This week was a week of my mission that I will truly never forget. We as missionaries in the Bolivia Cochabamba Mission had the opportunity to listen and talk to Elder David A. Bednar from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles for 3 amazing hours! Wow.... where can I even start? There really is no description for the strength of the Spirit that a living breathing apostle can bring into the room!
The overarching theme of the conference was that we are all agents and not objects. Some of you may be thinking ´huuuuh?`, but I`ll explain ;D It is all about actions and if we are all acting or if we are being acted upon. To be an agent is a LOT different than being an object! When you are an object in life, you are sitting there sometimes waiting for things to happen, waiting for the answers to your prayers, waiting to receive a testimony, expecting to be acted upon instead of acting for yourself. When you are an agent this is when you try to do all you can to answer your own prayers. This is when you step into the darkness with faith that it will work out and that Heavenly Father will help you. You pray with the real intent to act when you receive an answer, you read the Book of Mormon searching for your answers, you truly do your part to receive – you act! We were given our agency in this life to act- really it is the ability to act and not be acted upon! After this conference, my vision of the words Faith, Testimony, and Prayer were changed. These words are not just nouns – they are verbs that you work to act on. I invite everyone who is reading this email to really think for a moment – are you acting or are you being acted upon? Are you praying with true faith? One example that Elder Bednar gave was: in the church are you praying for `the people who were not here this week so that they can be there next week` but not acting and going out and searching for those people? This was so powerful for me! And, just like me, if you can be better with acting, start today to act and not be acted upon!
In our area, we are now searching, praying and finding new people to teach! Since we had baptisms the past month, we felt like we really didn’t have anyone to teach – just a few people here and there. But, this area is literally full of miracles and we have been able to come across a few different families that we are teaching! One family was a reference from a member in the ward, and they are so amazing! We only met them the other day, but my companion and I could feel that they have just been waiting for the gospel. They have a lot of family problems but it was amazing to see the hope that they have that the gospel can make things better in their family. Another family are relatives of a less active member in the church that other missionaries have taught before and they had baptism dates that fell through before because the mom has a lot of doubts about the church and Joseph Smith. We have been trying to help them to `act` to know the truth of these things ;D (such as reading, praying and coming to church ;D) SO we have a lot of hope to be instruments in the Lord’s hands with these families to be able to receive the full blessings of the restored gospel!
I TESTIFY that this church is true. I know it will all my heart and soul. I know that this church is led by true prophets and apostles that receive revelation for every single one of us. I know that we can all receive personal revelation by the power of the Holy Ghost and we can truly hear things from him that aren't spoken in our meetings which is fit for us at this time and place where we are in our lives, I know that Heavenly Father wants all of us to be happy and cares about every single one of us. I know that we were put on this earth to be able to us our agency and to act and not be acted upon. ALL of these things and more, I testify in the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
I love you all!
Hermana Mather
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| After the mission conference with Elder Bednar, (We couldn't take any pictures with Bednar :(((, but we took one together as companions so its alright ;D |
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| From 6 de Agosto which is like the 4th of July for Bolivia! |
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| We had alphabet soup the other day and we just couldn't resist! |
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| Our new investigators ;D hehe preaching to one and all the Gospel of Christ. |
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| Service for our recent convert crushing up bread to make a BUNCH of bread crumbs. |
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