Saturday, June 18, 2016

June 13, 2016

Hi family!

How is everyone! Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a good week. I am
so grateful for the opportunity that I have to sit down and write to
y'all today. It's been quite a week. To be honest, I am mentally,
physically, emotionally, and spiritually exhausted. Missions really
take a toll on you I've decided. My feet kill. My back hurts all the
time. It's just a struggle. But, I'm grateful for every trial and
especially grateful that sisters only serve for 18 months. I don't
think our bodies could take any longer. :) God definitely knew what he
was doing. Plus, the elders just need an extra 6 months anyways, so it
all works out. It's always nice when Monday comes around and when I
get to sit down and relax for a few hours. I am grateful that Heavenly
Father gave us preparation days.
This week was just another week. So many things happen each day that
when I try to reflect back on what happened, it's just all a big blur.
So many things happen everyday that it's just hard to keep track. I
guess the most exciting news of the week was seeing our lovely Nicole
get confirmed yesterday! It was so magical. She had a really rough
week and Satan was definitely trying to snatch her, but of course, she
remained strong and faithful and received the Holy Ghost. It was a
beautiful experience. Every time the words "receive the Holy Ghost"
are uttered, a beautiful feeling comes over me and reminds me of my
own baptism day. I am so grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost that
I have. It's one of my bestest friends. I hope each of you feel the
same way about that special gift that we have been given. Nicole was
absolutely glowing and beaming all day. She is so happy and so proud
to be a member of the church. Everyone is just clinging to her and
bringing her in. My YSA ward is really great and I've met some amazing
people and have formed some amazing friendships. I am so excited to
see Nicole tonight at FHE . The more I see her, the happier I am.
She's just my kind of person. Another one of those people that I just
cannot wait for you to meet. I've already told her all about you guys
and she is excited too! Thanks so much for keeping her in your
prayers! She was my miracle!
We were able to do a lot of community service this past week and that
definitely filled my spiritual bucket. During the day from 10-4, we
are really slow and are having a hard time! No one is home because all
of the singles are working. President encouraged us to fill some of
those day time hours with service! It's been such a blessing and we
have seen tons of miracles come. This past week we scheduled a service
project with our YSA ward and went to a place called Second Harvest
Food Bank. All of us got together in this giant warehouse and sorted
through so much food and had a blast! We went through this big
orientation process and learned how to determine good food verses bad
food, and then we either threw out the bad, or placed the good in
their labeled bins. I was heart broken at how much food we had to
waste. Oh my goodness! I was just thinking about all my babies in
Haiti who would die to have all of the food that we were throwing
away. If any of the cans were dented or if the boxes were ripped or
anything, we had to toss it out. Anyways, it was a really neat
experience for us and really brought us closer to our ward family.
Serving definitely brings unity. When I get home I really want to do
more community service by myself, and as a family. So many blessings
come! Christ said it is more blessed to give than to receive, and I
have seen that to be very true! (Acts 20:35)
We were able to meet a few new people and teach quite a few lessons.
Some of which were really good, and some of which were not all that
great. We had a really good zone meeting and the theme was "GOLD." We
talked about how we can find the golden investigators, like Nicole,
that God is preparing. We talked a lot about visions, goals, and
plans, and how as we are working diligently and planning effectively,
we will be led to those who are searching for the truth. I have such a
strong testimony that God really is preparing his children, but it
takes a lot of faith and effort on our part to find them. That's the
challenge. We are meeting tons of great people, but I don't know how
elect and golden they are. I guess if anything, it's another contact
with the church and one day they will be ready to accept the gospel.
However, we do have a few people that we are working with who we
really feel are "golden" and we are excited for their progress!
Damon is our next potential. He is doing so great! He's just the
cutest little thing. This past week we were able to teach him the plan
of salvation and brought two members with us. We used the little
cutouts and he loved them! He was saying things and answering
questions and it just seemed like he was already a member. That's when
you know they are elect, when they are saying the right things and
it's all making sense to them. He absolutely loved the plan of
salvation and accepted a baptismal date of July 3rd! We are so
excited! We are really praying that he can be our next baptism. I have
great faith in him. He was found by Elder and Sister Garlick and I
know that they were supposed to meet him that day at the grocery
store. I love how intertwined God's hand is in our lives.
Just yesterday we witnessed so many miracles. We definitely saw the
tender mercies of the Lord. Sunday's always bring the biggest
miracles. Not only did Nicole get confirmed, but we had four
investigators at church! The members are really stepping up their
game. I think since they all experienced Nicole's baptism, it got them
all excited and they have such a greater desire to do missionary work.
Everyone had a spark go off inside of them or something! Two of the
investigators that came have been working with some other sisters in a
