February 23, 2015 (Faith)

Hey my people.

     So it has been another quick week. And I honestly cannot even really remember what all has happened. We are still working on finding more investigators. We were able to find 1 new investigator this week and she is from Haiti. Surprise! haha She is very nice and was very willing to let us come inside and talk with her. She came here with her sisters. So it is just her and her two sisters and a cousin that are living in the United States. Their parents are still over in Haiti. Every time we learn about someone's life over here and all that they had to go through to get to the U.S. it breaks my heart. These sweet people have really gone through some really tough times. Being a missionary is a very humbling experience. Especially since I have been able to serve in some really poor places. Just this last Tuesday we got to go on an in zone exchange. Our zone leaders got to pray and choose where we went in the zone and who our companion would be for that following 24 hours. I got to stay in my area and Sister Egan came with me. She is the girl that worked at Gemini with Jamie!!! Yep. She is in my zone. She is so awesome. We are a lot alike. I loved being able to go on that exchange with her. I learned a lot from her. She is struggling with a lot of the same things I have and still do struggle with so it was such a neat experience talking with her and letting her know that if I could make it this far so could she! Anyway that was off topic, but we were planning on Tuesday night and I had this feeling that we should go see one of our members here. I called Sister Jean-Louis to see if we could come see her on Wednesday morning and she agreed. Sister Jean-Louis is also from Haiti and she has been a member for a little over a year now. She is an incredible woman. She is raising a son basically all by herself and he is 18 years old now. S. Jean-Louis has been through SO much in her life, and yet she has the strongest faith. When we went over on Wednesday morning I was just expecting to share a scripture with her and see if there was anything we could do for her. I had the feeling to ask if she had any food. (I do this a lot because I am good at prying into people's lives...) She kinda just shook her head and told me to come and look. Really the only thing that she had in her house was a frozen ham. So we made some phone calls to our Bishop and the 1st counselor in the Relief Society and we were able to get things figured out so she could go to the Bishop's Storehouse. It broke my heart to see this incredible women have to go through so much. She works so hard and has such strong faith in the Savior. It is so incredible to see that even though she is struggling, the Lord is ALWAYS going to watch out for her as long as she is doing her part. She has seen so many miracles happen in her life and I know that it is because of her faith. I have been thinking a lot lately about why Faith is the first principle of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Really faith and trust is the essence of everything we do in the church. Faith is such a basic principle, but when we have even just a tiny mustard seed of faith we will be able to experience spiritual growth. We aren't asked to know deep doctrine and we definitely aren't supposed to understand everything in this life. That is why it is so important that we focus on the small and the simple things in life. Just like it says in Alma 37:6-7 , "Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise. And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls." When we try to understand absolutely everything it can make us doubt and even question our belief. And that is why faith and trust are so essential in the Gospel. And honestly it is nice to know that we aren't supposed to know everything in this life. So we just need to keep moving forward with faith. (: I thought that was SO cool that you shared that with me in your email Dad. I have been really thinking about the small and simple things of the gospel all stinkin week. I love that quote by President Hinckley, "You have not failed until you quit trying." What a wise and amazing man President Hinckley was. It is so true. We are always going to fall and be tried and we are constantly going to have trials in our lives, but if we keep moving forward with faith, even if it is tiny baby steps, we can achieve great things in the end. And that is really what this Gospel is all about! (:
     We are going over to see one of our less actives tonight. He got shot a couple of weeks ago... Maybe a month or so ago. He was shot in the chest at some club and has been in a Coma for a while. I honestly was praying so hard that he would make it through so that we could go over and shake him and tell him that this is God letting him have another chance to come back to church. I really love this less active and I am so excited to finally go see him and I am so grateful he is doing okay. So crazy... I feel like some of the things that people struggle with over here are things I never had to hear/know/deal with when I grew up. It is so crazy how different life can be depending on where you grow up and how you choose to live your life. Once again... Thanks goodness for the gospel! (:

     I am glad that things are going pretty good back home. I will keep Uncle Dayle in my prayers and that everything goes well with his radiation! I hope everything goes well with moving Grandma Woodland into an Assisted Living as well! I will keep all ya'll in my prayers! (: Thanks again for everything you do for me!!! I hope that you guys have a great week!

LOVE YOUS TO THE MOON & BACK!! WE GOT THIS! 

Love, Sister Woodland