Desire, Belief, Work, and Blessings

Date: Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2009


Hello Family!!

This week was a wonderful week. Before I forget, I am staying in Mainz with Sister Cutler, and in addition to that we are getting a 3rd companion, Sister Ashby from Southern California. I am excited I feel like we will see a lot of success together.

Speaking of success, we got two new investigators!! So I talked about Sulay last week, and our other new investigator is Shan Pan from China. We contacted her on the university and when we met with her she said that she had had experiences in her life that made her think that there was a God. Also, in the past week she said that she had decided she really did want to know more about God, and then we contacted her. Then she said, "I think God sent you to me." We said, "Yes, He did." The spirit was there and it was so neat. I love bringing the gospel to those that are searching. I love telling people their relationship to God and how much he loves them and wants to be a part of their life. Teaching the gospel brings more happiness than I have ever known. I guess the happiness comes from feeling the Spirit, and the Spirit is there when we testify of Gods truth. It reminds me of "Teaching, no greater call." The Spirit, no greater feeling. The Spirit brings in the joy, the love, the peace, the knowledge God wants us to enjoy. We also met with one of the less actives we have been working with and he told us that he has realized he is behind and wants to catch up. He wants to prepare himself to go through the temple. I got so exctied when he told us that. It is so neat to see the change that is happening in him. He wants the Spirit more with him. On his wall he has a lot of pictures and posters of his favorite movies, but last week I noticed a new collage. It was pictures of the Savior he had cut out and put nicely together. It made me smile inside and out. He is on his way to having the Spirit more in his life.

This morning I read 1 Nephi 11:1. And I have been thinking about the formula there for the past little while. That is desire, belief, work, and then the blessings. It all starts with desire, desiring what God wants for us (right now for me it is getting investigators that will progress to be baptized), and then actually believing that it´s true (believing that there are actually people out there that God has prepared to hear the gospel and be baptized), then doing the work necessary for that desire, that belief to come true (actually going out and talking to people, and improving teaching skills to meet their needs better so eventually they will accept and believe the gospel), then once we do all that God blesses us. This formula is throughout the scriptures (Alma 32:27-28, Moroni 10:4-5, D&C 130:20-21 and others). If we really want something, and have our minds and hearts believe that it can actually happen, then do our part to show our sincerity and faith, God will bless us accordingly. I think I just explained the same thing like 10 times, but I typed as it was coming to me and as it started making even more sense. Anyway, that was my little insight for today.

I love you family, and may God be with you til we meet again.

Love,
Sister Fitzgerald