This week went by really fast. I haven`t really felt myself the last four or five days, sick to my stomach, headache, but you gotta tough it out out here! Like the Mensajero said last week, we have to choose to be "fighters" and not "survivors". I remember thinking much before I came here that a mission was all fun and joy and games. Although yes it is ALL of those things, IT IS WORK! To really have sucess, you have to work harder, push yourself further, and focus yourself more in this time than you have EVER done before in your life. Sucess isn`t baptisms, reactivations, a skyrocketing assistance, or even knowing the scriptures perfectly. For me, sucess is being able to kneel down at your bedside before you go to bed, and tell your Heavenly Father that you gave it your all. That even though you aren`t perfect, you did the best you knew how. That you put in 110%, and that tomorrow you`ll give him 111%...that for me is the definition of sucess.
I just wanted to share a miracle that happened last week. While I was in Ducuad, we taught a young woman named Janice Saez and her sister Jailyn. They were PERFECT! Golden! Super smart, caught on fast, didn`t drink or smoke, had manners, and were just fun! We taught them for a while. One day, they went on a Scouts camping trip. We didn`t hear from them, so we called. Janice told us something bad had happened. We thought surely they`d done something that went against our teachings. The next day, we met with Janice and she told us that one of her friends had died. From that point on, her sister, Jailyn, didn`t want to listen to us. Even though we were still great friends, she never sat in on the lessons after that...up even after I left. Last week in the mensajero, I saw her name on the list of people that had been baptized. I can`t express the excitement I felt in that moment. At first I thought that maybe it`d been a mistype, but as I read it again, it said very clearly JAILYN SAEZ. I thought to myself "NO WAY!? HOW?" I began to meditate on that question, how? I have come to the conclusions of two deciding factors in the event.
1. God makes a way-God loves all of us. Although sometimes things happen in life and it changes our process of conversion, our loving Heavenly Father will ALWAYS present us with more opportunities to accept His son Jesus Christ and to follow Him. I don`t know exactly what happened to make her change her mind, but I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that it was divine and that she saw/flet the hand of God in her life. No other sensation could make a person change their life in an instant.
2. Her sister was there to guide her-Though Jailyn was passing through a hard time in her life, she always had the example of her sister Janice to guide her. Having first handly seen the change in the life of Janice, I know that she is strong, that she was always there pushing her sister, showing her what to do, helping her through her struggles, and inso doing all of these things, becoming an "instrument in the hands of God."
I want to testify of something that I`ve learned to be a truth in my time here. The influence that you have on other people, is the most important asset that you posess. Whether it be for good or evil, you are always influencing someone. People that you know, people that are just passing by you in the street, and the people on the other side of the veil that are watching you. Every action that you make is doing one of two things, edifying the Kingdom of God or tearing it down. I have seen this to be the case in 100% of situations. I invite each of you to meditate about this, to decide what affect you are having on others. If you don`t like the answer you come up with, change it. Make the changes necesary to obtain the answer you want. As you do this, you will feel the power and influence of God in yourself. You will see yourself become an "instrument in the hands of God." Of this I testify, in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Con Amor,
Elder Jackson
No comments:
Post a Comment