October 7, 2013

Hey ya'lllllllll

 

How is everyone doing? Transfers are this week... again. Can't believe it! But Sister Jones and i will be enduring another six weeks of this awesome area :) haha this week has been great like always. Conference was so good! I hope you all got a chance to watch it!  I'm so sad its over but i cant wait to study the talks these next 6 months! It is crazy how you can feel like almost every talk is directed just towards you! Thats how you know... the church is true.!

Haha anyway, Crissy is doing so awesome we had an amazing lesson with her this week. She opened right up to us and just told us how before we knocked on her door that one day that right before things were so hard and she was about ready to give up. It is so cool to see how the lord has been preparing her! She is reading the book of mormon like crazy and loving it and i dont think i have ever seen anyone so excited to watch general conference. She kept telling us how since she has been meeting with us she has recognized a huge difference in her life, she said that people at work and even her husband recognize how much happier she is. The lord is blessing her right and left.... she is even being promoted at work because her co-workers recognize how much better she is doing and they want her to work in different departments to get higher up and she works with a member and on their breaks at work they read the book of mormon together and talk about the church. Great right? oh just wait, it gets better. So we show up to our lesson this last week and she is sitting on her porch smoking and of course my initial thought "oh no" and it was stressing me out the whole lesson until she finally mentioned that she is trying to stop smoking cuz she has really bad health and so she was praying for help and strength to be able to stop smoking and right after the phone rang, and it was some healthcare people telling her that they were sending in the mail all these things to help her stop smoking cuz she needs to get off of nictotine as soon as possible. okay, go ahead and tell me the lord isnt just opening the doorway for her to baptism and just pouring out blessings. I saw a completely different crissy this past week. She is just lit up cuz she knows that this gospel can save her. It will save her from all of the hard things she is going through right now. It will make her burdens lighter and she knows that its true without a single doubt. She calls us her guardian angels and it was just one of the most humbling experiences hearing her tell us all about how her life has been blessed in just a couple of weeks and i just cant wait to see all the many more blessing she will receive if all that has happened in the last 2 weeks continues! This work is amazing. It is moments like those where i know i am needed here and i know that my companion and i were supposed to find her!

 

So one of my favorite things to teach people is about the pre-earth life and how we lived with our father in heaven before we came to this earth and we knew him and loved him and had a testimony of his gospel. i love to think about that and i love to picture all of us just so excited to embark on our journey here on earth. we all chose to come here and we were pumped!! We wanted to come and show to our heavenly father how faithful we could be and we wanted to live this gospel and do all that we could to return home to him... but we all knew that it would be hard. we had no idea what we would experience or go through here on earth. We didnt know what our struggles would be and we didnt know how we would make it through but we came. We knew it would be one of the hardest things we ever did and that we had to exercise our agency in a way that was aligned with our heavenly fathers plan. Well, if you think about it.... that is a pretty similar experience and feeling that those who are on missions or already served have felt here on earth. We get all excited to open our mission calls and awaiting the time to leave and report to the mtc just as we were excited to report here on earth. We have feelings of excitement but fear. We knew that it would be one of the hardest things we ever did and not knowing what to fully expect we chose to come here, to serve a full time mission for the lord. I have chosen to be here. Just like we have all chosen to be here on earth. I knew it would be hard. I knew it wasnt always going to be easy, but i knew it would be worth it. And i am here to show my faith in jesus christ and to do all i can to not only get myself back to live with him but others as well. I imagine heavenly father had similar feelings to what my mom and dad felt as i walked away from that curb at the mtc... watching his children pass through the veil, choosing to follow him and come here and wondering if we would return back home to him. I know i will return back home in a year or so and one day back with my heavenly father.... but not until i fulfill what it says in 2 tim. 4:7 i have fought a good fight, i have kept the faith, i have finished my course with joy (something like that) that was a scripture that was mentioned in conference that really stood out to me. I invite you all to continue on this path back to heavenly father so that when we are kneeling at his feet we can feel the way it says in that scripture. We will be able to feel that we kept the faith the best we could and that we tried our very hardest. Things arent always easy but i know we are given certain struggles and trials are placed in our lives for a reason and the lord is aware of us and is cheering us on to return back home to him. I'm so grateful to be here! Love you all sooo much!! Have a great week! XOXO

 

Sister Roosendaal