Family, friends, and anyone else who has found themselves looking at this post...
whoever and wherever you are, I hope you are doing well. This last week was fall break for the kids in the Hickory Flat area and the weather has been so great... that was until we had a rainstorm. So there is a saying that "bad weather is a missionary's best friend." I'm not sure who said this...but I know for a fact that they did not serve in Georgia, because the bucket rain storms we get in these parts are a missionary's worst enemy! Me and Sister Kelly were tracting and it started to rain.. at first it wasn't too bad and then as we were talking to this guy the down-pour began and we found ourselves in a storm that made me wonder if we should build a boat and gather all the animals in the neighborhood... just kidding... but seriously, we are talking "Noah status" here. So we knocked on the door of another house and this lady was just like, "Yea, ya'll can come back when its not raining." We left that porch... and I realized that when it rains it pours.
This week we had quite a few lessons cancel and even some of our top investigators fell off the face of the Earth. Me and Sister Kelly had a few hard times where we were wondering what more can we do and what are we doing wrong. Right now I am trying to remember that Agency, the ability to choose and make decisions, is not just needed, but necessary in the Lords plan for us. I've come to know that the happiest times and my most miserable times have all been connected to either someone using their agency wisely, or negatively. I can only imagine this is a small sliver of what Heavenly Father feels. As this whole "choice" topic has been on my mind and right around the time I was feeling sorry for myself I've realized that I too, can either choose to go with the "when it rains it pours" saying, or I can adopt the saying "don't wait for the storm to pass - dance in the rain".
I'll have you know that I have refrained from literally dancing, but I have tried to look for the good. It's funny, because the minute you look for the good, the minute you realize its ALL good! I mean seriously... when else is my life am I going to be able to pray with a little lady from Columbia who kisses me after we pray? - or knock on someones door and tell them I'm a representative of Jesus Christ? - Or go out to lunch with the funnest family in the world, run out gas, and find a few new friends in a gas station that mainly sells seeds? - or sing "families can be together forever" in Spanish so that the Spirit can speak to the sweetest family I've ever met in their native tounge? - or have someone TELL US that they are going to give up coffee before we can even ask?
So you know I love a good theme..... The moral of this weeks story is this, the rains are gonna come.. and trials and challenges are going to build up until it seems like we are in an ocean, until it seems like we are close to going under...and yet, the Lord is there.
2 Nephi 10: 20 says this.... "And now, my beloved brethren, seeing that our merciful God has given us so great knowledge concerning these things, let us remember him, and lay aside our sins, and not hang down our heads, for we are not cast off; nevertheless, we have been driven out of the land of our inheritance; but we have been led to a better land, for the Lord has made the sea our path, and we are upon an isle of the sea."
Enough Said.
whoever and wherever you are, I hope you are doing well. This last week was fall break for the kids in the Hickory Flat area and the weather has been so great... that was until we had a rainstorm. So there is a saying that "bad weather is a missionary's best friend." I'm not sure who said this...but I know for a fact that they did not serve in Georgia, because the bucket rain storms we get in these parts are a missionary's worst enemy! Me and Sister Kelly were tracting and it started to rain.. at first it wasn't too bad and then as we were talking to this guy the down-pour began and we found ourselves in a storm that made me wonder if we should build a boat and gather all the animals in the neighborhood... just kidding... but seriously, we are talking "Noah status" here. So we knocked on the door of another house and this lady was just like, "Yea, ya'll can come back when its not raining." We left that porch... and I realized that when it rains it pours.
This week we had quite a few lessons cancel and even some of our top investigators fell off the face of the Earth. Me and Sister Kelly had a few hard times where we were wondering what more can we do and what are we doing wrong. Right now I am trying to remember that Agency, the ability to choose and make decisions, is not just needed, but necessary in the Lords plan for us. I've come to know that the happiest times and my most miserable times have all been connected to either someone using their agency wisely, or negatively. I can only imagine this is a small sliver of what Heavenly Father feels. As this whole "choice" topic has been on my mind and right around the time I was feeling sorry for myself I've realized that I too, can either choose to go with the "when it rains it pours" saying, or I can adopt the saying "don't wait for the storm to pass - dance in the rain".
I'll have you know that I have refrained from literally dancing, but I have tried to look for the good. It's funny, because the minute you look for the good, the minute you realize its ALL good! I mean seriously... when else is my life am I going to be able to pray with a little lady from Columbia who kisses me after we pray? - or knock on someones door and tell them I'm a representative of Jesus Christ? - Or go out to lunch with the funnest family in the world, run out gas, and find a few new friends in a gas station that mainly sells seeds? - or sing "families can be together forever" in Spanish so that the Spirit can speak to the sweetest family I've ever met in their native tounge? - or have someone TELL US that they are going to give up coffee before we can even ask?
So you know I love a good theme..... The moral of this weeks story is this, the rains are gonna come.. and trials and challenges are going to build up until it seems like we are in an ocean, until it seems like we are close to going under...and yet, the Lord is there.
2 Nephi 10: 20 says this.... "And now, my beloved brethren, seeing that our merciful God has given us so great knowledge concerning these things, let us remember him, and lay aside our sins, and not hang down our heads, for we are not cast off; nevertheless, we have been driven out of the land of our inheritance; but we have been led to a better land, for the Lord has made the sea our path, and we are upon an isle of the sea."
Enough Said.
I love you.
I love this work.
Godspeed.
Sister Beasley
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