no se, donde puede ser bautizado?" Our poor grandpa investigator was so confused! But, after all the confusion, he decided that he wants to be baptized in two week! Okay. That's cool. November 15th it is.
Haha oh dear. Hopefully Hermana Brown speaks better Spanish than I do or we might have lots of very confused grandpa investigators!
Pues, buenos dias!
Hermana Clark
Push
A man was sleeping at night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with light and the Savior appeared. The Lord told the man he had work for him to do, and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin. The Lord explained that the man was to push against the rock with all his might. This the man did, day after day. For many years he toiled from sun up to sun down, his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock, pushing with all his might. Each night the man returned to his cabin sore, and worn out, feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain.
Seeing that the man was showing signs of discouragement, the devil decided to enter the picture by placing thoughts into the man's weary mind "You have been pushing against that rock for a long time, and it hasn't budged. Why kill yourself over this? You are never going to move it." This gave the man the impression that the task was impossible and that he was a failure. These thoughts discouraged and disheartened the man. "Why kill myself over this?" he thought. "I'll just put in my time, giving just the minimum effort and that will be good enough." And that is what he planned to do until one day he decided to make it a matter of prayer and take his troubled thoughts to the Lord.
"Lord" he said, "I have labored long and hard in your service, putting all my strength to do that which you have asked. Yet, after all this time, I have not even budged that rock by half a millimeter. What is wrong? Why am I failing?"
The Lord responded compassionately, "My friend, when I asked you to serve me and you accepted, I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all your strength, which you have done. Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it. Your task was to push. And now you come to me, with your strength spent, thinking that you have failed. But, is that really so?
Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscled, your back sinewy and brown, your hands are callused from constant pressure, and your legs have become massive and hard. Through opposition you have grown much and your abilities now surpass that which you used to have. Yet you haven't moved the rock. But your calling was to be obedient and to push and to exercise your faith and trust in My wisdom. This you have done. I, my friend, will now move the rock."
At times, when we hear a word from God, we tend to use our own intellect to decipher what He wants, when actually what God wants is just simple obedience and faith in Him.... By all means, exercise the faith that moves mountains, but know that it is still God who moves the mountains. You just P.U.S.H.!
When everything seems to go wrong,... P.U.S.H.!
When the job gets you down,... P.U.S.H.!
When people don't react the way you think they should,... P.U.S.H.!
When your money is short and the bills are due,... P.U.S.H.!
When you want to curse them out for whatever the reason,... P.U.S.H.!
When people just don't understand you,... P.U.S.H.!
P.U.S.H. = Pray Until Something Happens!