Whatever you
do, don’t leave church early….
Week 28—Feb. 1,
2016
Where does time go? I don’t know, you tell me!! It’s almost time for transfers again!
So in Caldas Novas there are TONS
of kids that are baptized and lots are struggling to stay active in the church.
Almost all the kids are from families of single moms who had them at a young
age and the dads have left, super sad. The
moms love the missionaries and have visited church and felt the spirit there,
but don’t want to give up drinking and smoking to be baptized...it breaks my
heart.
Okay people don’t try to leave
church early because if you do, you may just get hit by a car!! This member who has been struggling with
attending church finally came the other day. He left sacrament meeting early without
telling anyone! (He played the “I have
to go to the bathroom trick.”) And rode
off on his bike and BAM!!! He got hit by
a car while riding his bike! The ambulance
came and everything! Afterwards, we visited
him at his house and I told him, “I think God is trying to tell you to stay at
church the whole 3 hours.” (;
There’s this sweet member, she is
10, and hasn’t been coming to church but loves us! She will talk to us, visit
investigators with us...but she won’t go to church with us. We decided to give her a special lesson and
lets just say she ran into the other room and said “no, I don’t want to go to
church.” After lots of pleading and
trying new things, I said all right, can we at least say a prayer with you and
then we have to leave and visit other people. I said the prayer and I can’t tell you how sad
I was. In the prayer I felt God´s love
for this girl, the blessings he is waiting to bless her with. I literally felt so sad because I love this
girl so much and I felt Heavenly Fathers love for her. I want her to come to church and keep the
commandment of keeping the Sabbath Day holy. It made me think of all the prophets in the
scriptures who cried to God for the welfare of their people. They were so
sad because of the iniquities and abominations of the people. And the prophets
know that they have to stand up and tell the people they need to keep the
commandments or they will be destroyed. I have felt a little of this as a
missionary. I have felt sorrow for
people that chose to live the ways of the world with drugs, pornography,
breaking the law of chastity etc. But we
missionaries are here to tell them its not too late! There is hope! You can repent! You can be baptized! You can follow the example of Jesus Christ
and change your life and have eternal life and be with your family forever! Sometimes as a missionary it is hard to see
why people won’t accept you, why they won’t take that next step and be
baptized. Why they think coffee is
better than eternal life. It has been so
frustrating and hard. But life isn’t
easy people, its not, salvation isn’t easy...once again.
My companion said something last
night that really helped me when I was thinking about all this stuff. She
said, “if we remembered who we were in the pre-earth life, we would keep every
commandment perfectly.” If we knew just
how special we are, and that when the plan was announced we were standing in
front, defending our Savior, and bearing our testimonies. If we knew this and remembered it, then we wouldn’t
have agency here on earth. That is why
we needed the veil of forgetfulness. We
had to forget everything, to start from scratch, to dig, to suffer, to feel, to
reach for that light, and discover who we are.
I feel like this life is something like a movie. We are here on earth, not everyone knows why,
how, or what our purpose is..but the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
has the answers. We are being tested. Will we follow our Savior, keep the commandments,
preach the gospel and share it with others?
Or, will we get lost in the evil things of the world that may be
attractive in the moment, but lead to sorrow and suffering. I’m so grateful that I know the truth and that
I have been able to find people here on my mission that have chose to accept
the truth, the gospel. This gospel is true people!! Share it!!(:
I love you all!! Thanks for your prayers and support!!(:
-Sister Smith
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