January 4, 2014

Haha, this is one of our members that we taught. We decided to take a picture after our meeting - on the couch they were getting rid of outside of the house, haha!

Happy Winter! So this week has been pretty crazy and pretty cold! Last week church got cancelled because of the cold and this week church got cancelled again! :( This is like the worst thing ever!!! I don't care how cold it is, I just want to go to church! Haha I keep thinking to myself, the pioneers traveled all across the country in the freezing cold without any shoes to make it to church... haha huh. Welp. Next week we better have church because I'm having withdrawals! Again I never thought I'd say that, but really church is the best!  

So I've been learning a ton of spanish from Hermana Pelaez and I think by the end of this transfer I'm gonna be at least six weeks better at spanish than I was before! Haha this week I've been working on the body parts in spanish and everyone who sees us walking around probably thinks we're crazy because I tromp my feet and with every step I say, peas! peas! (because that's feet in spanish) and then I hold up my hands and wiggle my fingers and say manos! and pat my head and say cabeza! cabella, ojos, oidos, majillas, boca! haha it's been great fun. I started making phone calls in spanish to, which is like a huge step because if you can imagine it being hard to understand spanish face to face, imagine it muffled through a phone! But! I'm making phone calls! In spanish!!! ha! 

So, one thing I've learned while being out on a mission is that it's hard. Yep, missions are hard, and you go through a TON of trials. But I've realized that I don't think that there will be a time in my life where there won't be trials. "In all things there is opposition". You gotta know the bad to know the good! I've come to find out that through all the trials I've seen what matters most to me and how to truly be happy, and that is the gospel of Jesus Christ and following the commandments! I'm learning how to be brave and courageous in the face of opposition and I'm learning how to love no matter what! So mom sends me awesome quotes and one of them has just stuck with me these last couple weeks and I can't remember the exact wording but it says that God doesn't put you in any battle that you can't overcome. You are put in situations that God knows you can handle, which says a lot! And then I think of the quote by Mother Teresa and  she puts it perfectly when she says "I wish God didn't trust me so much!" Haha I think of that sometimes and it makes me laugh. 

Through all things we can be made better and we can come to know the truth that everything that happens to us is for a reason. A trial is a test of faith, another opportunity to grow and to change. I think that if we weren't ever put into opposition we would never know our true potential because we would never put ourselves in those situations because we knew that they would be hard. 

... I wonder if before we came to this Earth we sat down with Heavenly Father, pulled out a catalog labeled "opposition opportunities" and we picked them out together. I can just imagine us looking at it and I'm like "oh! this one sounds fun!" haha 

Well, I have a testimony that this life for us is picked out perfectly by our Heavenly Father so that we have every opportunity to learn and grow and feel happiness in our lives, and to be happy now and in eternity despite all the opposition! 

One of my MTC trainers sent me an email that is awesome! It's a story about one of the prophets, Willford Woodruf, and one of his experiences as a missionary and the opposition he went through and came out stronger! 

GO MISSIONARY WORK!  

From: Josh Hardy (my MTC teacher)
TRUE IDENTITY (I believe this is one of the greatest examples of what that means)

“A Desire to Go and Preach the Gospel”

Determined to keep the covenants he made at baptism, Wilford Woodruff was a willing instrument in the Lord’s hands, always ready to do His will. In late 1834 he “had a desire to go and preach the Gospel,” 17 and he received a call to serve in the southeastern United States. He knew that trials awaited him and that his life could be in danger as he traveled, but he found strength in his testimony and faith. He later recalled: “I knew the Gospel which the Lord had revealed to Joseph Smith was true, and of such great value that I wanted to tell it to the people who had not heard it. It was so good and plain, it seemed to me I could make the people believe it.”

18 When Wilford Woodruff began his first mission, he was a recently ordained priest in the Aaronic Priesthood. His companion, who had been ordained an elder, stayed with him through the early trials of the mission but soon became discouraged and returned to his home in Kirtland, Ohio. Left alone in an unfamiliar land, Wilford prayed for help and continued his missionary labors, wading through swamps and wetlands. He finally arrived in the city of Memphis, Tennessee, “weary and hungry.” 19 In his first missionary experience there, he spoke to a large audience. He recounted:

“I went to the best tavern [or inn] in the place, kept by Mr. Josiah Jackson. I told him I was a stranger, and had no money. I asked him if he would keep me over night. He asked me what my business was. I told him I was a preacher of the Gospel. He laughed, and said that I did not look much like a preacher. I did not blame him, as all the preachers he had ever been acquainted with rode on fine horses or in fine carriages, clothed in broadcloth, and had large salaries, and would see this whole world sink to perdition before they could wade through one hundred and seventy miles of mud to save the people.

