Walking on Water.

Today I received some pretty insightful personal revelation as I was studying! Because it was so meaningful to me I decided to share it with the world!

So. Many of us know the story of Peter walking on water. The disciples were in a ship doing what they do and a big storm came around. Really early in the morning the disciples saw Jesus walking on water! In the account in Matthew it says

"when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear" (Matt 14:26).

First of all I think I would have been scared too! How many of us have actually seen anybody walk on water. Fear soon left them as they heard the savior reply

"Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid" (Matt 14:27).

What a calming thing to hear.

           Be

                 Not                             

                              Afraid

Peter had fear. It soon left him. He wanted to be with the savior. He wanted to walk with him. He did so.

After a bit of walking on water that fear came back to Peter. He began to sink. Peter calls for help.
"Lord, save me" (Matt 14:30). Christ IMMEDIATELY stretches his hand out and saves Peter.

Now here is where I really connected some personal dots. . .

The next thing we read is "And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased" (Matt 14:32). So... HOW did they get back into the ship?!

Christ. Carried. Peter. Back.

Not sure how. It was done someway.

Our savior, Jesus Christ, has physically carried people back to safety. If he has done it once, he continues to do it today. He can, does, and will carry us when we are in times of need. I know this. I have felt this time and time again! We have no need to fear. He is always there for us.
Life is full of things that we do not know. I have zero idea what is in store for my life. I have my own thoughts, dreams, and wishes... but who knows what will happen. Rather than being fearful about what will happen in my life, my heart is calm. I feel like I am walking on that water with the possibility of sinking at any moment, yet I do not sink because I am being supported by a loving Savior.
He lives. I know this with all my heart!

Follow. Just do it.

Obedience.
"In a spiritual sense, obedience is doing God's will." The Guide to the Scriptures

I have been doing a lot of thinking about this lately. Without being E.X.A.C.T.L.Y obedient we can not follow the example of Jesus Christ.
Recently my studies of Christ have lead me to LOVE the scripture found in Matthew 9:9 

"And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew sitting at the receipt of custom: and he said unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him."

 What are we doing to follow him?

Exact obedience. That is what this passage teaches us. Matthew could have sat there and said "hmm... give me 5 more minutes and I will be right there" or even "maybe later". He could have even answered with "no" but he did not. 

                               He arose.
  

                                            He followed Christ.

These past few weeks here on the mission I have had a growing opportunity. Many times I have felt like Matthew. Just sitting and waiting to be directed as to where to go. Last week I was blessed with the chance to be reassigned to a new area in Mesa serving with a new companion, Sister Weedman.
The both of us were brand new to this area. In mission language we call this "white washing". It was my 6th time white washing an area so I was ready to start working hard! Being new is an amazing chance to pause and let the Lord direct you with each step.

"Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to they prayers."

I know I saw the importance of this as we began to work. Yet sometimes the Lord throws us a curve ball that is unexpected...

We received a call telling us that the new area we were assigned to was going to be changed. Rather than working with the people we had already met we were to move immediately to another part of Mesa and take over 2 different areas. At first I thought it was a joke... but no. The Lord needed us only for 6 days in that one place and now we are starting from scratch once again.

Thinking of this experience I realize how vital it is to trust the Lord and be obedient. We could have questioned and fought as to why we were being moved, but we did not. We could have gone with sadness or even a bitter taste in our mouths, but we went with knowledge that the Lord puts us precisely

  where we need to be when we need to be there.

Christ invites us time and time again to FOLLOW him in all we do. He invited his disciples, those in Jerusalem, those living in the ancient inhabitants of America even. He continues to invite us. I know as we strive to follow him in all we do we can find true joy and peace in this life and the life to come!

Here is a wonderful bible video depicting another example of those who straight way went and followed Christ!!

To watch more Bible Videos go here :) 

Bible Videos!

Conference

General Conference!

Amazing. Inspirational. Uplifting. Edifying.

The Prophet Thomas S. Monson.

Ridiculously  

Exactly

What

I

Needed 

To

Hear.

