Hi family!
Let me start out by telling you how much I love you all and I'm so grateful for you.
I've
reached a ripe old age of six months on my mission as of Tuesday, and
I've learned one important principle that I felt I should share with
you: missions are really hard.
In the church,
we talk a lot about "the refiners fire" and how "our needed conversions
are often achieved by suffering and adversity rather than by comfort and
tranquility." And that's really true!
Being in the mission field, I feel like I am definitely in the refiner's fire. However, it's a different kind of "hard."
In
life, hard is when you struggle in school, hard is when you struggle
with employment, hard is when you break up with someone and when your
testimony is shaky. But it seems like being in the refiner's fire is a
choice. Because all these challenges are sooo difficult, but it's up to
us individually to decide if we will let the Lord make something of us
in the mean time.
We can choose to allow our
trials and challenges to overcome us and swallow us up and defeat us. Or
we can let go of our need to control and our need to fix and change
situations, and allow the Lord to mold us and to shape us.
That
doesn't mean any of this is easy, or that letting the Lord change you
is easy. That's why it's called a fire, not a beachside resort. It's not
easy, but if we really want to allow the Lord to shape us, we will.
In
the Book of Mormon, Laman and Nephi faced very similar situations. They
both left all their possessions behind, they both went with their
family to face the dangers of the wilderness, they both struggled to
find food and both had to provide for their hungry families, they both
had to return to Jerusalem for the plates which Laban had in his
possession. But what's the difference? Their attitudes and their faith.
Laman complained the whole time about how it was hard. He got angry, he
doubted, he didn't believe God wanted him to know anything. Yet Nephi
faced the situation with stalwart loyalty to the Lord and regardless of
what the circumstances may have been, he always said, in an essence,
"Lord, I will go where you want me to go, say what you want me to say,
do what you want me to do, and be what you want me to be. It doesn't
matter if it's hard, it doesn't matter if my family goes hungry and my
very life is put in danger. I will offer up all I can give to you-- my
heart and my will-- and be what you want me to be."
There's a quote that I read this week that explains the way we should face our challenges: "Character
is revealed in the power to discern the suffering of other people when
we ourselves are suffering; in the ability to detect the hunger of
others when we are hungry; and the power to reach out and extend
compassion for the spiritual agony of others when we are in the midst of
our own spiritual distress."
I have
learned so much these past few months about the painful process of
becoming what the Lord wants me to be. And I would never change it.
Because although it took a lot of hardships, I am so much closer to my
Savior.
A departing missionary recently said,
"The joy is in the work." I believe the joy can be in the change if we
let it. If we realize all that the Savior is making of us, and thank Him
for our challenges and thank Him for the chance to learn, their is joy
in the fire, in the hardships, in the pain.
I
love you all and I pray that you grow closer to your Savior each day. I
pray that you truly seek Him out through prayer and seek His help.
Have a wonderful week!
Sister Abram
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