This will be longer than 30 seconds. We had our ward's trunk-or-treat and chilli cook off this Friday!!!!!!!!! It was pretty fun me and sister Adam's made chilli (just plain old chilli) and punkin brownies (great value brownie mix with a can of pumpkin and cinnamon we is not fancy cooking people) we also decorated our trunk with these ghost things and got candy to pass out, it was really really fun!!!! And it was fun to bond with the ward as well, especially now that we've been working with members more to try and find new people to teach (cause our old people are still MIA) but we have some promising referrals, especially from one of our recent converts!
But yeah most of our efforts this week have been on finding new people to teach, we were able to find a couple people who seemed pretty interested, especially this lady named Beatrice! She was so nice! And lives pretty close by which is awesome cause we are pretty much out of miles for the month so we've been biking a lot
♀️♀️, biking has been really fun, I especially love biking at night when its cooler and we don't have to worry about dodging lizards (they're always put and running across the side walks in the day time and my kill count is probably over 10 by now despite my best efforts) they just run across the sidewalks!!!! Like madmen!!!!!🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎 but I especially like biking because it gives me time to ponder which is something we do not have a lot of time to do. Taking time to ponder the Savior and his gospel and can help us to centre out lives on Jesus Christ. Taking time to ponder can also help us to receive personal revelation .
My favorite thing I read this week was a talk by Elder Holland called 'missionary work and the atonement'. The atonement is central to everything we do in this church and in missionary work. I'm so grateful that though the atonement we can do hard things and over one challenges we face while in mortality.
This is my favorite quote from the talk
"Anyone who does any kind of missionary work will have occasion to ask, Why is this so hard? Why doesn’t it go better? Why can’t our success be more rapid? Why aren’t there more people joining the Church? It is the truth. We believe in angels. We trust in miracles. Why don’t people just flock to the font? Why isn’t the only risk in missionary work that of pneumonia from being soaking wet all day and all night in the baptismal font?
You will have occasion to ask those questions. I have thought about this a great deal. I offer this as my personal feeling. I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? It seems to me that missionaries and mission leaders have to spend at least a few moments in Gethsemane. Missionaries and mission leaders have to take at least a step or two toward the summit of Calvary.
Now, please don’t misunderstand. I’m not talking about anything anywhere near what Christ experienced. That would be presumptuous and sacrilegious. But I believe that missionaries and investigators, to come to the truth, to come to salvation, to know something of this price that has been paid, will have to pay a token of that same price.
For that reason I don’t believe missionary work has ever been easy, nor that conversion is, nor that retention is, nor that continued faithfulness is. I believe it is supposed to require some effort, something from the depths of our soul.
If He could come forward in the night, kneel down, fall on His face, bleed from every pore, and cry, “Abba, Father (Papa), if this cup can pass, let it pass,” then little wonder that salvation is not a whimsical or easy thing for us. If you wonder if there isn’t an easier way, you should remember you are not the first one to ask that. Someone a lot greater and a lot grander asked a long time ago if there wasn’t an easier way.
The Atonement will carry the missionaries perhaps even more importantly than it will carry the investigators. When you struggle, when you are rejected, when you are spit upon and cast out and made a hiss and a byword, you are standing with the best life this world has ever known, the only pure and perfect life ever lived. You have reason to stand tall and be grateful that the Living Son of the Living God knows all about your sorrows and afflictions. The only way to salvation is through Gethsemane and on to Calvary. The only way to eternity is through Him—the Way, the Truth, and the Life."
#that awkward moment when the quote is longer than my actual email
But I to truly know that without the atonement we would not be able to change or become more like our Savior. I feel so blessed to know that the Savior of the world suffered for my sins and enables me to overcome the world through Him.
I love each of you so much!!!!
Sister Maller
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