“The landlord wanted a little fun, so he said he would keep me if I would preach. He wanted to see if I could preach. I must confess that by this time I became a little mischievous, and pled with him not to set me preaching. The more I pled to be excused, the more determined Mr. Jackson was that I should preach. …

“I sat down in a large hall to eat supper. Before I got through, the room began to be filled by some of the rich and fashionable of Memphis, dressed in their broadcloth and silk, while my appearance was such as you can imagine, after traveling through the mud as I had been. When I had finished eating, the table was carried out of the room over the heads of the people. I was placed in the corner of the room, with a stand having a Bible, hymn book and candle on it, hemmed in by a dozen men, with the landlord in the center. There were present some five hundred persons who had come together, not to hear a Gospel sermon but to have some fun. … How would you like this position? On your first mission, without a companion or friend, and to be called upon to preach to such a congregation? With me it was one of the most pleasing hours of my life, although I felt as though I should like company.

“I read a hymn, and asked them to sing. Not a soul would sing a word. I told them I had not the gift of singing; but with the help of the Lord, I would both pray and preach. I knelt down to pray, and the men around me dropped on their knees. I prayed to the Lord to give me his Spirit and to show me the hearts of the people. I promised the Lord in my prayer I would deliver to that congregation whatever He would give to me. I arose and spoke one hour and a half, and it was one of the best sermons of my life.

“The lives of the congregation were opened to the vision of my mind, and I told them of their wicked deeds and the reward they would obtain. The men who surrounded me dropped their heads. Three minutes after I closed I was the only person in the room.

“Soon I was shown to a bed, in a room adjoining a large one in which were assembled many of the men whom I had been preaching to. I could hear their conversation. One man said he would like to know how that Mormon boy knew of their past lives. In a little while they got to disputing about some doctrinal point. One suggested calling me to decide the point. The landlord said, ‘no; we have had enough for once.’

“In the morning, I had a good breakfast. The landlord said if I came that way again to stop at his house, and stay as long as I might choose.”

20 In November 1836, Wilford Woodruff completed his mission in the southeastern United States. He recorded in his journal that in 1835 and 1836 he had traveled 9,805 miles, held 323 meetings, organized 4 branches of the Church, baptized 70 people and confirmed 62, performed 11 priesthood ordinations, and healed 4 people by the laying on of hands and that he had been delivered from the hands of 6 different mobs. 21 He was ordained an elder in June 1835 and a Seventy in May 1836.

When Elder Woodruff returned to Kirtland, he found that many Church members there had fallen into apostasy and were speaking against the Prophet Joseph Smith. “In the time of the apostasy in Kirtland,” he later said, “Joseph Smith hardly knew when he met a man, unless the Spirit of God revealed it to him, whether he was friend or foe. Most of the leading men were fighting him.”

22 Even “in the midst of that darkness,” 23 Wilford Woodruff remained true to the Prophet and true to his own determination to preach the gospel. He was called to the First Quorum of the Seventy, and in that capacity he continued to testify of the truth, traveling to conferences in the area. After he had been in Kirtland for less than a year, he followed a prompting to serve a full-time mission on the Fox Islands, just off the coast of the state of Maine. He said:

“The Spirit of God said to me, ‘You choose a partner and go straight to Fox Islands.’ Well, I knew no more what was on Fox Islands than what was on Kolob. But the Lord told me to go, and I went. I chose Jonathan H. Hale, and he went with me. We cast out some devils there, preached the Gospel and performed some miracles. … I got to Fox Islands, and did a good work there.” 24 When Elder Woodruff arrived at the Fox Islands, he found “a people there wishing for the ancient order of things.” He later reported, “Without dwelling upon it, I will say I baptized over 100 while there.” 25

(OTHER EXCERPT HERE:)

“On the 24th, while in the swamps, I had an attack of the rheumatism, and could not travel fast. My companion, Brother Brown, had got in a hurry, and wished to return to his family in Kirtland; and as I could not travel as fast as he wished, we parted. He left me sitting on a log in the mud and water; I was lame and unable to walk, without food, and twelve miles from the nearest house on the road. He went out of sight in great haste. I then knelt down in the water, and prayed to the Lord to heal me. The Spirit of the Lord rested upon me, and I was healed; the pain left me; I arose and went my way. Whenever I met with one or more families, I preached and bore testimony to them.

I crossed the Mississippi River [to Memphis, Tennessee] in the evening of the 27th of March, and stayed at a public house kept by Mr. Josiah Jackson. I was suspected of being an impostor. Mr. Jackson believed I was one of Murril's clan, who were then murdering and stealing negroes; and to test me, he gathered together a large house full of the most wicked and corrupt people in the city, and set me to preaching, to see whether I could preach or not.

I do not think that Mr. Jackson, or the same company of men and women, will ever meet together again for the same purpose, for they would not like again to have their sins and abominations revealed to each other as pointedly as I told them that night, through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost; they were glad to get rid of me upon almost any terms.”

Have a happy warm week! Enjoy the life you've got! Always look for opportunities to serve one another! We've all got trials to go through, but through love and support of each other and relying on the Lord we can get through everything! YA! 
STAY STRONG! 

LOVE YOU ALL! 

Love, Hermana Ficklin