How is everyone doing?! Well it has been a very great week, a quick
one at that. I wanted to apologize for my lame email last week...we
had a meeting in Manchester and we were rushing to get things done! I
promise today's will be better :)
Well, like I said I studied a lot about faith last week and I realized
how much fear I was letting Satan make me feel in different aspects of
the work so..I decided I was going to strive to exercise my faith more
to strengthen it. Monday we went to the grocery store to do our
shopping and before we went in I said a little prayer in my heart that
I would be able to invite the cashier to learn about the restored
gospel...so we get shopping and I honestly kind of forgot about the
prayer even as we were in line waiting to check out. When we got up to
the cashier he immediately mentioned our name tags and started asking
us about what we were doing...and I was just in awe because people
don't usually do that here...so we got talking and I was given the
opportunity to invite him and he almost said no but then he said,
"yeah I might be interested." So we gave him our card and went on our
way! But, my testimony is that Heavenly Father knows our hearts. He
knows our righteous desires and if we have faith that He will help us
and ask for His Help we will literally see miracles big and...small
right before our eyes manifesting His love and power to us.
Tuesday we had an amazing missionary leadership meeting...did I tell
you that I love President and Sister Stoker? Well, I sure do. I always
feel like I'm going home whenever I go to the mission home. Well, we
were taught some pretty amazing things from President and some of the
other missionaries. I loved all of it and felt like it was all just
for me! Haha funny how that always happens :) President taught us from
D&C 52:14-19 about patterns and how they keep us from being deceived
by Satan. The verses talk about how we must pray and be obedient to
our ordinances but also that we must be CONTRITE. I loved how
President explained contrite as humbly desiring to repent and striving
to become better. In verse 19 it says that we will be able to
distinguish the spirits and we will know when Satan is trying to
deceive us. I have really been contemplating this and realized that i
truly am more susceptible to Satans lies when I'm not praying as I
should and striving to be obedient. Satan is real and he desires to
"sift us as wheat" but I know if we follow the patterns that Heavenly
Father has given us we will have greater strength to do what's right
and not be deceived! It was a great day and I learned so much...I am
so blessed. We had a 4 hour drive back to Bangor that night which we
spent a majority of singing hymns together with the missionaries in
our van. Can I just tell you that I was in Heaven!! It was such a
sweet experience to feel the spirit from the missionaries in the car
as we sang together..:)
Wednesday we were asked to go sing to an elderly lady in our ward who
has been on dialysis for quite a while and they have now taken her
off...she absolutely loves music! We sang some of her favorite hymns
but the first one we sang was," I Am A Child Of God" and the spirit
was so strong in that room. I could feel Father's love for her...and I
know everyone else in the room did too....We also had an awesome
lesson with a sweet member in the ward. She grew up in the ward but
has been in and out of the church her whole life. We started teaching
the message of the restoration to see where she was at but the spirit
took the lesson to family history some how. She expressed a desire to
go to the temple and do the work for her family members who hadn't had
a chance to accept the gospel. There is a video we have been sharing
with lots of people about family history work that I love and one of
the men in the video says, "redeeming the dead has redeemed me!" And I
think that statement is just so applicable. There is a special spirit
that comes when we do work for those family members who can't do it
for themselves, it leads us to put our lives in line so that we can be
with them forever. So...we committed her to prepare to go back to the
temple! She is so sincere and I know she wants to...I am excited to
see the miracles that will take place in her life as she acts on the
amazing faith that she has!
Wednesday night we exchanged with the Waterville sisters and yes I got
to go back to Waterville!! I was SO excited I felt like I little kid
on Christmas. I got to see some people who I just came to absolutely
love...and I'm sorry to those I didn't get to see! We will meet again
:) it was such a great day, I suddenly felt like I was a young
missionary again! Who am I kidding, I always feel that way...I don't
think it will ever change!
We our preparing for Elder Nielson from the missionary department to
come tour our mission in November and in preparation for that he gave
us some things to study...I started my studies yesterday and wow I am
so excited. The first talk I read was by Elder Bednar and it is all
about the enabling power of the atonement of Jesus Christ. In it he
says, "Most of us clearly understand that the Atonement is for
sinners. I am not so sure, however, that we know and understand that
the Atonement is also for saints--for good men and women who are
obedient, worthy, and conscientious and who are striving to become
better and serve more faithfully. We may mistakenly believe we must
make the journey from good to better and become a saint all by
ourselves, through sheer grit, willpower, and discipline, and with our
obviously limited capacities." But He goes on to say that, "The
enabling power of the Atonement of Christ strengthens us to do things
we could never do on our own." Sometimes we as Children of God we have
righteous desires and we want to do what's right but we literally
can't due to some sort of weakness we our facing whether it just be
fatigue or something more serious that we struggle with emotionally or
mentally. Heavenly Father knows! He knows us perfectly and he does not
want us to think we have to do it on our own...that's why we have our
Savior. I've come to see and know that most people our doing their
best amid their personal circumstances and I also know that through
the atoning sacrifice of our savior we can be given the strength to do
all that is asked of us...all we must do is ask and have faith! He
will not take our weaknesses away but he will give us the strength to
bear them and eventually overcome them. I saw it as we taught our
investigator last night who has such a strong desire to be baptized
but struggles with lots of different things. As we taught her about
this enabling power it was amazing to see the change in her to where
she was SO EXCITED ago be baptized!! We prayed together about a
baptismal date and Sister Poisson will be baptized on December 5th! I
love that girl, she is so strong.
Well, I will stop blabbing! I love you all so much. I know Jesus
Christ is our Savior. His love is one that makes me feel like I am the
only person in the room. I know He knows us personally...He suffered
for us personally. As we rely on Him and his power He will help us to
do the impossible. His church has been restored and we are apart of
truly "a marvelous work". I got a glimpse of the pure charity Jesus
Christ has this week...we taught a lot of lessons this week but we
also had some disappointments...at one point I wanted to just crawl up
in a little ball and never give my heart to anyone because I was tired
of it being stepped on by people who just didn't understand. But then
I was reminded of how Jesus Loved all people, even those who
misunderstood him and didn't believe Him when He told them He was the
Son of God. He knew His purpose and He fulfilled it even when others
didn't quite understand why...so I and striving to follow His example.
He is my best friend and my mentor. I love my Savior.
Have a great week! :)
Love, Sister Innes
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