{Letter #11} Lord, I Believe ...and It's a Small World
Hey friends! I hope you are all doing well!! If I'm being completely honest with you, not much happened this week but of course there were still some highlights:
-new area. I'm starting to really love the people and the ward here. It has been such a blessing to be able to meet with people in person!
-cookies!! My Mom's Aunt RaChel dropped off cookies for me at the mission office this week. They didn't know but it was actually my 3-month mark on the mission so it was kinda perfect and it made my day! :)
-service! Okay yes, I put this pretty much every week. Don't worry about it.... We got to do a service this week helping people in the community with their yards (weeding, moving boards covered in spiders, shoveling mulch, etc.) and it was so fun.
-scriptures! Also a weekly appearance in my highlights haha.... anyways, last transfer I started reading the New Testament along with the Book of Mormon and wow. It's hard to deny that these books contain the word of God. I had multiple times this week where I was reading and felt like I was being directly called out in ways that I can improve.
Thought:
This week I read the story in Mark 9 of the father bringing his son through the crowds of people to be healed by Jesus. His son had had this "dumb spirit" since he was young. Even as this boy's brought up to Jesus "the spirit tare him; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming." It's hard to imagine what the father must've felt in this moment, standing before Jesus: maybe hope, maybe fear, maybe pure desparation? Maybe all three. Jesus says to him "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth." The father immediately cries out "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief." And Jesus lifts the boy up and he is healed.
God doesn't ask for or expect us to have perfect faith. Questions are normal. The difference is what we do with those questions. Elder Holland says it far more eloquently than I can in a talk called, "Lord, I Believe." He says : "When problems come and questions arise, do not start your quest for faith by saying how much you do not have, leading as it were with your “unbelief.” That is like trying to stuff a turkey through the beak! Let me be clear on this point: I am not asking you to pretend to faith you do not have. I am asking you to be true to the faith you do have. Sometimes we act as if an honest declaration of doubt is a higher manifestation of moral courage than is an honest declaration of faith. It is not!"
Be true to your faith. Be courageous in growing it. Be courageous in declaring it! The Lord loves you and he magnifies every effort you put in.
Okay, well, I hope you all have an awesome week!! Love you!
Love,
<3 Sister Goold
Pics:
1. We are one of three sets of missionaries in our ward. (Sister Oldroyd {in the green skirt} is a friend of mine from back in Primary in the Vienna Ward and now we're living in the same apartment!)
-new area. I'm starting to really love the people and the ward here. It has been such a blessing to be able to meet with people in person!
-cookies!! My Mom's Aunt RaChel dropped off cookies for me at the mission office this week. They didn't know but it was actually my 3-month mark on the mission so it was kinda perfect and it made my day! :)
-service! Okay yes, I put this pretty much every week. Don't worry about it.... We got to do a service this week helping people in the community with their yards (weeding, moving boards covered in spiders, shoveling mulch, etc.) and it was so fun.
-scriptures! Also a weekly appearance in my highlights haha.... anyways, last transfer I started reading the New Testament along with the Book of Mormon and wow. It's hard to deny that these books contain the word of God. I had multiple times this week where I was reading and felt like I was being directly called out in ways that I can improve.
Thought:
This week I read the story in Mark 9 of the father bringing his son through the crowds of people to be healed by Jesus. His son had had this "dumb spirit" since he was young. Even as this boy's brought up to Jesus "the spirit tare him; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming." It's hard to imagine what the father must've felt in this moment, standing before Jesus: maybe hope, maybe fear, maybe pure desparation? Maybe all three. Jesus says to him "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth." The father immediately cries out "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief." And Jesus lifts the boy up and he is healed.
God doesn't ask for or expect us to have perfect faith. Questions are normal. The difference is what we do with those questions. Elder Holland says it far more eloquently than I can in a talk called, "Lord, I Believe." He says : "When problems come and questions arise, do not start your quest for faith by saying how much you do not have, leading as it were with your “unbelief.” That is like trying to stuff a turkey through the beak! Let me be clear on this point: I am not asking you to pretend to faith you do not have. I am asking you to be true to the faith you do have. Sometimes we act as if an honest declaration of doubt is a higher manifestation of moral courage than is an honest declaration of faith. It is not!"
Be true to your faith. Be courageous in growing it. Be courageous in declaring it! The Lord loves you and he magnifies every effort you put in.
Okay, well, I hope you all have an awesome week!! Love you!
Love,
<3 Sister Goold
Pics:
1. We are one of three sets of missionaries in our ward. (Sister Oldroyd {in the green skirt} is a friend of mine from back in Primary in the Vienna Ward and now we're living in the same apartment!)
2. The cookies from my Mom's Aunt RaChel. Thank you!
3. A way too close up picture of my face because a member made us cute masks haha. Yeah, sorry about that. I need to take more pictures.
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