Dear Family,
Well it's official now. I hit my one year mark on my mission this week. And exactly ten months ago today I met Elder Lauck for the first time and started working in Miami Lakes South. Time is a crazy thing. It is wierd that I am here now. I only have one more year of being the Lord's full time representative. Luckily when I get home I will be able to continue doing the Lord's work, just in a different way.
This week was very good. We met some really neat people. Both Thursday and Friday nights we were at members' houses with some of their friends. They were both good experiences. These members are amazing. I truly absolutely love this Ward. I am so happy that I am now in the East area and that I am getting to know and work with the rest of the members. I miss those in the West but at least I still get to see them at Church and now I get to know the whole ward even better. I hope that I am here a long time, but only God knows. I need to take advantage of every moment here because, I don't know when it will happen, but eventually I will leave. I need to have that same mindset about my mission as a whole. I only have an appointed time here and I need to live it to it's fullest.
One of the best parts about the week was that two of our investigators accepted baptismal dates. Raul Acosta is preparing to be baptized on the 2 of February and Italo Inanami is preparing to be baptized on the 16 of February. Please have them in your prayers. And also please pray that Elder Carpenter and I can know all that we can and need to do to help them be 100% ready on those dates. Italo came to Church yesterday but Raul couldn't because he was working. That is a big problem for people. They think that they need to work and that God is blessing them with work and that He will understand why they are working on Sunday. How can we help them see that God will bless them for their sacrifices and that God wants them on Sunday even if it seems impossible? Have any of you ever had experiences that have grown your testimony that God will bless us for keeping the Sabbath holy, even when it is difficult?
I think we all have similar thoughts and justifications that keep us from following God's commandments 100%. Sometimes it is with larger commandments, sometimes it is with smaller commandments. But all of us have things that we are holding on to that are keeping our hands from holding on the iron rod with all or might. Whether it is big or small, the thing holding all of us back is a lack of faith. For some reason or another we don't fully trust in the promises of God. I have noticed it on my mission. When I don't want to keep a seemingly "small" rule or want to justify just a "little" thing, it basically boils down to the fact that I just don't think it is that important or that God cares about something that small or the something that small will make that big of a difference and that God will really bless me immensely for exact obedience. But that is really what God wants. He wants us to keep all of His commandments so that He can give us the fullness of his blessings. He knows that we will have to sacrifice and that it may seem impossible, but we need to go forward with faith and trust that God knows more than we do and that He will always provide the way, always. These are things that I know to be true and that I am still struggling with myself. But that is really the struggle of life, putting God's will before ours. I will be in this struggle for the rest of my life. But I will succeed in giving all of me to God. I invite you all to do the same.
You are all wonderful and I love you so much. Take a look at 2 Nephi 25:28-29 and notice what is the "right way".
With love,
Elder Kevin Reece
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