Mostly, I am just really grateful that we are not white-washing. Duvall needs Sister Anderson. The investigators that we have are a little fragile, but they are getting stronger and stronger as time goes on. More and more involved in the gospel and in tune to the spirit. It's amazing to see how much the people that we have found are searching for truth. Most people are just quite confused, honestly.
"God is not the author of confusion, but is the author of peace." -Quentin L. Cook
I've really been exposed to how much Satan is intricately working within people (myself included) to desensitize us to truth. He doesn't desensitize us to good things. He knows that we have morals inside of us. No, I think he uses good things to keep us from the truth. He would rather have us focused on the good thing rather than the best thing. Eventually, this might lead to bad things, but I think more often, it just leads to confusion.
"Because of what Adam heard and what he saw, he qualified to be called the first prophet on earth, a personal witness of revelation given to man. His major responsibility now was to preserve the truth of the gospel as well as to teach it as it was given to him. Satan, on the other hand, representing the opposition, was going to do and teach anything to deny, to reject, or to ignore the gospel received by revelation, thus inducing the people who had accepted it into apostasy, a state of confusion, division, abandonment, or renunciation of their previous faith!"
A principle that I have been thinking a lot about is trials. Sister Anderson was telling me about an analogy where you are on the far left, God is on the far right, and a fiery match is in the middle. In order to get to exaltation, you absolutely have to go through the fire. There is no way around it. The thing is, some people's situations are things that they can't get out of. Like, a family member dies. Actually, I guess most trials are things that we can't disappear. But, the way that we overcome them is pretty different. Think of an iceberg and how it sticks a little bit out of the surface of the water. It's what we see when we are looking out across the ocean. Since we are educated people, we know that there is a giant glob of ice under the water, as well. It's much much bigger than what we see sticking out.
Since we know this, how often do we skim the top of the water, just hitting the small piece occasionally because we are too fearful of hitting the large part underneath? Probably pretty often. It happens when we skirt around an issue in a companionship because we want to stay neutral, if not happy. It happens when we see weaknesses in ourselves, but aren't willing to do the work to overcome them. It happens when we give up on people because we aren't willing to help them resolve their real issues with the gospel, life, family, or whatever it may be.
However, how much of the water do we miss? How many millions and billions of gallons of water are we missing because we won't allow ourselves to go underwater? We're all really good at avoiding conflict and problems. I'm not saying that we should be contentious. But, the funny part about it is that we create drama because we are bored. We don't focus on the real issues and then create fictitious "problems." It's all a matter of personal pride.
"It was through pride that Christ was crucified. The Pharisees were wroth because Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, which was a threat to their position, and so they plotted His death." -Ezra Taft Benson
The Jaredites were willing to submerge themselves despite the terror that they might have felt. Imagine 344 days inside a barge. They didn't have steering, no windows, no GPS, no idea where they were, and yet "And they did sing praises unto the Lord; yea, the brother of Jared did sing praises unto the Lord, and he did thank and praise the Lord all the day long; and when the night came, they did not cease to praise the Lord." (Ether 6:9) The difference is where we place our trust.
We had so many awesome experiences this week. Here are a few:
-We went to visit a potential. Her husband had died the night before. We read her the Book of Mormon and watered her flowers. A few days later, I felt a prompting to go and see her earlier than we had planned and to buy her some flowers. We went to the store, and ended up seeing another investigator instead!! The lady ended up not even being home, but we got to see our investigator which was such a miracle and tender mercy from the Lord. I'm glad that we recognized and followed that prompting. God's timing is perfect. Don't worry, we delivered the flowers, a couple hours later.
-A member had a friend that saw our chalk drawing. She called us and we have a lesson set up this week! So excited for Sister Anderson and her new companion to teach her.
-A member set up a dinner with us and a non-member friend of theirs who is interested.
So many more things, but I have no time to write it. It has been incredible. I am so sad to leave Duvall. This place has my heart forever. These people have my heart as well.
I love you all. Have a wonderful week.
Sister Jenne”
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