I'm just so thankful for my savior this week. It was a tough week
emotionally and spiritually. Missionary work IS all that it is made
out to be; the joy, the miracles, the blessings and all. But, some
days it is hard. I am learning that trials are such an essential part
of God's plan. I love in Genesis when Adam and Eve partake of the
fruit and God introduces them into life outside of the garden of eden.
"And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of
thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee,
saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake;
in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also
and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb
of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou
return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou
art, and unto dust shalt thou return" (Genesis 3:17-18). I'm THANKFUL
for that. I'm thankful that Adam fell that I might be and that I am
that I might have joy (2 Nephi 2:25)! Without bad there would be no
good and with trails we would never learn anything. Gods plan is for
us to become like Him and that doesn't come without work. It also
doesn't come without the atoning blood of His only begotten son.
President Wakolo once said, "struggling and suffering are a part of
the gospel. It means you are still alive". Elder D. Todd
Christofferson gave a talk titled "the Divine Gift of Repentance" in
which he says, "Repentance means striving to change. It would mock the
Savior’s suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross for us
to expect that He should transform us into angelic beings with no real
effort on our part. Rather, we seek His grace to complement and reward
our most diligent efforts (see 2 Nephi 25:23). Perhaps as much as
praying for mercy, we should pray for time and opportunity to work and
strive and overcome. Surely the Lord smiles upon one who desires to
come to judgment worthily, who resolutely labors day by day to replace
weakness with strength. Real repentance, real change may require
repeated attempts, but there is something refining and holy in such
striving". That sentence where he says, "we should pray for time and
opportunity to work and strive and overcome" amazes me every time I
read it. Praying for trials and life experience. That takes serious
faith in the Lord and His ability to see us through the toughest days.
Y'all, on Friday I cried for like three hours straight!!!! This life
is just hard sometimes and there's no way around it. What I've
realized though is that with the gospel of Jesus Christ, there is
still hope and there is still peace. Knowledge of the plan of
salvation and obedience to gods commandments don't make life perfect,
but it does change us and our ability to withstand the storm. I'm just
so thankful this week. Thankful to know that Jesus Christ is my
brother, that Heavenly Father loves me, that there is a plan for me if
I keep walking. This week sister Anderson and I were able to witness
miracles as we put our trust in the Lord and tried to purify our
hearts of anything that would keep us from hearing the promptings of
the spirit. We were trying to contact a referral one evening and saw a
woman sitting outside on her porch swing across the street. She seemed
to be talking on the phone and satan said, "don't go over there,
that's awkward" but we said, "bye satan" and walked over to her. As we
began talking with her she offered us chairs to sit and teach her
about the restoration and also invited her friend to join our
conversation. Later on in our visit she told us that she had seen us
across the street and was hoping and praying that we would come talk
to her. We also came to find out that her friend who she invited into
the lesson had been struggling with guilt and regret from her past. We
were able to testify of the sacrifice of the savior for sin and that
God will never forsake us. She began to cry. We could see a huge
burden lifted from her shoulders. What a blessing. We knew without a
doubt that Heavenly Father led us right to where we needed to be.
These two women have both been reading the Book of Mormon and praying
about it. Miracles. Y'all, I don't know what else to tell you except
that God the Eternal Father lives. His son Jesus Christ is the Savior
and Redeemer of the world. The church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints is Gods only true and living church on the earth. The Book of
Mormon is the word of God and it has changed my life. I know that I
don't have all of the answers but He does and I will continue to walk
by faith. Jeffrey R. Holland once said, "Don’t you quit. You keep
walking. You keep trying. There is help and happiness ahead. It will
be all right in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to
come.. Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don’t come
until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ,
they come".
To finish off this email I want to share a story of my mission
president! The character of the man I've been so blessed to serve
with.
BROTHER WAKOLO’S DISCIPLE’S SOUL (from a BYU devo)
While serving in the South Pacific, I received a letter from the First
Presidency with an assignment to travel to Fiji and deliver a letter
to Taniela Wakolo, president of the Nausori Fiji Stake. After I handed
the letter to him, he read aloud the call from the First Presidency to
serve as an Area Seventy, and tears flowed freely from his cheeks and
those of his lovely wife, Anita.
After discussing with him the nature and duties of his new calling, I
observed the tattoo on Brother Wakolo’s large right hand. Now, tattoos
are very common throughout the South Pacific, and long before he
joined the Church, Taniela Wakolo had the back of his hand tattooed
with a large, garish design. I said: “Brother Wakolo, in your new
calling as an Area Seventy, you are going to be speaking to the youth
on many occasions. I would suggest before such meetings that you put a
large Band-Aid on the back of your hand to cover your tattoo. It’s
hard to discourage our youth from getting tattoos when the speaker has
one himself.” He smiled a broad smile, and with a radiant expression
he said, “I’ll take care of it. I want to be a good example.” A few
weeks passed, and the next time we met, his hand was heavily bandaged
as if he were preparing for a boxing match. I asked, “What in the
world happened to you?” He smiled with glistening eyes and said, “I
followed your counsel and had the tattoo removed.” “Was it laser
surgery?” I asked. “No,” he replied with a big smile, “they don’t
remove tattoos with lasers in Fiji. I had it surgically cut out.” A
month later Elder Wakolo and I were assigned together to reorganize a
stake presidency in American Samoa. As we met at the airport, I
immediately noticed an unsightly scar on the back of his hand where
the surgeon had removed several square inches of skin and then very
crudely sutured the gaping wound closed. This had not been performed
by a plastic surgeon. I apologized for having been the cause of the
large scar on the back of his hand. He responded with a radiant
Christlike countenance: “Not to worry, President Condie; this is my
CTR ring. Now the Lord knows where I stand! I’ll do anything the Lord
asks of me.” Elder Wakolo has become a disciple who keeps his
covenants and strives to do good continually.
Sister Bailey Guthrie
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