Sister Syd: Canada Week 31: I know that my Redeemer Lives!

Hello! I hope everyone had a memorable week full of love and peace from General Conference last weekend in preparation for Easter. I also hope everyone had a wonderful Easter and was able to reflect on our Savior Jesus Christ and His resurrection.

My week was adventurous as always! Quarantine continues to be a learning process as a missionary. Luckily the church recently developed a new app for missionaries to use in hopes to help with finding ideas and the use of technology and social media. It has been cool to receive training on it everyday. The switch to digital missionary work is definitely different and amazing at the same time. With the new technology usage we are now able to reach out and find people in so many ways and places. Through social media we will be able to reach so many all at the same time. The idea of being able to bring so many people closer to Christ is INCREDIBLE! I am grateful for this unique time to be a missionary and to learn and grow even more!

Unfortunately most of our lessons fell through this week...but we were able to reach out to a few people from our lists and formers and found a couple to set up lessons and meetings with! God continues to be good! We were able to have one lesson. A member actually set it all up and called to let us know about it. How incredible is that?! It has been really neat to see the members work so hard when we aren't able to do what we were doing before the virus breakout. He also helped us during the lesson by going over there so we could video chat the gentleman we had a lesson with. We had the wonderful opportunity to share our testimonies of our Savior Jesus Christ and His resurrection with him. We shared the scriptures in Mosiah 16 that state:

"6 And now if Christ had not come into the world, speaking of things to come as though they had already come, there could have been no redemption.
7 And if Christ had not risen from the dead, or have broken the bands of death that the grave should have no victory, and that death should have no sting, there could have been no resurrection
8 But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ.
9 He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death."
What a beautiful set of versus. All things are made possible through Christ! He overcame even death! We will all LIVE AGAIN! He truly is the light and life of the world and that light is endless!

Being stuck inside for most of the day gets a little mundane so we look forward to our daily walks outside! We have been able to explore our little town and find some fun paths to explore. We found a trail that has random outdoor exercise machines - pretty cool but hard right now with the virus going around. We have had time to come up with some activities for members and their families to do. We have also been brainstorming ideas of how to get more members involved in this great work. It was a fun week! :)

We had the opportunity to go to a member's house to partake of the sacrament yesterday. While there we read through the story of Christ raising Lazarus from the dead. We discussed the significance of that miracle and noted that Christ waited four days before performing that miracle in hopes that it would strengthen their faith. One thing that has always particularly stuck out to me is the verse is that it states that Jesus Wept. What a powerful statement. Jesus Christ truly empathizes with us. He feels what we feel - He understands what we are going through - He mourns with us. It was a special sacrament full of enlightening promises and a beautiful spirit.

As for my studies this week, a few things stuck out that I feel so inspired to share. I studied a talk given by Kevin W. Pearson about improving our personal prayers with our Heavenly Father. He stated that, "prayer is often a brief communication, but it can also be an open and continuous dialogue all throughout the day and night" It made me think of Enos and his earnest desire to communicate with God to be forgiven. Pearson points out that prayer is an essential spiritual link between God and man, because without prayer there is no possible way to return to the Father. Prayer is how we gain sufficient faith to understand and keep commandments. Prayer provides so many gifts in our lives! It can strengthen our faith - give us the power to overcome things - help us to forgive and be forgiven - give us the power to overcome trials and adversity - enable us to access to the powers of the atonement - plus so many more! Prayer is about aligning our will with the Lords. A quote I loved from my prayer study said, "Prayer is less about changing our circumstances and more about changing us. It is about seeking His will and asking for His help to do what we need to do." I am so grateful for the ability we have to have constant communication with our Heavenly Father!

Another thing I studied this week was about the Spirit and the ways He works. A couple of the "fruits of the spirit" so to speak that stuck out to me were that the Spirit has the ability to replace darkness with light. I kept thinking about the darkness that is surrounding so much with this worldwide pandemic we are all experiencing and how the more we turn to and rely on the Lord, the more light He will let into our lives. It only takes the faith the size of a mustard seed. Something else that stuck out to me was that the Spirit has the ability to help us know what to pray for. He discerns things and helps us to understand what we need to change or work on or what we should focus our prayer's attention on. Sometimes we don't always know what to say and the beautiful thing is that our Heavenly Father already knows what we are trying to say. With the Spirit's help and guidance we will know what we need to do!

I just want to end by bearing my simple testimony that I know my Redeemer lives! He died and rose again! He suffered for each and every one of us individually. He knows and understands what we are feeling at all times. He went below what we will suffer. He weeps with us. I know that through the resurrection He overcame death. Because of Him we will all have opportunity to live again! I know He loves each and every one of us with an incomprehensible and perfect love!

I love and miss you all! Stay safe out there!

Love, Sister Merrill