Week 24...if planted...

"Faith is like a little seed. If planted it will grow." I really enjoyed being able to sing that as a child and I am so grateful that I had such amazing leaders and teachers to help me grow and become more and more like the Savior. I want to share my testimony of this verse and share a little bit of what has happened this week. I know that a seed will grow to become something much grander and more developed but I want to focus on the words, "if planted..."

Each day in my mission, there are numerous amounts of opportunities that Heavenly Father will present in order for me to grow and learn beyond what I had previously known. One such opportunity is each Sunday as we prepare for church meetings. It is hard when those you have been teaching, cannot come to sacrament, or you do not receive an answer back until a few minutes before. Almost each time as I was about to partake of the Sacrament, my thoughts were so consumed with "Where are they..." that I felt I did not take the sacrament with its intended intention. I focused so much on other things that I did not take time to remember the Savior and what He had done for me. Whatever lesson that He wanted me to learn was passed by and I did not plant within me the counsel He desired me to know.

In our Zone Conference we discussed about this and came to the conclusion: Did I try my best to invite and encourage? Did I try my hardest to love and to serve? If so, then the Lord was pleased and loves each of us so much. I am grateful for the opportunity to take the Sacrament each week at church. I have a testimony that as we take the sacrament, our thoughts focused on the Savior, then in that moment our hearts will be filled with the power of the Spirit and the Love of our Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ. I love them so much! I know that if we allow ourselves to plant the seed, to fully take in those things the Lord wishes to teach us, that seed will grow, and our testimony will become unshakable.

Each day I feel so blessed to be able to go out and serve the Lord. For me, miracles don't just happen in our areas where we serve but will happen anywhere where we have faith and a desire to serve. This past Friday, we were on our way home and were waiting in the Kuching airport. As I walked into our flight waiting area, I saw a man and his father sitting down and I had the smallest impression to go a speak with them. However, at that time I walked past to put my bags down. After a few minutes I got hungry so I got up to get something to eat. (I believe the Spirit will work through small promptings but also through our stomach so we get up and move to where the Lord wants us to go)

I stood up and started walking the other way when I saw the man, but this time with his mother. I talked with her a little bit and her son is around 42 and has autism. In high School, I had the opportunity to work with those who were autistic and I loved them so much. This man, his name was Timothy and we were best friends in about 5 seconds! As we were talking she had stated that it was very unlucky that her son suffered with Autism but I jumped in and said, "No, it’s the opposite. What a blessing it is to come down to earth and also have the opportunity to return to our Heavenly Father in the Celestial Kingdom. We continued to talk about that and I got to know them a little bit more and was really grateful that I was able to meet with them! Fast forward a little bit, the plane had just landed and as we were grabbing our bags to get off, Timothy comes down the aisle and is looking for someone.

All the Elders point at me and he just has the biggest smile. He handed me a little sheet of paper with his family’s phone number, address, and if I was ever in Kuching that I could come and visit them and they would welcome me in. I am grateful for those who are handicapped in this life because each of them are incapable of making mistakes. They are perfect in our Heavenly Father's eyes. I am so grateful that each child of God will have the opportunity to return home to Heavenly Father. We must do all we can to help those around us and strengthen them where all hope seems lost.

Our branch in B****** is growing slowly! We are hoping to have a baptism on May 7 with a family baptism the following week on the 14th. What a blessing it is to see the Gospel change lives and bring families together. I honestly love it so much! Most of our members are Recent Converts and have a little way to go. A lot of it is patience and something I have definitely had to learn while serving here. Each of them struggle with personal challenges but little by little, the Lord is strengthening all of us in ways that will help us grow the most. We are talking with the Group Leader of starting a "Foundation of B******".

To work on specific goals for each member and for the basic start of "Home Teaching." Each week we have a correlation meeting that allows us to assess what we need to do and the best way of going about it. We hope to help one of the members receive the Aaronic Priesthood and help others along their way as well. I am grateful for the trials and challenges that the Lord gives to me. Because of those, I am able to learn so much and really learn to depend upon him. I love the Branch here and am eager to see what it will blossom into!

A Scripture this week that I particularly enjoyed was 

1 Nephi 31: 17-20

17 Wherefore, do the things which I have told you I have seen that your Lord and your Redeemer should do; for, for this cause have they been shown unto me, that ye might know the gate by which ye should enter. For the gate by which ye should enter is repentance and baptism by water; and then cometh a remission of your sins by fire and by the Holy Ghost.

 18 And then are ye in this strait and narrow path which leads to eternal life; yea, ye have entered in by the gate; ye have done according to the commandments of the Father and the Son; and ye have received the Holy Ghost, which witnesses of the Father and the Son, unto the fulfilling of the promise which he hath made, that if ye entered in by the way ye should receive.

 19 And now, my beloved brethren, after ye have gotten into this strait and narrow path, I would ask if all is done? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; for ye have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save.

 20 Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.

All is not done. We must continue to build our faith in the Savior Jesus Christ. As we do so, He will direct us on what to do. He will never forsake us, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Love, Elder Shirley 

                                        

       P-Day Hike in the Jungle

Zone Conference in Singapore

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