One of the amazing blessings of being a missionary is that occasionally we have Apostles come to our mission to speak to us and today was one of those days! It was such a joy to see an Apostle of the Lord, Elder Dallin H. Oaks came and inspired us with how we can improve as missionaries. He taught in such an amazing loving way that we are instruments in the hands of the Lord and we must be sure to allow the Lord to use us as he has planned. He used this great analogy about how if someone is going to use a pen it needs to have ink, it needs to be in working order and it needs to be in a position to be used by someone. If we apply this to ourselves; we need to have knowledge inside of us, we need to be in working order by following God's commandments and we need to be in a position to be used by the Lord. I loved that! If any of those things are not working quite right then the pen isn't fulfilling its purpose! It's the same with us; if we don't know God's word, are not following his commandments and are not letting him use us for his work then WE are not fulfilling our purpose here on earth.
Look into your own life and see what you need to change to allow yourself to be a better instrument in the hands of the Lord. If you need more knowledge then start reading and praying and doing the work to gain knowledge. If you are not in working order, following the commandments, then take an inventory of your life and repent and realign your actions with of the Savior's. If you don't feel that you are being used by the Lord to do his work then pray for opportunities and don't let your fear overpower your faith and act on those promptings!
I know that as we repent and change and better ourselves we will be used to do amazing works in the hands of the Lord. We will change and we will be more like him. Now as my amazing mission president, President Mckee would say, "Let's repent with rejoicing" and get on with the rest of our lives! I hope you are all having a wonderful happy Saturday! :)
I haven't been very good at keeping up with my blog and its not because I don't have anything to write. I've just gotten really busy when I'm on line! I will be better...I only have 6 weeks left in my mission and I'm going to post be sure to post 3 more times before I go home!
As I've been reflecting back on my mission and all the things I've learned and done I've been thinking a lot about how important every person I meet is to God. We often get frustrated and discouraged in this harsh world we live in but as we turn to our loving Heavenly Father in prayer he will show us our worth. Jesus Christ tells us throughout the scriptures that "the worth of souls in great in the sight of God." God knows and loves us all individually. I was reading a talk by President Uchtdorf entitled 'You Matter to Him' and I loved this quote from it;
"And while we may look at the vast expanse of the universe and say, “What is man in comparison to the glory of creation?” God Himself said we are the reason He created the universe! His work and glory—the purpose for this magnificent universe—is to save and exalt mankind. In other words, the vast expanse of eternity, the glories and mysteries of infinite space and time are all built for the benefit of ordinary mortals like you and me. Our Heavenly Father created the universe that we might reach our potential as His sons and daughters."
I'd like to end with this beautiful song that I was introduced to on my mission by an amazing woman. She had this song sung at her baptism and the spirit was so strong in the room. Its called 'Beautiful to Him' by Rachel Thibodeau.
"I'm not going to buy the world's little lies.
I define myself and find my beauty in the light he gives.
I'm refined by his divine intentions everyday I live.
It does matter what the world believes
or what they say that beauty means.
It comes from within I want to be beautiful to him."
