Monday April 23, 2012 9:23 AM
The Lord My Pasture Will Prepare
I love you all so much and I am so thankful for all the letters I have received!
Tada! It's preparation day. It seriously goes by too fast. I now have less than a year left on the mission (what?!) Crazy! We have had quite the adventure this Preparation day! WE decided that we wanted to go to the Callier chocolate factory, which is a bit less than two hours away by train(s). SO COOL! Actually, the coolest part was just seeing Switzerland....it’s seriously unbelievable beautiful here. As Spring continues to come, there are wildflowers all over the place, which I pick almost every day. :) The world is green and the mountain tops are still white as can be, and many of the fields are full of yellow flowers. As we got off the train the little town where the chocolaterie is, the air is potent with the smell of chocolate....yummmmm! In the tour, they tell you all about the history of chocolate, and specifically Swiss chocolate (you will all recognize the name Nestle...yep, from Switzerland) They let you taste the cocoa beans from all over the world (still not as legit as when Spencer took us to that member's house in Peru and we ate the cacao there, but that is what it reminded me of!) and all of the chocolate you want! Grandma Dayton asked me in a letter she sent if the scenery here looks anything like the Sound of Music...and that would be an affirmative! The hilllllsss are aliveeeee laaaaaa!!!
Next pday we might go to the cheese factory in Gruyère. I am getting more and more convinced that happy cows also come fromSwitzerland.
So, this week, I came to the firm and steady conclusion that the key to happiness and peace in this life is living in conformity with the first principles and ordinances of the gospel, namely faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. Something I have talked about countless times, but it is so profound to me. I loved the talk in General Conference about being active in the church, and active in the Gospel. I am convinced that in order to be active in the Gospel, we must be constantly nourished by the good word of Christ, and invoke the Father in prayer. We really did learn everything we need to know in Primary....but why is it still sometimes so hard to do? This week we helped a woman in our ward clean her small apartment where she lives with her husband and five children. This good member loves her family, and like so many of us wants to do what is right and help them however she can, but she is just so tired, and honestly doesn't always know what to do. The unity she said they once had in her family is dissipating, as well as the faith of some of her family members. Not to mention that she and her husband both work, and they hardly get to see each other. My heart was filled with compassion for this woman, who is trying her best just to make it through every day without crying. As we discussed a spiritual message at the end of our visit, it became obvious to me that I needed to invite her to begin again to read her scriptures with her family, and to kneel in prayer each and every day. From the way she reacted, it was obvious to me that it has been a long time since these simple family traditions have been observed in their household, aside from prayers at mealtime. I am convinced that if we as families and individuals will commit ourselves to a specified tradition of individual and personal prayer and scripture study, we will have more harmony in our homes, more peace in our daily activities, a greater portion of the Spirit, and we will have the Spirit to be our constant companion and protection against the destroyer. The Lord has truly given us all we need to navigate through this difficult life, all we need is to accept it.
Later on that day, I was additionally humbled as we taught the 8 year old son of a woman from Equador, who would like to be baptized. She and her husband live in their car with their three children, who until today actually, had not had any schooling. Though these children may not know the same things that their peers of the same age do, they do know how to pray, and they know how to love. This dear woman bore her sweet testimony two Sunday ago, and it was an expression of gratitude and hope. Blessed are the humble.
Later that day still, we met with a man who is homeless. He left his home country and his family, and is alone here in Switzerland, searching every day for food to eat, a place to sleep, but more importantly peace in his heart. He wanted to know what we could tell him about Christianity, because he said he thought it might help him find peace. We gave him the Book of Mormon in his language. We saw him from a distance later on in the day get on the bus, and clasped firmly in his hand was the Book of Mormon, which he opened directly upon sitting down and read as if fully consumed in its pages. When we saw him by chance the next day on the bus, he told us 'I am so thankful for the book....it helps me consider things I have never considered before.' I asked him if he had prayed, which we had taught him how to do 'Oh yes, and I remembered how you said it didn't matter where I was or at what time I can always pray.'
I know that God lives and that Jesus is the Christ. I know that this life is difficult, but that is why Jesus did what He did for us, for we are all dear to the heart of the Shepherd. Change is possible. I would like to close with few statements from General Conference that I believe are of the utmost importance and worth. The first is from President Henry B. Eyring, First Counselor in the First Presidency of the Church. The link to this talk is below where you can see the references to the scriptures he quotes.
Many of you are now passing through physical, mental, and emotional trials that could cause you to cry out as did one great and faithful servant of God I knew well. His nurse heard him exclaim from his bed of pain, “When I have tried all my life to be good, why has this happened to me?”
You know how the Lord answered that question for the Prophet Joseph Smith in his prison cell:
“And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.
“The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?
“Therefore, hold on thy way, and the priesthood shall remain with thee; for their bounds are set, they cannot pass. Thy days are known, and thy years shall not be numbered less; therefore, fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever.”2
There seems to me no better answer to the question of why trials come and what we are to do than the words of the Lord Himself, who passed through trials for us more terrible than we can imagine.
You remember His words when He counseled that we should, out of faith in Him, repent:
“Therefore I command you to repent—repent, lest I smite you by the rod of my mouth, and by my wrath, and by my anger, and your sufferings be sore—how sore you know not, how exquisite you know not, yea, how hard to bear you know not.
“For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent;
“But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I;
“Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—
“Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men.”3
You and I have faith that the way to rise through and above trials is to believe that there is a “balm in Gilead”4 and that the Lord has promised, “I will not … forsake thee.”5 (President Eyring)
I know that through the Atonement of Christ, ALL mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel. The next talk is from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. I will just include the ending portion here and you can read the rest by following this link.
however late you think you are, however many chances you think you have missed, however many mistakes you feel you have made or talents you think you don’t have, or however far from home and family and God you feel you have traveled, I testify that you have not traveled beyond the reach of divine love. It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines.
Whether you are not yet of our faith or were with us once and have not remained, there is nothing in either case that you have done that cannot be undone. There is no problem which you cannot overcome. There is no dream that in the unfolding of time and eternity cannot yet be realized. Even if you feel you are the lost and last laborer of the eleventh hour, the Lord of the vineyard still stands beckoning. “Come boldly [to] the throne of grace,”3 and fall at the feet of the Holy One of Israel. Come and feast “without money and without price”4 at the table of the Lord.
I especially make an appeal for husbands and fathers, priesthood bearers or prospective priesthood bearers, to, as Lehi said, “Awake! and arise from the dust … and be men.”5 Not always but often it is the men who choose not to answer the call to “come join the ranks.”6 Women and children frequently seem more willing. Brethren, step up. Do it for your sake. Do it for the sake of those who love you and are praying that you will respond. Do it for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ, who paid an unfathomable price for the future He wants you to have.
My beloved brothers and sisters, to those of you who have been blessed by the gospel for many years because you were fortunate enough to find it early, to those of you who have come to the gospel by stages and phases later, and to those of you—members and not yet members—who may still be hanging back, to each of you, one and all, I testify of the renewing power of God’s love and the miracle of His grace. His concern is for the faith at which you finally arrive, not the hour of the day in which you got there.
So if you have made covenants, keep them. If you haven’t made them, make them. If you have made them and broken them, repent and repair them. It is never too late so long as the Master of the vineyard says there is time. Please listen to the prompting of the Holy Spirit telling you right now, this very moment, that you should accept the atoning gift of the Lord Jesus Christ and enjoy the fellowship of His labor. Don’t delay. It’s getting late. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. (Elder Holland)
All of my love, prayers, and gratitude,
Soeur Waldron
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