Monday, August 15, 2016

Never settle!

Bonjour Family & Friends!

Chantel was baptized on Friday!! She was super nervous and stressed before the baptism. The water heater didn't work so the water was really cold but she was super good about it! She was wearing a dress for her baptismal clothes so when they baptized her the first time, the dress came up out of the water. When I saw her dress pop out of the water I had "déjà vu" because the same thing happened to me at my baptism! When we told her that they had to baptize her again she was a little bit confused so she was all like, "no, no it's okay." We explained it to her and then after she was baptized again and it went well!! Afterwards, she said "I think it's a good thing that I was baptized "twice" because we know for sure that its exactly how God wanted it." She got confirmed on Sunday and she said she felt at peace. She really has so much faith and I am excited to see how her faith continues to grow!

Chantel's Baptism!

One of the cool miracles this week actually happened with the other missionaries but I think it is worth sharing. They were walking on the street and a man come up to them because he recognized their plaques. He said that he actually was one of the nurses that took care of Soeur Clain in the hospital after the attacks. He asked about how the missionaries that were hurt were doing. He said he was so impressed that she was so protected and that she always remained happy... It is sufficient to say that he is now being taught by the missionaries here! God makes the maximum amount of good come out of situations that are bad.

Spent the day in Lille with all my old companions! (That are still on their missions)
On Sunday night we went out contacting. We made a goal of how many lessons we wanted to teach before the night was over. We decided that we wouldn't come back for dinner until we had reached our goal! Within the first hour we met some really cool people and had some good conversations. It started getting late and we were only one lesson away from meeting our goal. We talked with all the people we saw on the road but nobody stopped to talk with us. At this point it was past the time we were planning on going back for dinner. We began talking about how we had some really good conversations, even though we didn't quite reach our goal. As we talked we both were starting to become satisfied and settle for less than what we wanted to obtain. We thought that the work we did was "good enough." We decided that we would try one last time to get one more lesson. We decided to say a prayer and ask Heavenly Father to help lead us to where we could find one more person. We started walking down the road next to us. We walked down the road for about ten minutes and there wasn't even one person. We turned around to start heading back and I saw one person that was walking toward us. We are usually selective of the men we contact for safety reasons and the person walking towards us ended up a being a man that honestly I probably wouldn't have thought to contact usually. We started talking with him and he was so sweet. He doesn't have any religion and has never asked if there is a God. We were able to testify to him about the plan of salvation and afterwards pray with him. What a tender mercy!

There is a lot of things I learned from this little miracle. One of them being that we should not ever "settle" for something less when we can do better or be better. We all have the ability to accomplish great things. We are the ones that usually limit ourselves from accomplishing our divine potential. We should not ever lower our standards because it is "easier" or more convenient. Heavenly Father expects a lot from us because he knows who we can become. The great part is that He is always there to help us and we strive to become our best. "You are literally a child of God, “spiritually begotten in the premortal life. As His child, you can be assured that you have divine, eternal potential and that your Heavenly Father will help you in your sincere efforts to reach that potential”(Dean R. Burgess) As we remember "who we really are" (children of God) it will help us see who we can become. He will help us as we press on and "never settle" for anything less than what He knows we can become. Have a wonderful week!

Love, Soeur Johnson

No comments :

Post a Comment