Les paroles de vie

It has been quite a while since I last sat in front of this computer screen. It's amazing how quickly time passes, especially as a missonary. Soon I will be approaching my half way point (my family lovingly reminds me of this everytime they write) and let me just say I look forward to the day with feelings of nausea. It's scary to think that some day I will have to return to the real world and leave this work in another's hands. There is still so much to be done and with time quickly coming to a close my heart is filled with an emense sense of urgency. How can I possibly accomplish all that I have planned to do since I chose to come on a mission? How will I ever be able to say, "I've done all I could"? Will it ever be enough?

A missionaries greatest fear is going home. Whilst on your mission you come to love people and truely see them as Christ does, sons and daughters of Heavenly Father, and you desire nothing more then their eternal welfare and happiness. That's where the fear comes in. Did you do all that you could to help God's children come closer to Him? Did you tell everyone about Christ? Did you "open your mouth"? Once you return home things change. You still love people and you still want to share the message of Christ with them but you are no longer a set apart missionary. It becomes difficult to find the confidence to "open your mouth" for fear of rejection and causing offence, but how important it is to share with others something that will change their life. Every missionary leaves their mission with the intention to continue working just as hard teaching other's the gospel, but as life begins to invade our spiritual quest that desire often dwindles into a past memory. It is imparative to continually nurtur that desire we have to share with others the one thing that can bring them happiness far beyond that which is offered by the world. We must "treasure up in [our] minds continually the words of life" so that we may be given the things to say. If "[we] are prepared [we] shall not fear" because we will know just what the Lord would have us say and do to help God's children return home. Studying the scriptures can often seem such a daunting task. With school, work, family and an array of other responsibilties it can be hard to find the time to dedicate to studying the words of God but what better way to spend your time? As we find time in our busy lives for the Lord and the things which He has asked us to do we are promised that the Lord will be with us in all that we do (Joshua 1:9). Let us find time for the Lord and His words in our lives that we may always be "missionaries" inviting others to come to Christ. What greater promise can we be given then to have the Lord our Savior as our companion?

La prière

With Mother's Day just around the corner the mission is all a buzz as we prepare to call home for the first time in a while (in order to help maintain focus and avoid feelings of homesickness, as missionaries we only call home twice a year, Mother's Day and Christmas). For the past few day's I have been thinking a lot about what I am going to share with my family. Since I do write home every week I feel as though all of the stories, at least the good ones, have already been told... So what am I left with? Nothing. Nevertheless I know that my family will be sitting around the speaker phone in great anticipation. So what do I say? What do I share? I certainly don't want to share the same stories that I wrote about last week but there is something about the flair of a verbal story that cannot be conveyed in a written message. As I continued obsessing about what to share with my family my companion drew an interesting parallel. Just as my family is already aware of all the funny and entertaining stories of my missionary experience my Father in Heaven is aware of them as well but nonetheless He still wants to hear them from me. Having a good teaching companion like Sister Nieves helped me change my distracting obsession to a creative contemplation about her proposed parallel. Could a call home really be that similar to a prayer?

Mormon Message : Prayer

Every night and every morning we get on our knees to pray. I can't lie, often times I find myself sitting thinking "What do I say? I don't really even remember what happened today." Or thinking, "I don't need to say that, He saw it, He know's I'm sorry." But there is something to be said for expressing gratitude or penitence verbally. So once again I thought about my Mom and Dad, could my Heavenly Father really want to hear all the silly things that I tell them? Does He really want me to repeat what He already saw? As I continued to think about it I finally came to this conclusion... Of course He does. He is our FATHER in Heaven. Just as we call home to tell our family something exciting He wants those "calls" too. He want's to rejoice with us and bring us comfort during our trials because He is the only one that understands us perfectly. We have been given the blessing of prayer as a form of communication with our Heavenly Father. Each prayer is simply a phone call home where we can tell our Father in Heaven the concerns of our hearts and He can bring us answers and comfort through the Holy Ghost. We would never deny our parents a phone call, how then can we deny our Father in Heaven a prayer?

Therefore ye must always pray unto the Father in my name; and whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you." - 3 Nephi 18:19-20