Enough Said. I loved every little bit about conference.

I have tried to pick a favorite talk, but I can not. I have attempted to even narrow it down to a few and come out with little success. I know that these people have been called of God to give us the guidance we need in these days. What a blessing to be in a world with such guidance and direction.

We have a living prophet today. Not only is that a blessing, but so are the Apostles of the Lord that are called. This church is organized just as it was when Jesus Christ was on the earth. I know these men receive revelation to give to us today!

Listen for yourself to General Conference

Prayer. A beautiful thing.

Today I had a wonderful experience with prayer. This morning I hopped on the computer needing to access some information I had put onto my little travel drive I carry around. Usually it is always in my purse in a pocket next to my chap stick... today that was not the case.

I could not find it ANYWHERE! To me this felt like I was losing memories from the last year of my life. All of my saved pictures from my mission were on this and a ton of documents from studies and letters I had received were there as well. My heart sank, and it sank fast! 

I ran to my locker here at the Visitor' Center and looked through all my stuff. No travel drive. I checked both computer rooms and all of the computers. No travel drive. It was so heart wrenching.

I tried to put it out of my mind and continue on with my day thinking it would show up eventually.

A couple hours later I found myself back at the Visitors' Center again needing my travel drive. In our back room a few missionaries were studying and I asked if they had seen it. One missionary, Sister Hamstead, explained how she too lost something super important this day; her debit card! She suggested that we all kneel in prayer and ask for the Lord's help. A beautiful prayer was said by Sister Avanesjan and we continued to work. 

About 2 minutes later I was once again in one of the computer rooms searching for another missionary. As I talked with them I asked if they had seen my little drive. Sister Horrutiner looked at the computer (which happened to be the VERY SAME ONE I had used this morning when I found my drive missing) and pulled a drive out and said "is it this one?" 

IT WAS FOUND! 

I know lost things are always found...well normally... but what really amazed me was how quick it was found after a prayer was offered in faith. 

"Thus God has provided a means that man, through faith, might work mighty miracles;..." The Book of Mormon, Mosiah 8:18

I love these opportunities to see how aware Heavenly Father is of me. He really does know me and wants what is best for me. We are all put through trials in our life. Some small like misplacing a simple travel drive, others larger like losing loved ones or feelings of loneliness. As we turn to Him at times of need he helps us! These times are here not to punish us, but to polish us! I have learned that we all have these Mountains to Climb, we have difficulties to hurdle, we have bad days to get past and we can do it with his help! Especially with prayer. Lots and LOTS of prayer! 

He knows us. I promise you that. Turn to him and see for yourself 

:)

Our Purpose.

  As a missionary I have a purpose. That purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.

My FRIENDS :)

 This week I was so fortunate to go on an amazing exchange with these lovely Sisters!
Sister Ibuyan, my darling Filipino friend, and Sister Beaudette, the most amazing jump roper I have ever met, and I spent a whole 24 hours together.
This experience really helped me to love my purpose as a missionary even more than I already did! 

These sisters are currently working in a new ward. They are doing something called "white washing" which means that they are brand new missionaries to the area they work in. Usually one companion will stay and a new one will come and show them around and such, but in this case they are both starting from scratch. Over my mission I have had the experience of white washing about 5 different times. It can be stressful, but turning to the Lord always helps!

While we were on our little exchange we saw SO many miracles! We had a focus to talk and contact as many people as possible and build their faith right away. Each person we talked with we bore testimony of the Restoration of the Gospel. 

One amazing experience I want to share is with this lady we went to see. She had talked with missionaries before and then randomly just stopped talking with them. Being new in an area is a perfect time to go see all these people who just stopped communicating with missionaries before. As we talked with her we learned how much she desired to learn about this gospel and how much of an impact her new knowledge of prayer has been for her recently. As we shared our simple testimonies in her home I know I felt her trust growing not only in us, but in the message we share! I am excited to hear what happens as she continues to make changes and finds happiness in this gospel.

