Mississippi Jackson: Faith and Patience

Gooooooood morning, and a happy February to everyone! Can you believe we're already done with month one of 2016?! That blows my mind!

I would like to recount to y'all a rather hilarious event that transpired Friday morning. I was in Sister Matealona and I's bedroom, doing my morning makeup routine when my companion shouts for me from the living room with incredible urgency.

"Sister Rose! Sister Rose, come look at this!"

I was expecting maybe a huge bug or a huge hole in her shoe (she has many), but I made my way into the living room without my glasses, and I squinted at my companion who was staring out our window.

I went back to retrieve my glasses, and when I could see clearly, I saw our neighbor's dog standing by our trashcan in our lawn. Now, our trashcan has a bad habit of falling over, so that wasn't a big deal to me. But then I saw the huge deer head with skin trailing off, and the dog gnawing on the pieces of skin he could.

I'm not sure I fully registered exactly what I was looking at. My companion was freaking out and I just nodded, eyeliner half-done, and said, "That's sick. I'm getting my camera." I then began to take as many photos of this as possible. We then shut the blinds and continued with our morning, hoping that the dog and the deer head would be gone before we left to proselyte.

(They weren't gone.)

(We had to run away from the dog so it wouldn't lick us.)

Since arriving in Mississippi, I've learned quite a bit about agency. Agency (or, the ability and God-given right to choose) is one of the greatest gifts we have. We had it before we came to this earth, and combined with faith is one of the most powerful abilities we have. Sister Matealona had me listen to a talk given by Bill Carpenter called "The Conversion of a Catholic Priest." I'd never heard of it, and now I am obsessed with it. In this telling of his conversion story, Bill Carpenter talks about the miracles he witnessed on his mission in Iowa. In the very last one, I learned the magnitude of the choices we make.

In the patriarchal blessing of a woman Bill and his companion had had the privilege of teaching, they learned that this woman would have received the gospel many years earlier had an elder accepted his call. But, he hadn't, and now these two elders had been prepared and proven themselves worthy to teach her the restored gospel.

That hit me pretty hard. The decisions you make impact so many lives, and you don't even realize it! Heavenly Father always accounts for our agency, and always makes a way to lay out His plan, but we have to be willing to act and make the choices He would have us make so that things will work out just as they're supposed to.

Now while agency is beautiful and wonderful, it is also incredibly frustrating. Many times have I just wanted to hand people a Book of Mormon, make them feel the Spirit, and show them the happiness they're going to have when they say yes. But, alas, that's not quite how this works! Our jobs as missionaries is to present others with the right information, with the opportunity to feel the Spirit, and then to allow them to exercise their agency and choose what they want to do with the feelings they have.

In Helaman 14, Samuel the Lamanite counsels the wicked Nephites with, "And now, remember, remember, my brethren, that whosoever perisheth, perisheth unto himself; and whosoever doeth iniquity, doeth it unto himself; for behold, ye are free; ye are permitted to act for yourselves; for behold, God hath given unto you a knowledge that he hath made you free.

"He hath given unto you that ye might know good from evil, and he hath given unto you that ye might choose life or death; and ye can do good and be restored unto that which is good, or have that which is good restored unto you; or ye can do evil, and have that which is evil restored unto you."

Agency is crazy, right? The results of our choices are our fault alone. Temptations come on the daily and you have the choice of whether or not you are going to resist them. Trials will always come, and we have the choice of whether or not to take them with faith, or to be frustrated and angry with God and take them with spite.

I have seen all kinds of outcomes from the choices someone has made. I've seen it in the wards here, the families I serve, the missionaries I'm with. Sometimes I see people fall short, and other times I see them soar like they never have before.

I have learned to choose what I want for myself and my investigators. While I cannot control what they choose, I can control what I do. I chose to serve this mission, as did the thousands of other missionaries serving across the globe. We make the decision to wake up in the morning and do the Lord's work, even when it seems unfruitful. You can make the choice to do the same -- get up and face your trials with love and faith; use everyday to better yourself. Everyday is what you choose it to be.

I am choosing to make every single one of my 548 days worth it. Choose to make all the days of your life full of light and focused on Christ. Raise your thoughts and actions to a higher plane, and God will be there to guide you through the mists of darkness that will crowd out your efforts to press forward.

But the important thing is that you can make the choice to take another step, even when you aren't sure if there's ground ahead of you. Faith is knowing there's light when all you can see is darkness. There will always be good in store for you if you are trying to do what's right. And remember, sometimes you will fall short. Don't beat yourself up; pick yourself up, and know that God's grace is sufficient for all. Because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can all be redeemed, and He will always make up the difference.

I would like to bear my testimony that I know this Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true Church. I know that Jesus Christ once had a perfect gospel on the earth, and it has been restored through a prophet. I know with every fiber of my being that Joseph Smith, as a fourteen year-old boy saw God, our loving Heavenly Father, and Jesus Christ in a grove. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior, and that through Him I can do anything. I know that this gospel is the most important thing on this earth today, and the Book of Mormon is the most correct of any book on this earth. I know these things to be true in my heart and I can feel it to my soul.

I am proud to be a missionary for this Church, and I am even more proud to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Of all things, I do not want to lose His influence in my life, and especially in my decisions. There is good in the world. And if you don't see it, make some.

I love y'all. Have a blessed week!

Godspeed!

Sincerely,

Sister Rose