Week 63: Service is the Answer

Dear Friends and Family,

          Hola!  How are you people?  This week was good up on the Mountain.  It was warmer and dryer than last week.  We had a few fun things happen.  One of them was Zone Conference.  We talked about becoming Consecrated missionaries and then about member missionary work.  Both good, both inspiring. I would like to share some of the thoughts that I had with you this very day.

          Consecrated missionary:  I hated when we talked about this subject as a new missionary, but now I am not scared of it.  It still is a daunting thing to think about, but a lot of things have been put into perspective for me.  Beforehand, I would get so stressed because I just felt like I couldn't put everything on the alter of sacrifice.  It's hard giving up everything to do the will of God.  I thought I had given everything up before I got to the field.  Little did I know that on the mission and through out my life I will constantly be asked to give things up.  Sacrifice is crucial for salvation.  But there is good news. Putting everything on the alter of sacrifice is a life long pursuit.  It's demanding perfection which everyone knows can't be reached in this life.  

           Every time I leave the apartment I state "my purpose" as a missionary by saying, "Hermana Stoddard, forget yourself and go to work!"  It's taken me a long time to understand how to forget myself.  Forgetting myself means that I change my nature so that I naturally do the Lord's will before mine.  I will naturally think of others before myself.  It's not about forgetting who I am and not taking care of myself.  It means to be submissive and humble, willing and accepting.  President Schofield also talked about how we are to find joy in the journey.  We can expect to find joy at the destination because there is no final destination until we live with our Father again. S o being truly consecrated means that we find joy in the daily steps.  Now there is the real challenge!  Be happy!

          Member Missionary Work:  President Schofield has received revelation from the Lord that they only way the work is going to truly move forward is through the members, which is so true.  The only thing is a lot of members don't know what to do or how to start.  Members freak out because they think they need to know all the answers, but much more important is just bearing their testimonies.  We get the opportunity to do that all the time at church, but how often do we give little simple sparkles of truth in our daily lives?  What we have is so precious.  We have THE TRUTH.  The truth will set you free! We have the knowledge of how to free souls within our grasp and we need to tell people about that. 

          The whole training given to us was from a member of the stake presidency in Shoreline.  He talked about how members don't necessarily need to be the teachers, but they need to be the finders.  If all 15 million members of the church would find new investigators for us, we would constantly be teaching and baptizing.  That's the Lord's vision and we are working hard to put that into effect. We have been role playing(practicing) with members on how they can share the gospel at school, work, grocery store, ect... I hope that I will be a better member missionary when I get back.

          This week we were able to give service to a lady that really needed it.  We scrubbed her kitchen which was full of mold.  I was makin' my mamma proud!  Another awesome thing that happened was a sister in our ward turned 100!  She requested a luau for her party so our ward threw this huge Hawaiian themed party that was super fun and effective.  Lots of people came!  So fun!  Anyway, I love all of you! God loves you.  Be happy.  Read John 16:33.

Con Amor,

Hermana Stoddard