Well everyone I hope you are all surviving and enjoying life! It's so fun to get your emails and letters and keep up to date with many of you. I think and pray for you often! :) Also big thank you to my sweet family for my package of yummy snacks! LOVE YOU GUYS :D
Don't worry I
survived the Pennsylvania rain. Lesson learned: if you don't want to feel and
look like you're going swimming, as soon as you see rain GET OUT OF IT. hahaha!
Boy does that stuff come down. No time to sing in the rain! You can barely
breathe in that monsoon. Geez Louise!! And I jinxed myself with the humidity.
Oh how I love it soo much *said sarcastically*. But here in the east they have
this place Rita's which has THE BEST shaved ice. Nothing compares. So yummy!
This week was
kind of a toughie. Trying to bring happiness back to the "happy
valley" is no easy task but Jesus loves all the people here so just gotta
keep doing my best to spread that. This week in institute we read in Revelations
12:11 about our fight against Satan in the pre-mortal life it says "and
they [all of us here on earth] overcame him [Satan] by the blood of the lamb,
and BY THE WORD OF THEIR TESTIMONIES..." So we each individually fought to
come to earth and stood against Satan with our testimonies. Each one of us has
a love of Christ we once thought was strong enough to fight for. Do we still
have that strength of testimony in Him? Do we show it? How can we better show
it??
Well this
Saturday will be my "click day" or a month since I've been out in the
mission field. On one hand it's felt like MUCH longer but at the same time it
seems like days are flying by. Reflecting on my own testimony and sharing my
love for Christ in the last month it's been hard...but I've never been happier
and that is because I've never been closer to my savior than now! I've seen many hearts already be softened and
open to coming to Christ. It is amazing to stand as a witness of The Lord and
open your mouth and watch as the words to say just seem to fall out. This week
at forums (proselyting on campus) I met a sweet girl named Kristy. She and I
talked for a bit and I invited her to read the Book of Mormon and she agreed
to. We called her later in the week and she agreed to meet with us on Friday.
We had a great lesson with her and it was great to see her learn of Christ for
the first time and learn that He knows her and loves her. Sunday we fasted for
her to come to church and for her desire to learn more grow and she showed up
to church and said it was great!!! She seemed so happy and I know she felt the
spirit.
This week I've
also seen so many turn away from Christ and have such hard hearts. I wish I
could just help them let Him in but I can't.
Everyone has to personally let Christ in. In one of my
favorite pictures by Greg Olsen, Christ is there at the door knocking but He
can't just let himself in WE have to open the door to our hearts.
Having a sad heart I turned to the scriptures. I read in
Luke 22 when Christ was suffering in the garden. In verse 44 it says "and
being in an agony he prayed more earnestly". I prayed right after I read
that and have never felt so much love and peace overcome me for so many people
that I don't even know!! I knew then that many wont accept the message but many
will who are ready. I just need to do my best and leave the rest to the Lord.
We must be patient like Christ was (in the rest of the chapter) and know that
this is all part of plan. We can be happy and do our best and when those bad
days come we can lift up our heads and rejoice in the good.
I just want to
end with my testimony added to President Uchtdorf's in a talk he gave entitled
"Fear Not God is With You" (strongly suggest to read it its amazing!): "I will face ridicule, hatred, humiliation and even more threats but I
will NEVER deny my testimony of the living God!" I know that Jesus Christ
is waiting there for us to let us in and he always will be. I know that he
loves everyone, including you reading this, whether you feel worthy of that
overwhelming love or not deal with it because we get it! What a blessing it is
to know that He knows us personally and he is just a prayer away! May hope this
week is that we will have more meaningful prayers and more meaningful
relationships with Him.
Love always,
~Sister McDonald
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