This is the Timisoara Metropolitan Cathederal.
Greetings friends and family! How are things on the home front?
Yesterday was Easter! We didn't really do anything to celebrate (that's okay because we get second Easter because of the Catholics and the Orthodox church), but I did take some time to think about my Savior and all He has done for us.
I've been thinking a lot about hope lately. You should all read what Preach my Gospel says about hope under "Christlike Attributes." Also read Ether 12:4 and Moroni 7: 41. It is through the gospel and the knowledge that we have of Jesus Christ that we can have hope even when times are challenging. Our Savior and our Heavenly Father have definitely been helping me and lifting me up. Christ really is everything. It is through Him that we can have forgiveness of our sins, which we all need to free us from the guilt and sorrow and to make us whole and able to dwell in Heavenly Father's presence. Through Him we will all be resurrected. It is also through Him that we will have eternal life, which means we will be able to live with God, be as He is, and have the greatest joy. We will also get to be with our families for eternity. I love that promise. In a devotional by Jeffery R. Holland at the MTC, he said, "Heaven would not be happy even for God without family." God loves us and wants us to succeed and return to Him. That is why He provided a Savior. How grateful I am for Christ's willingness to accept that role. Without Him, we could achieve nothing.
Not only did He take on the sins of the world, but he took on our infirmities, our sickness, our pain (see Alma 7 I believe). What great comfort that is in times of trial. He knows exactly what we are going through because he's experienced it Himself. He knows what we need. He knows we can make it through hard times. Turn to Him. I promise you that He will be there and He will strengthen you. Things won't always go as you plan, but everything will be okay. Have hope.
Something else I was thinking this week is how it can be really hard sometimes to see our own progress especially if we aren't where we want to be immediately. Things take time. We don't like that, but it's true and I think it's actually better that way. Many times it seems others see your progress much easier than you can. Do not become discouraged. Give yourself goals and then give yourself small steps to reach those goals. By small and simple things are great things brought to pass.
As far as investigators go, things are a little slow in that regard, but we are trying to reach out to people. We taught a couple lessons this week. We were going to have another but it was canceled. We're not entirely sure if those we taught are fully interested, but we plan to continue to contact them and teach them if they will let us. I think they will. We're hoping to make some connections through English classes. We had our first English class on Saturday. Sora Heim and I teach advanced English, so we basically concentrate on having conversations, getting them to talk and use the language. We only had two people in our class, but it was a lot of fun. There was a bigger turn out for the Beginner and Intermediate classes, so hopefully some connections can be made there too.
General Conference is this weekend. I hope you are all looking forward to it as much as I am! I won't be able to understand a lot of it since I'll be watching it in Romanian, but I'm still super excited for it and I know the spirit will be there. I hope you'll all be attentive and be prepared to write down anything specific the spirit whispers to you.
I love this gospel, Heavenly Father, and my Savior. I hope you are all doing well. Until next week!
-Sora Adams
No comments:
Post a Comment