Monday, June 6, 2016

Keep The Commandments

Hello Family!!
What a wonderful week we had here in Cedartown!!  
Transfer News: We are both staying here in Cedartown another transfer!  Wahoo!  That was happy news!  

We had another filled week of amazing miracles!!  Some amazing works are happening here, and the Lord is preparing the hearts here in Cedartown!  I know that this branch will be a ward one day!  

Highlights from the Week:
*The Hispanic lady that week have been teaching that has been investigating for years that has like 9 children.  We are teaching her and her 3 children that are over the age of eight in the house.  On Saturday we went over there and we taught repentance and we asked her if she wanted to be free of guilt.  She of course said yes.  Then we invited her to be baptized.  Her response was amazing.  She said that she has been investigating for years but she has never been baptized.  Something just clicked in her that was the reason her life has not been changing.  She accepted to be baptized on June 25!  Wahoo!  They came to church all three hours for the first time yesterday!  Hopefully this week we will get the kids on date to be baptized too!  They are all the road to happiness!  I have strong testimony of faith and not letting doubt get in the way.  This lady has grown in faith so much because she knows that keeping the commandments brings blessings, happiness, and a better life for her and her cute family!

*There is a 12 year old girl that we are teaching.  She has been taught by missionaries for a couple of years now, and she is practically a member of the church.  She comes to church every week, goes to girls camp, goes to all the youth activities, but her mom has never been comfortable with letting her be baptized.  Last week we invited this girl to pray about having her mom have a soft heart.  She wants to be baptized so baddly.  She wants to go on a mission.  She gives pass along cards to all of her friends and teaches them about the church.  She is just amazing.  We have all been praying for this to happen for her mom to soften up.  We had a lesson yesterday in a member families home with her yesterday and she told us that her mom was considering letting her be baptized!!  This is a huge miracle!

*Remember the awesome Book of Mormon referral that we got last week.  Well she is on date to be baptized on July 9.  She loves the Book of Mormon and she has already prayed about it and Joseph Smith.  Can you say Golden?!  I don't even know what it is.  I feel like the Lord is just placing all these prepared people in our life.  The Lord can do anything!  I sure have learned that since being here. 
 
*Our branch president asked us a couple weeks ago to teach a little girl in the branch.  Her parents are members and she is just the cutest!  It is such a special experience teaching young children.  They have such sweet spirits and so much faith.  She got baptized yesterday by her father.  It was super special!  She told her mom she wants us to keep coming each week.  It has been fun teaching her and learning from her! :)
 
*We went and taught this girl that the sisters found a few months ago.  She is 17 years old.  She is super prepared for this gospel and accepted to be baptized on July 2.  Such an amazing miracle and more evidence of how the Lord is preparing the hearts of his children.

*We had a crazy storm in Cedartown on Wednesday.  It was super hot and then all of the sudden it started raining super hard, then hailing, then winding, and a little tornado visited us.  It was crazy!  It looked like Cedartown had been abandoned for years after the storm.  All the streets were flooded, power lines down, trees, oh so many trees down, a few houses got fallen on by trees, no power.  It was crazy!!  I have never seen any storm in person cause so much damage.  No one was hurt luckily.  It was super cool to see the community come together and help clean up.  We spent almost the whole day cleaning up branches and trees.  It was a great service opportunity! 
 
*I caught my first fire fly this week!  There are so many fire flies here!  So much fun!!  I didn't think they actually existed haha!  But they do!  In case you were wondering haha!  We were like kids in a candy story the first night we saw them. We just had to stop the car and run out into a field and catch them! :)

Well my wonderful family, I want ya'll to know that I love you so very much.  I love this gospel so very much.  I want to share my testimony on the importance of keeping the commandments.  We have to keep the commandments, but better yet, we NEED to keep the commandments!  ALL commandments.  We are not here to just pick and choose the ones we want to keep, or the ones that are the easiest to keep.  NO, we are here to learn, to grow, to progress.  We must obey.  Heavenly Father loves us so much.  He is sad when we don't do what he asks.  I know that when our investigators don't do what they should, it saddens me because I know what joy there is in keeping the commandments.  It is just the same with our Heavenly Father, he wants to bless us.  He wants us to have joy.  Goodness Gracious, "men are that they might have joy!" 2 Nephi 2:25.  Now i think there are two types of joys 1=worldly joy and 2=heavenly joy or eternal joy.   It is so so vitally important to remember that, to remember what our purpose here in life is.  It is not to have worldly joy, it is to do what is right, it is to obey and listen with a willing heart to what our Heavenly Father wants of us, it is to keep the commandments and to have eternal joy.  We are blessed when we keep the commandments.  It is just that simple.  I could quote a hundred million times is says in the scriptures "ye should keep the commandments of God, that ye may prosper in the land!"   
With the dear lyrics from the children hymns "Keep the commandments; keep the commandments! In this there is safety; in this there is peace.  He will send blessings; he will send blessings.  Words of a prophet: keep the commandments.  In this there is safety and peace."

I know that this is true.  There is peace and safety in keeping the commandments.  "Oh that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments-then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea." 1 Nephi 20:18  May we always remember this, to keep the commandments.  We will be blessed.  We will be happy.  We will have joy.  I know this to be true.

Have a wonderful week my lovely family!  I love ya'

l so much!  Keep happy!  Keep Smiling!  Keep the Commandments!
Love,

Hermana Stewart

No comments:

Post a Comment