Hello from the wonderful cold, winter wonderland of the Great White North! I hope everyone had a good week and that you smiled at least once! It is always an adventure up here in Canada for sure. My week wasn't too crazy, and as always, full of missionary fun and love. Here are some of my thoughts and testimony from the week.
I am so excited to say that one of my little best friends here, Brady Bryanton, received permission from his mom be baptized! WHAT A MIRACLE! We are still working with him and his family and it would be greatly appreciated if you could keep them in your prayers. As for the other friends we are teaching, we were only able to teach a couple lessons this week. One lesson that was really good was with Tresor. We have been able to meet with him a couple times, and he always has really solid questions and a great desire to learn and really understand the gospel for himself. It is incredible and I can't wait to see what God has in store for him. Agency can sometimes be tricky to work with, and I often wonder how God has the patience for it. Then I think about what a beautiful gift agency is, and how much it means to witness someone CHOOSE to follow Christ!
This week we were blessed with some fun activities and service. We helped some of our ward members with their Christmas chocolates. They have a family tradition making Christmas chocolates and caramels and invited us to help them. We spent a lot of time dipping, rolling, cutting and packaging - it was so fun! They then sell some of them, but give most of them away. Talk about a nice service full of love! Friday and Saturday we went on exchanges with some sisters in our zone that Sister Hill and I are STL's over. It was nice to have them come and visit us in Drayton Valley. We all went and carved pumpkins with a member in our ward. We were joking that it seemed weird to be carving pumpkins with lots of snow on the ground, and then just ended up laughing about Canada's crazy weather. It will be a fun memory!
My thoughts this week have revolved around God's mercy. What is mercy? When I think of mercy I think of compassion. Mercy goes beyond love. God will never stop loving us, even though He may be unhappy with some of the choices we make. When it comes time to meet God, I think His mercy will be conditioned upon our agency, and if we chose to fully repent when given the chance. I also think about God being a just God. If He wasn't a just God then we wouldn't need mercy. We had a discussion on this topic with some missionaries this week and concluded with the following scripture:
2 Nephi 2:13
"And if ye shall say there is no law, ye shall also say there is no sin. If ye shall say there is no sin, ye shall also say there is no righteousness. And if there be no righteousness there be no happiness. And if there be no righteousness nor happiness there be no punishment nor misery. And if these things are not there is no God. And if there is no God we are not, neither the earth; for there could have been no creation of things, neither to act nor to be acted upon; wherefore, all things must have vanished away."
Another thought I had about God's love and mercy stems from trial and hardship. So many people often wonder why God? Why this, why now, why me? Why, why, why? Sometimes we fail to remember that it is BECAUSE He loves us that He allows trials to happen. I like this quote by Richard G. Scott that says, "When the trials are not consequences of your disobedience, they are evidences that the Lord feels you are prepared to grow more!" Trials are evidences. Have you ever asked God for evidence - for a sign that He is listening or that He cares or truly loves you? This is when we can take a look at our lives - the good and the bad - and ponder upon things that have led us to where we are now. There will always be evidence that God loves each of us. Sometimes it can even be as simple as recognizing the details of coming to Earth at this time. This is the exact time that God needed you to be here throughout all generations of time. You are each so loved by God. I can PROMISE you that!
I hope that we can all put on our eternal glasses and remember WHOSE we are. I tend to let myself get wrapped up in the complexities of things, or in being a perfectionist. I have also learned that Satan loves using this against me. But of this I am sure - GOD LOVES US PERFECTLY! He isn't holding us to some level. Even if there is a "mark" we need to attain, He will never be disappointed that we missed it. He simply wants us to just keep trying!
I love you all and miss you all. Thank you for all the sweet messages, emails, love and support. It truly means more than you know!
Love, Sister Merrill <3
Making chocolates!
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