different area, but are YSA age and want to start coming to our ward.
They are coming to FHE tonight and I am super excited. They are
Hispanic, but they speak English really well. They want to get
baptized in July and I am really excited for their progress. They also
came to the mission presidents fireside a few weeks ago and really
enjoyed that. They are "golden." I can just feel it. The other two
investigators that came are just friends of the members and they both
agreed to start meeting with us. I'm telling you, church brings so
many miracles. If you could just get people to attend church, the
spirit will touch their hearts and most of them end up wanting to hear
more. I am super excited for this week and for the lessons that we
already have set up. That always makes it nice when we have set
lessons. I think it's going to be a really good week. I'm just feeling
it. So hot and so humid, but we got this. I may or may not die of heat
exhaustion, so you best keep me in your prayers please. Oh also,
Charlotte driving is CRAZY and we almost died like 10 times this week
so if you could pray that we are safe, that would be really great!
Thanks!
As my subject stated, I decided to attempt surgery on myself again
haha. This past week my toe started kind of acting up again and so I
decided to try to fix it. I think I'm super nervous to go to the
doctor and get shots and get it checked out because of all of the
horror stories that I've heard, but I may just need to humble myself
and do it before they have to end up like cutting my whole toe off
haha. I think I really succeed this time, but if it comes back again,
I have to give in and go. I can't afford to have it hurt on my
mission. Not happening. So, you can pray for that as well haha.
Well, let's see, sorry this is super all over the place. I've been
starting and stopping this email a lot today. We are at the church
playing basketball and someone brought a guitar... And I've been a
little bit distracted. :) I'll try to wrap this up with some of the
things that I've learned this week and hopefully leave y'all with a
little spiritual thought.
Lately I have been thinking a lot about faith, and a lot about
blessings. Saturday night Sister Nunies and I got a call around 9 pm
and got asked to teach RS last minute. Of course we said yes, and we
ended up planning a short lesson. It was on the law of tithing. As we
really started studying and thinking about it, it made me realize how
important it is that we ACT first, before the blessing comes. I gained
such a strong testimony of tithing and that's what I kind of wanted to
just briefly share with you today.
Tithing is an ancient, divine law. It has been given to us since the
very beginning of time. It shouldn't be something that is shocking or
new to us. It's been a commandment from the very beginning and it is
first mentioned in Genesis. The Lord gave the law of tithing. If we
follow his law, we prosper, but when we find what we think is a better
way, we meet failure. Why would you risk not paying tithing? You
basically would just be setting yourself up for failure. Whomever
rejects the law of the tithe is the man who has not given it a fair
try. President Hunter once said, "A testimony of the law of tithing
comes from living it." You must try it.
He also said, "If one thoughtfully observes the proselyting done by
the missionaries, the teaching program of the Church, the great
educational system, and the building program to erect houses of
worship, there will come a realization that it is not a burden to pay
tithing, but a great privilege." As I started thinking about that, I
started thinking about all of the things that we get to use and that
we have, and a lot of it is because of the tithing that the faithful
members pay. When Elder Zwick came to our mission, he said that a
temple in Charlotte would be built, if we could get more faithful
tithing payers here. We have so much work to do!
"Pay an honest tithing. This eternal law, revealed by the Lord and
practiced by the faithful from the ancient prophets down to the
present, teaches us to put the Lord first in our lives. We may not be
asked to sacrifice our homes or our lives, as was the case with the
early Saints. We are challenged today to overcome our selfishness. We
pay tithing because we love the Lord, not because we have the means to
do so. We can expect that the Lord will open “the windows of heaven”
(Malachi 3:10) and shower down blessings upon the faithful. We cannot
afford to deny ourselves these blessings. We cannot afford not to pay
our tithing. What we give, and how we give, and the way we meet our
obligations to the Lord has eternal significance."
I want to just invite each of you to make a greater effort to pay an
honest tithe. I promise you will be blessed. It has been really hard
being on my mission and not being able to experience the blessings
that have come from tithing. I have really tired to pay a really good
fast offering to make up for those blessings and I have seen the
increase! I promise that it's worth paying a generous fast offering as
well!
If you are struggling to pay your tithing or struggling with anything
else, immerse yourself in the very things that helped build your core
of faith: you exercise faith in Christ, you pray, you ponder the
scriptures, you repent, you keep the commandments, and you serve
others.
In Ether 12:6, it reads, "And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat
concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is
things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not
because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of
your faith." TRY IT! TRY paying tithing and you will see the blessings
come!!
I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!! I hope you have a great week!! Sending you
all my love!

Sister Worthington

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