Faith in Every Outcome

Ahhhhh...

Basically, I'll just say it because I know that you are all thinking it.

I am THE worst at emailing my experiences! I'm super good at keeping a journal now.. I'm almost on my second one! Which is a mega accomplishment seeing as I've only ever had one in my life and it consists of years 11 through 20 in it... haha but I will try to be better. Try... ha

So Sarah wasn't baptised this week. She's facing a lot of family opposition right now and then she left on her trip to Asia! So she is having the time of her life over there and still building her testimony. We love her so much! She's basically my twin. But with red hair and an English accent. She's the best :)

Things have been crazy since we've had our new mission president come in! He and Sister Ulrich have wasted no time at all in getting in here and getting to work! They are so funny and they work so hard. There are going to be so many miracles that will come from their service and in their leadership for the England Manchester Mission.

These past two weeks Sister Clawson and I have set some pretty high goals. But we knew that will A LOT of hard work, prayer, and faith that we could accomplish everything that we wanted to do!! So we set out with these goals in mind and with an eye single to the work.

What we expected were miracles. Miracles to come at us from every angle. We were finding people and teaching left and right! We have so many strong people who are gaining testimonies of this restored gospel and finding out that there is a God through personal prayer.

But as it usually does in England when the Weatherman says to expect Sunny days.. then comes the rain clouds.

What we weren't expecting was for everything to drop.

We had faith that all things were possible if we worked hard and set the goals to achieve. But when our investigators all started to cancel, and to drop us, and when the people we were talking to on the street started to walk away, reject, or deny our message we couldn't believe what was happening!

Why weren't we seeing miracles?

Why weren't we having people accept baptism?

Why were people all of the sudden rejecting us and tearing us down?

Why is that when we were told if we have faith you will have sunny days only to experience rainstorms of the largest kind?

Well, I will tell you my thoughts.

There was a talk given by Elder David Bednar once called "That we may not shrink", or at least I think that was what it was called.

Anyways, he relates a story in there about a young, newly married couple who only weeks after their happy marriage found out that the husband had contracted cancer. This was a seriously fast moving cancer and this young couple just couldn't understand why after they had worked so hard for a temple marriage it all had to seem like it was crashing down before their eyes.

They went to counsel with Elder Bednar and ask for a blessing of healing for this young, newly made husband. While they were discussing the situation together Elder Bednar found himself asking a question that he had not previously decided to ask. "John? I know you have the faith to be healed. But, do you have the faith to not be healed?"

What?

How do you have the faith to not be healed?

Well, what if the Father's will were to be that you are not healed from this cancer? What if it is His will that you are taken from this earthly existence sooner than it would appear was your time to go? Do you have the faith, that this could be His will?

I never had thought about that. We often say well, I have the Faith that if I pray to Heavenly Father, He will grant my wish and my will. But what if it is not His will??

Would we then have the faith to accept that His will is what is best for us and our eternal progression to return to live with Him again? Indeed, I think that that would take FAR more faith to not be healed than it would be to be healed.

So do we have faith in every outcome? Did Sister Clawson and I have faith that we could reach our goals and that Sarah would be baptised? OF COURSE WE DID! But did we have the faith to align our will with His, if His will was that we just work hard but without seeing our goals reached?

This life is a time for us to learn, and to progress. We have trials and struggles that can help us to either turn to and rely on our Heavenly Father, or we will choose to turn away from Him and deny the help and the blessings He has in store.

Do we have faith in every outcome whether it is our outcome or the Lord's?

I've learned a lot this week that goals and having righteous desires can help us to grow, but it is not about how or when we reach those goals, but what we do in the process that matters. It's who help and uplift along the way that really counts! I might not have been able to help people come to understand that there is A god who knows and loves them, but I've been able to know and understand the love that God has for me.

In the story, John was healed by the blessing he received. But it was what this couple learned in the process that was the building block for their faith. And I think from their experience we can all learn to have faith in every outcome, even if it is not the one that we would like :)

Serving away from my family and friends for such a long period of time is by far the hardest thing I have done. But the things that I am learning, the friendships that I am developing, and the relationship that I am gaining with my Heavenly Father are far greater than any sacrifice that I could make in this life.

I am so grateful for my family and for my friends and all those who support me out here!

I love you! And I want you to know that your Father in Heaven loves you. He knows you, he knows your heart. He wants to help you, but we must choose to let Him in. Our greatest blessing is to choose for ourselves, but the blessings that come from when we choose Him will far outweigh any temporary joy you may feel when you choose otherwise.

I know that my Savior lives. And I know that Joseph Smith was called as a prophet of God to restore His church on this earth again today so that we may all enjoy the blessings of His doctrine!

I love my family, and I know that it is through the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints that we can be sealed to them for all of time and Eternity and i am SO GRATEFUL for that knowledge.

I love you all!!!!!! And I just wish that I could take all of you to England with me! haha

But for now, you will just have to hear about it via computer screen :)

Loads of love,

Sister Reed