It truly is amazing how each week our testimonies can grow. I love it. Doesn't mean our tough situations are taken away or that everything is grand but the Lord's tender mercies really lift us up and keep us going. I have seen it many times this week. An example is Wednesday. By lunch time both of our appointments for that evening called and cancelled. Probably one of my least favorite things. So our back-up plans were to find and try by a few people. We were tracting and we were able to find one young man who we taught about the gospel blessing families at his door step and he said that we could come back. He doesn't speak very good english so we are not positive he understands what we do as missionaries but hey we will clear that up next time :) But it was a blessing because we have been trying to show the Lord by our efforts that he can trust us to teach those in our area that are ready for the gospel, so we felt that this was Him showing us he trusts us. We then went by a less active who has a son who is 10 and has not yet been baptized. Missionaries in the past have worked with this family and had him near baptism but they just didn't commit to church. So we were able to meet with them and are working with the family now and working for him to be baptized on the 9th of Feb. He is super excited but we really need the mom to be committed to going to church with him. My testimony of the Lord will help us achieve things if we work for it and if it is a righteous desire. We were able to get Daniel (the 10year old) to church yesterday but his mom didn't come and from now on she needs to be there with them. So we are hoping to work with her and help strengthen her desire to come and help her boys.
News from mission President.... "with all the new sisters coming in all of you who are in the mission on the 10th of April will be training – some of you with two trainees. There will be more new sisters than we have trained ones. These are exciting times and we will have to open 5 new sister areas then – so a bit of whitewashing will be going on too. Because the Scottish stakes have a lower number of missionaries per capita of active members this first batch of new areas will be in Scotland. Please prepare yourselves for these challenging assignments by studying carefully to ensure that you are the best trainer you can be – if these new sisters are not well trained it could seriously weaken the mission and we simply can’t afford for that to happen."Pretty exciting stuff happening in the mission field. I am sure it is like this all around the world. Not sure I am ready for it but the Lord always makes up the difference. I am sure I will only have one trainee because I will tell President that is all that i can handle.
Now I would like to end by sharing some insight I loved from my study this morning. I read most of the talk "Trial of Your Faith" by Neil L. Anderson. This si what stuck out most to me. "These fiery trials are designed to make you stronger, but they have the potential to diminish or even destroy your trust in the Son of God and to weaken your resolve to keep your promises to Him. These trials are often camouflaged, making them difficult to identify. They take root in our weaknesses, our vulnerabilities, our sensitivities, or in those things that matter most to us. A real but manageable test for one can be a fiery trial for another." We are all different. We all have struggles and trials and somethings that are easier to others, seem impossible to us. I have seen that on my mission. But because of this knowledge and knowing that God wants us to learn and grow, I am able to focus on the big picture and really come out stronger each day. I just love the words of the Prophet and Apostles. I encourage you all to read them and apply them. They are inspired words that when applied with change your life.
Love, Sister Nicoll
 |
| Cute Victoria posing by our Heart Attack |
 |
| I know not a pretty scenery but this was on Wednesday when we were on a spiritual high. Near the neighborhood where all the happiness happened :) |
No comments:
Post a Comment