Guess what???
This week was a crazy rollercoaster of emotions and insanity and wonderful things and sad things.
But the brightest thing that happened was a true sign that Heavenly Father prepares a specific and personal plan for each of us in our lives. And sometimes it is not exactly what we think it is going to be, and the things we think are forever turn out to be bittersweet endings, cut too short too soon. Or we don't get the answer we wanted to something we have always thought we wanted. And it's hard to be okay with who Heavenly Father wants us to be and how he expects us to get there. And it's also, really really incredibly difficult to realize how much we matter to Him. How much he knows our hearts. How much he cares if we feel joy, and how much he mourns we mourn. He is the epitome of charitable, the most perfect empathizer and the greatest example of perfect love.
And because of this perfect love, he sent us here. Not because he wants to see us fail, but because he wants to see us succeed. His purpose is that. To help us find our way, whichever way. To guide us. To love us. To support us. To worry about us. To bless us. And to give us time when we need it, and coincidences and tender mercies when we need them most.
And he sure has given me a tender mercy this past transfer. Her name is Veronica. And she walked into church the day after I turned 20. And she started asking questions. And at first we thought she was some kind of religious critic. But it turns out she was the most humble, intelligent, penitent seeker of happiness I have ever known. And away we went.
And yesterday she chose to come back to Christ. She chose to take upon her the name of her dear sweet savior and she was baptized.
And I don't think I can explain the joy that filled my heart when during her confirmation she was declared a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I think that is the first time in my life I've ever felt true joy. Seeing someone else realize what they were missing out on--the purest love to ever exist-- and to be able to recognize that, and be brave enough to want it and to do whatever it took to get it. That is the type of faith I think we all need to remember to have. To let go, of everything we were and what we used to know and who we used to be, and to let God, make us into who we were meant to be. Into the right person. So we can have true joy.
And I know it all comes in due time. And we each have a time frame and a path. But we also have a choice. To make it the easy way or the hard way. We can choose to be guided through daylight, or we can chose to be drug along through the darkness until we finally find our way again.
And the easy way, it does seem to always turn out to be the hardest way. The path not usually taken. But I mean it the easy way because it is the way that is actually worth it.
"Some turn away from God in anger, and others allow their suffering to bring them closer to God. Like you, I have experienced pain myself. Pain is a gauge of the healing process. It often teaches us patience. Perhaps that is why we use the term patient in referring to the sick.
The Savior is not a silent observer. He Himself knows personally and infinitely the pain we face.
As I pondered, I came to understand that during His mortal life Christ chose to experience pains and afflictions in order to understand us. Perhaps we also need to experience the depths of mortality in order to understand Him and our eternal purposes.
President Henry B. Eyring taught: “It will comfort us when we must wait in distress for the Savior’s promised relief that He knows, from experience, how to heal and help us. … And faith in that power will give us patience as we pray and work and wait for help. He could have known how to succor us simply by revelation, but He chose to learn by His own personal experience.” "- "The Atonement Covers All Pain by Kent F. Richards, April 2011
I was studying this talk a few weeks ago, but it keeps staying with me. I think sometimes we forget that the Savior is for us. He did the atonement for us, and he felt everything we would feel. Which means he knows us, better than anyone. He knows our pain, because he has felt it. But he also knew how much we would hurt. And how important that would be to us. And because he loves us completely, or perfectly, he chose to feel all that we feel. Because he loves us enough to want to understand us better than anyone else.
I know every pain we feel is for a reason. It is all for something bigger. And I know that our trials are to help us learn. To become someone with more value than we ever thought we had, more than we on our own could recognize.
Vi voglio bene
Sorella Jarnagin
Piazza Monte Gemma 9
00141 Roma, Italia
Italia Roma Missione 🇮🇹
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