Hello dearest family!
Thank you so much for all your emails! It's so uplifting and edifying to know you're all doing so well and happy. I know the Lord is blessing our family as we strive to be obedient to His commandments. What a blessing it is to be in the service of the Lord for this short time of my life.
Cauayan is doing so well, we are so happy! This will be my last area. Elder Barangay and I are doing all we can to find, teach, and baptize! Elder Barangay is such a great missionary, I really see such a great and marvelous potential in Him, and the Lord is helping me to help him to become what the Lord wants Him to become. I really testify that if we see people for no who they are now, but who they can become through the Gospel, we will develop such a greater love for them and a greater desire to help them come unto Christ. He's really helping me to stay happy and laugh while we're out working. Sometimes the work can get so stressing or my mind can be running a million miles an hour, but Elder Barangay does such a good job of keeping me smiling and joyful! It's such a blessing.
Last week Brother John Zeilnier Decena was baptizd, a referral of the Lauzon Family who was baptized in March! What a miracle, no? The Lauzon Family are doing so well, every day they all read their Book of Mormons and every night they have family prayer.. aahh I'm just so happy! Our recent converts here in Cauayan just love the Book of Mormon with their whole hearts, and that's how we should all be! No matter how much persecution they all receive day by day it doesn't phase them because of their strong testimony rooted in the Book of Mormon.
I'm so grateful for this Easter Season that we are able to celebrate the glorious Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. How wonderful! Preach My Gospel talks about Hope, one of the Christlike Attributes, and how we can manifest hope through optimism, enthusiasm, and patient perseverance. Our Lord and Savior is the perfect example of this.
If we look in Mosiah 14, when Abinidi is quoting Isaiah prophesying about the Savior, he says, "He is despised, and rejected of men... surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows... he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities.. and All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned everyone his own way... He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb so he opened not his mouth."
No matter how hard, how painful, or how stressed the Savior was, He never opened His mouth, but He kept His composure. No matter how heavy the cross was that He was called to bare, He kept a smile on His face as He looked for opportunities to go about doing good! He did all He did because He was driven by the hope that He would please His Father in Heaven and bring all of His children back to Him if they would repent and come unto Him. Should we not do the same?
Every day we will face problems, stress, and pain, the question is, how will we react? May we be like the Savior, and keep our composure, with a bright smile on our faces! The day will come when we will be like Him, resurrected and glorified beings, wherein we will rest from all of our worries and troubles. Let's follow Christs example and take up our cross with joy! I know this will make us more happy, and help us to become more like Him. I love you all family! Keep up the great work and we'll see each other soon enough!
Elder Doane
PS- pictures.. before and after picture of our work, it rained and flooded the town that day! John Zeilnier's baptism.
No comments:
Post a Comment