Hiya! Yalrigh?
So this week I got a lovely surprise! A letter from my fellow Oakcresties!! It made me so so so happy!! My heart is with you, just so you know! I wear my blue 'Sunshine' shirt and oakcrest sweats ALLL the time. Thank you so so much for the letters :) You are the best.
This week I learned more about 'finding'. I learned that I never have to 'find' anyone. They are already there. I walk past them allll the time, I just need to open my mouth. and because I have been 'set apart' to do just that, if I will just open my mouth Heavenly Father will help me with the rest. But the trick is getting people just to stop and talk, cause if they will just talk with us and have a gospel conversation, and their heart is prepared, they will feel the spirit.
One woman we stopped, talked with her for a while and then said, we have a message about happiness in this life through the gospel of Jesus Christ, is there a time we could share it with you?
And she said, "Is that your chapel up the road?"
Us: yes
Her: sure lets go right now!
Us :um okay! ya! (totally surprised us!) so we discussed with her the restoration of the gospel! right then! It was amazing. Too many miricales this week to even count.
Funny Story:
We knocked on a womans door, she wasnt interested, so we knocked on the next door and it was the same house! ! ! haha she was like, "uh hi?" and I said oh sorry!" turned around started to walk away and then I said, "love you bye!" ..............................
The reason I'm emailing today instead of Monday is because yesterday my Zone had Interviews with President Jordan. They were so great. I learned SO much and we watched the new movie Meet the Mormons (I barely managed not to cry during the missionary mom). One of the crucial concepts I came to understand yesterday was Baptism.
In other religions, many believe that in order to recieve salvation, the priest must wave his hands over you and you are made clean. Some say you merely need to profess 'Jesus' and you are saved. But in both of those theologies neither of those ordinances of 'saving' require the choices of the individual being 'saved'. They just have saving thrust upon them regardless of what they may do in their lives. Sometimes as missionaries we teach incorrect doctrine that is similar to these theologies. That through the ordinance of baptism, the being buried in the water and coming back up, we are made clean from sin. That is incorrect. To quote Elder Nelson, " The act of baptism itself does not wash sin away. Thanks to the Atonement, the effects of sin depart when one faithfully keeps the baptismal covenant to follow the Lord Jesus Christ." Its not the water. It is the covenant (promise we make with God) and the ordinance together that allow the atonement of Jesus Christ to make us clean. So what is the Baptismal covenant? When we are baptised we promise to take upon us the name of Jesus Christ (strive to become like he is and do what he would do), always remember Him, and keep His commandments. When we do these things in harmony with the ordinance (the water part or later partaking of the sacrament), we will be blessed with a remission of our sins, the Holy Ghost will always be with us, and as we faithfully keep our covenants, be able to live with God again.
I love how the phrase is 'remission' of sins. In my life I associate 'remission' with cancer. 'remission' for cancer, means you previously had cancer, overcame it and are now cancer free. Sin is the same. we make mistakes, make poor choices and regret those actions, we then can overcome those through the power of the atonement, and can be sin free. We can put our sins in remission. It then is up to us if they stay in remission based on our actions and thoughts.
Keeping our covenants means that we choose to make changes (repenting) in our behaviours that will make us more like Jesus Christ. When we make these changes, the Saviour then can apply the power of the Atonement to our lives and change our natures. As we work on these things, one behaviour and nature at a time, we will eventually Become men and women that are worthy to live in Gods presence and recieve exaltation.
I know that the church is true! I know that God lives! I know that Jesus Christ lives and loves us and through Him we really can do all things! The Atonement is real! I love you all! When in doubt go back to what you DO know!
Love, Sister Coleman
P.S. Here is some Elder Holland brilliancy:
"Anyone who does any kind of missionary work will have occasion to ask, Why is this so hard? Why doesn’t it go better? Why can’t our success be more rapid? Why aren’t there more people joining the Church? It is the truth. We believe in angels. We trust in miracles. Why don’t people just flock to the font? Why isn’t the only risk in missionary work that of pneumonia from being soaking wet all day and all night in the baptismal font?
You will have occasion to ask those questions. I have thought about this a great deal. I offer this as my personal feeling. I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation neverwas easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? It seems to me that missionaries and mission leaders have to spend at least a few moments in Gethsemane. Missionaries and mission leaders have to take at least a step or two toward the summit of Calvary.
Now, please don’t misunderstand. I’m not talking about anything anywhere near what Christ experienced. That would be presumptuous and sacrilegious. But I believe that missionaries and investigators, to come to the truth, to come to salvation, to know something of this price that has been paid, will have to pay a token of that same price.
For that reason I don’t believe missionary work has ever been easy, nor that conversion is, nor that retention is, nor that continued faithfulness is. I believe it is supposed to require some effort, something from the depths of our soul.
If He could come forward in the night, kneel down, fall on His face, bleed from every pore, and cry, “Abba, Father (Papa), if this cup can pass, let it pass,” 16 then little wonder that salvation is not a whimsical or easy thing for us. If you wonder if there isn’t an easier way, you should remember you are not the first one to ask that. Someone a lot greater and a lot grander asked a long time ago if there wasn’t an easier way.
The Atonement will carry the missionaries perhaps even more importantly than it will carry the investigators. When you struggle, when you are rejected, when you are spit upon and cast out and made a hiss and a byword, you are standing with the best life this world has ever known, the only pure and perfect life ever lived. You have reason to stand tall and be grateful that the Living Son of the Living God knows all about your sorrows and afflictions. The only way to salvation is through Gethsemane and on to Calvary. The only way to eternity is through Him—the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
I testify that the living God is our Eternal Father and that Jesus Christ is His living and Only Begotten Son in the flesh. I testify that this Jesus, who was slain and hanged on a tree, 17 was the chief Apostle then and is the chief Apostle now, the Great High Priest, the chief cornerstone of His Church in this last and greatest of all dispensations. I testify that He lives, that the whole triumph of the gospel is that He lives, and because He does, so will we" -
Herne Bay
Sister Coleman and Sister Andersen at the Library
Sister Coleman and Sister Andersen
Whomping Willow look a likes
Ceiling of Cathedral
Letters from fellow Oakcrest counselors
London
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