Canada Week 16: There is always HOPE!

Hello everyone!  Another week has come and gone.  This week we were completely centered on Christ, like every week, but with Christmas it seemed to be a more prevalent focus for everyone.  We were able to visit some of our ward members and talk about ways they could come closer to Christ and how they could be more Christlike themselves for others.  We were also able to meet and read the Book of Mormon with our recent converts.  I love doing this!  Not only do they engage in studying the Book of Mormon, but we are able to answer their questions and we all learn from one another.

I hope everyone had a WONDERFUL Christmas!  My companion and I went to 3 different supper appointments Christmas Eve with 3 fun families from our wards.  It was a little crazy figuring it all out but God is so Good and it all worked out.  The appointments were all back to back with time in between to get to each one.  It is so amazing to feel loved and appreciated by others especially when it feels like our efforts aren't going anywhere sometimes.

I wanted to share a couple cool miracles we were able to be a part of this week --

1- We were doing studies and received a call from an unknown number.  We answered and it was a lady we met on the train a couple months ago.  She wanted to meet and learn more about the Bible.  She was out of our area so we ended up passing her to some other sisters.  We didn't get to go to the lesson but we heard it went well and that she wants to work towards baptism!  Even though we weren't able to go teach her it was still a wonderful miracle!

2- We got invited to attend the baptism for a lady the Elders in our zone had been teaching.  We ended up meeting her son who is YSA age and invited him to church.  He is awesome and wants to come and we are so pumped!  Hopefully we will begin teaching him soon. 

God works in small and simple ways.  We rarely get to see the "fruits of our labors" and often feel like our efforts go unnoticed, but I know they never go unnoticed by God.  Every ounce of effort we put forth on our part is making a difference for those around us.  It goes back to the knowledge we have that God just wants us to do our best.  He doesn't expect us to be perfect.  This has been a hard thing for me to learn and I know I will continue to learn this my whole life.  We are all progressing humans!

My companion and I spoke in church yesterday about hope through the atonement of Christ.  Such a beautiful topic!  I thought they couldn't have provided us with a better one this time of the year.  While preparing for my talk I was reminded that hope fills the dark voids in our lives.  Hope builds faith and exercising faith in things builds hope - they go hand in hand.  It states in Moroni 7:42  "Wherefore, if a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope."  What greater reason to hope than the Atonement of Jesus Christ which is the sacrifice that makes eternal life attainable!  It is the gift that turns guilt into peace, despair into hope and gives us second chances!  I, being the human being that I am, sometimes feel out of reach of the atonement - that I am not worthy or worth saving.  This is NOT TRUE!  This is what Satan wants us to believe.  It is so difficult to overpower the adversary.  This has been especially true for me on my mission.  This has been so much harder than I could have ever imagined but so worth it and hope helps me hang on.  There is a quote I love that reads, "If you are hanging on by a thread, make sure it is the hem of His garment."  Hope and the atonement allow us to hang onto His garment when life gets tough.  I am so grateful for a merciful Savior who loved me enough to take upon Him my sins, hardships and everything else.  I am so grateful that I have a Savior who suffered EVERY POSSIBLE situation and feeling I could ever encounter in this life - all so we could have the gift of agency.  I hope we can all choose to have HOPE and JOY.  I am so grateful I had the opportunity to speak and learn more about hope and share it with others.  After the meeting we were mingling with the students in our ward and a girl who just moved in came up to us and thanked us for the messages that we shared.  She said she really needed to hear our words and also appreciated that we shared them with our testimonies.

I want to share my simple testimony on the power of hope and the atonement.  I am so grateful that God created a perfect plan that gives us the opportunity to try again every day, every minute, all the time!  He is so merciful and loving and I am sooooo grateful for Him!  I hope this week we can all find a reason to be grateful for our Savior and His sacrifice He made for ALL of us!

Love Sister Merrill

GOD IS GOOD!

Merry Christmas!!!