Sister Syd: Canada Week 18: The FrOzEn NoRtH

Hello hello friends and family! I hope everyone is just wonderful :) I also hope everyone is staying warm wherever you are. The temps keep dropping like crazy here in Canada! So much for having one of the rarest warm winters....it has now become one of the coldest winters with a quite a bit of snow. And fun fact - I will supposedly be in one of the coldest part of the world next week....-40 plus wind-chill (feel like -55) ... here I come!!!

This past week was really great! Our new investigator, Jaera, came to our YSA ward FHE activity Monday night and built legos with us. We were so happy he could come! We are hoping to start teaching him more soon. His mom was recently baptized -WOOT WOOT - and is super amazing! Last week we got to go to the temple with her and help her with baptisms and talk to her about the importance of temple work. We also had our first apartment bound excursion. We were grounded due to buckets of snow and extreme cold temperatures. We were able to do more studies which was nice. We have been challenged by the mission president to read the entire Book of Mormon before general conference in April. I also studied a lot about God's influence and about His hand in our lives and how He always reaches out with love. No matter what our situation or story, every time it is with love.

Another great thing this past week was our first practice with the mission choir on Friday. I auditioned and made it into the choir as an alto awhile back. I am so excited for this opportunity but I soon felt very under qualified as we practiced. Hopefully God helps me out with that like He always does ;)

Sunday night was a blessing in my life. We had the amazing opportunity to have supper with our mission president and his wife at their home! We ate moose and creamed corn - it was so much fun! They are the best people and I am so blessed to be here in this mission serving with them.

Something I have been thinking a lot about lately is our thought patterns. A lot of our life revolves around our thoughts. A thought leads to an action which leads to a habit. If we get caught up in a negative thought process we will find ourselves getting stuck in a rut. I have found myself doing this way too often. Satan uses everything in his power against us to drag us down. I have given into his negative thoughts that I can't do it - that I'm not enough or that I don't know anything. I discovered this was weighing down on my self-confidence. This past week we had our interviews with President Cowley and he reminded me of a scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 121:45-46 that reads:

"45 Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distill upon thy soul as the dews from heaven.
46 The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever."

I love this scripture! It was exactly what I needed to hear. He reminded me that the more I seek for God's influence in my mind through favorite hymns, primary songs, favorite scriptures, etc. the less influence Satan will have and the less I will give into those negative thinking patterns. Our Heavenly Father wants us to let virtue garnish our thoughts unceasingly. By doing so, our confidence will wax strong and the Holy Ghost will be our constant companion. What beautiful promises made to us by simply keeping our thoughts aligned with the Saviors. I know that the more we try to feel God's influence and focus our thoughts on the Savior, the more we will feel His spirit in our lives. I also know that we will achieve greater strength against the adversary and be more open to the spirit's influence and God's guiding hand in our lives.

Another thing I studied this week that really struck me was Elder Brook P. Hales conference address, "Answers to Prayers." The overall message was all about the love that our Heavenly Father has for us and how perfect that love is. One manifestation of that love is how involved God is in the details of our lives! I love that and am a true believer in this. One thing I have tried to do on my mission is keep a tender mercy journal. This has allowed for me to see just how involved He is all the time and how willing He is to bless us ALWAYS! Heavenly Father knows ALL. Because He knows all, He knows the best answers to our questions to give to us when we pray. This has been a hard lesson for me to learn, but over time it has gotten easier as I put my full trust in Him. We will always get answers to our prayers. Sometimes our answers might not be what we expect, and sometimes we may think God isn't listening or answering us. We have to pray for the eyes to see and the heart to understand. With that being said, there are some things we just won't get answers to in this life, but we are promised that knowledge in our life to come. When we do receive answers we aren't expecting we have to choose to trust God. He sees the end from the beginning. He has "eternal lenses with an eternal perspective" and we have "mortal lenses hopefully with an eternal perspective." He knows what is best for us and maybe we won't always understand, but that is the beauty of faith. As hard as it is to accept sometimes, I've learned that I just have to trust Him and pray for the strength to get through anything that is placed in my path.

I bear my simply testimony of God's influence in the details of our lives! I love that I have such a loving Heavenly Father and know He is so merciful and aware of me all the time!

Have an amazing week everyone! Love and miss you lots! Put a smile on your face because God is so good!!!

Love, Sister Merrill