God's Will...Do YOU Have Faith In It? - Monday, February 17, 2014

Hey family!

So I forgot my glasses today, so forgive me if I misspell something or mess up on a word - haha!

So last Saturday, Jessica was baptized. It was awesome! Then yesterday, I did the confirmation, which was a pretty cool experience. Next week, we have Susan being baptized. I'm excited for that! 

So this week, we got a call from the mission office, and they gave us this information for a guy in the hospital. He isn't a member, but his son is, so we called the son and set up a time for us to go give a blessing to his dad. He was in the late stages of Parkinson's disease. So we went there and he was pretty out of it. I gave him a blessing, and Elder Petersen anointed. The son told us to come back the next day and give a quick message to his dad. So the next day we were on our way to the hospital and I called his son just to confirm the appointment and he told me that his dad passed away that morning. So that was an awkward phone call, and I got pretty depressed that the blessing didn't work. Although, I did bless him that his trials would be short.... hmm. Anyways, it just made me think a lot about what Heavenly Father has in store for each one of us. He has a plan for each one of us. Sometimes, we are brought into intense trials because we need to humble ourselves. Other times, we may experience a death in the family, but it is God's will. Which means, that sometimes a family member can better help their family in the Spirit World more than they ever could here.....or at least that's what I think it means. But it's all God's will and His plan.

The Priesthood has the power to heal according to someone's faith and humility, but God's will trumps all.  I heard a talk by Elder Bednar who said that he gave a blessing once and he felt prompted before the blessing to ask "Do you have the faith not to be healed?" Meaning, does someone have the faith to submit themselves to whatever the will of the Father is. I just thought that was interesting.

During personal study this week, I studied and pondered a lot on the Atonement. I think it is incredible how I owe Him everything, and yet he has and continues to give me everything. It just strengthens my testimony of the love the Savior has for me and each one of us individually. All he asks is for a sincere heart and a contrite spirit.

This week we tracted a lot to find some new people to teach. Guess who we tracted into!! The pastor of the "Cool Church"! Members have told me he lives in this area, and they're a great family, but it totally caught me off guard. Earlier this week we tracted into their house, and his wife was there. She's super cool. She said stop by anytime this Thursday through Saturday. So we stopped by Thursday night, and they had company, but she said, "my husband is a pastor at the Cool Church, so we aren't interested in debating religion, but if you ever need any dinner or anything, you are welcome anytime." So they were cool! I guess that's why they started the cool church... anyways, we are going to be aaaall over that. We'll have dinner, and then we'll just share a message that we've come to know is true. No debating at all! :) Haha! It will be interesting. 

Anyways I love you all and have a great week!