Missionary Fun

I really needed this exchange. Recently I have been on one of those emotional roller coasters. I know I am meant to be here in Mesa, Arizona for a reason. Being with these sisters helped me see how no matter how difficult the situation can be we can really put it all in the Lords hands. Not only was it an amazing spiritual boost for me, but a lot of fun. After all, it is missionary FUN, not just missionary work!

Sister Ibuyan said something to me during this day that really meant a lot. She said "You are just so natural with a name tag". As a missionary I have a name tag. It has the Lords name right under my own. I feel it is natural to be this missionary only because I KNOW what I am sharing IS TRUE. If I was unsure, if I had doubt, if I was confused it would be different. I know it is true because I have asked about it. The gospel of Jesus Christ invites us ALL to learn and decide if it is true or not. It is up to us and I love that :)

TRANSFERS...

Here on the mission we are moved around every 6 weeks or so to work with new companions and in new areas. I joke around saying the tension is worse than Christmas! We do not decide where we are going, The Lord does. At Christmas you know something new is coming and usually you can see the box it is wrapped up in. You can pick it up and shake it and sometimes guess what will be in store for you. Transfers is not that way. At all.... There is no telling what is in store for you. It gets pretty crazy.

What usually happens is the Mission President along with two missionaries, his assistants, look at the mission as a whole. They see how many missionaries are out, how many are coming into the mission, where the churches are, the populations of the towns, all sorts of logistical things. After looking over the mission as a whole they pray to know where all the missionaries need to be. They pray to know what to do! Decisions are made and prayer continues to play a huge role in the making of transfers. 

Once that is done calls are made and the missionaries find out where they will be. Usually we have the call on Saturday night and Wednesday morning we are packed and moving areas. 

This transfer Sister Avanesjan and I were preparing ourselves to be split up. Staying together for 3 transfers is not very common, especially for sisters who only serve missions for a total of 12 transfers. 

The Super Awesome Sisters :)

To our surprise and joy we are staying together another transfer!!! :) we are so blessed. "This is miracle" as my companion would say. We get along so well. The spirit is with us as we testify to the truth of what one another has said.

Not only do we have strong spiritual experiences, but we have a LOT of fun!!! She even lets me sing songs to her as we sleep! At times we laugh so hard the wonderful family we live with comes into our room just to make sure everything is okay :) Then the little girl asks Sister Avanesjan to read a book to her that happens to be in a foreign language... Sadly Russian is one that she can not read in!

This new transfer will bring a lot of changes! We are happy to stay together, but it is bitter sweet due to the fact that we are losing one of our wards we have been serving in for the last 3 months. We will miss all of the people we have come to love in the Valley View ward, but we know that the Lord needs us to serve someplace else. 

Let the miracles continue!

With Faith comes Miracles

I have been serving a mission for about 10 months and I am still amazed with each miracle that we are able to see!

Being a Visitors' Center sister is such a blessing because I have the opportunity to work with people from all around the world! We call, facebook, skype, and even facetime people to invite them to come closer to Jesus Christ and his restored Gospel.

Just this month alone we have seen four friends of ours become members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints! These people all exercised faith in acting upon what the believed to be true by repenting and being baptized and confirmed a member of this church. 

Our Father in Heaven really loves us! He continues to work miracles! I love how it is all according to OUR faith! Not anybody around us, but our own faith.

"He manifesteth himself unto all those who believe in him, by the power of the Holy Ghost; yea, unto every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, working mighty miracles, signs, and wonders, among the children of men according to their faith." (2 Nephi 26:13)

 

After we enter the waters of baptism we are not finished! It is important to set our eyes on something more, something that can bring us eternal joy and happiness. That something is the Temple! I am blessed to see this beautiful building each day of the mission. It does nothing but increase me understanding of the wonderful Plan of Happiness our Father in Heaven has put forth for us to learn about here on earth. I know as our sights are set upon entering this house of the Lord we are truly "enduring to the end". By doing so we can each be blessed with eternal life! 

Remember, It all starts with faith!