A Missionary's Tale......there & back again.: If You Have More Faith, You Will Have More Success!

Merry Late Christmas!

This week was pretty cool. We started off by going to zone conference in North York, and we learned a lot about having the faith to baptize. There was something President said that really stuck out to me. "This new year 2017 is a good time to recommit to pursue your mission purpose with more faith in Jesus Christ. The people of Ontario need Christ. You are His agents to invite them to accept His gospel, be baptized, and change their lives. Their mortal and eternal lives will be blessed by your diligence and faithfulness. Remember President Uchtdorf's talk: "these two missionaries had faith, and they were committed. They had the attitude that if no one listened to their message, it would not be because they had not given their best effort. President Uchtdorf also said: "Those who are inpatient, uncommitted, or careless may find faith to be elusive. Those who are easily discouraged or distracted may hardly experience it. Faith comes to the humble, the diligent, the enduring. It comes to those who pay the price of faithfulness." Please pay the price of faithfulness. You will never be disappointed! I have been counseled to tell the missionaries that if they have more faith, they will have more success. So, I am telling you: if you have more faith, you will have more success."

We also got to go on exchanges with our sister training leaders at the end of the week. I learned a lot about just being patient and trying to enjoy the work on exchanges.

Christmas was really fun! Sister Barrow and I made Christmas cards with old Christmas pass-a-long cards and then we taped candy canes on them and gave them out to members and less-active members. We almost got caught a couple of times...we were walking up to one door just as the members' son was walking out. So we turned around and ran the other direction...luckily I don't think he saw us. We had to stand awkwardly around the corner of the house until he left though, haha. After we finished the Christmas cards, we went to our sister training leaders' apartment and we spent Christmas Eve there. We opened up our presents and sang Christmas songs. On Christmas Day, we went to church and then we had three dinner appointments. We were not hungry or lonely. :) Of course, the highlight of the day was Skyping my family! It was so good to see their faces and hear their voices!

Yesterday, we locked ourselves out of our apartment, went tracting in the rain, and almost died on the ice that came through in a storm the night before. Haha, one of us had to stand at the bottom of the stairs and hold onto the other while she climbed up the porch stairs, and then the one who had climbed up the stairs would grab the other one's coat and hang onto her while she climbed up so we didn't slip. I'm sure it was quite entertaining for everyone present. :)

I've been reading in the last few chapters of Alma the past couple of days, and as I've read the importance of continually strengthening our testimonies has stood out to me. A lot of the chapters talk about how Moroni continually strengthens and fortifies every city, even if it's not a time of war. We shouldn't have to wait for difficult times before we start focusing on the strength of our testimonies. I also thought it was interesting that Amalickiah tried to go after the weak cities, but it never worked because Moroni had been working to strengthen them. Satan will try to go after the weak spots in our testimonies too, so that's why we need to always be doing what it says in Ether 12:27 (working with the Lord and using the Atonement to turn them into strengths).

Have a great week!

Sister Dille