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Living in Houston has given me the opportunity to see the importance of missionaries. Many of my friends here are converts to the gospel and have shared their experiences with me through tears saying that if it wasn't for the missionaries they would never of dreamed of having the blessings of family, church, etc that they have now. I have even watched first hand as a dear friend of mine, who had been completely down as low as she could go, have the ability to completely change because of her faith in God and the covenants she was able to make because of missionaries in her life.
I want to share with you something that I have just learned this last week that I hope will help you. In this last conference (October 2012) President Thomas S. Monson, in the Sunday morning session, gave a talk called "Consider the Blessings." In the talk he asks us to stop and look at all the blessings we have been given, small and large, blessings with huge impacts, or blessings that seemed at the time insignificant. He shares that as he did this he found that one of his greatest blessings was the knowledge that Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers. I bear testimony that I know this is true too. In his talk, President Monson then shares five stories where prayers were answered in big ways and small ways that made a big difference in the long run. What hit me most was in every story but one it was President Monson who was the one to answer someone else's prayer... This is what made me stop. I don't know about you, but a lot of times my prayers are answered by other people directly or indirectly- meaning they either come and serve me in answer to my prayer or are talking about something that unknowingly I needed to hear, etc. So then my question was HOW DID PRESIDENT MONSON DO THIS! How was he able to be an answer to another's prayer? The reason I am sharing this with you is because you are going to be in a brand new area with new cultures, new people, new situations. To know how to be an instrument in the Lord's hand and help answer prayers is a super power you have to have! right?
So to figure this out I then started looking at the five stories again... in every story President Monson makes a comment "I felt inspired..." and then he acted RIGHT AWAY. Inspiration is when a random thought or feeling comes. Like today during dinner as I was looking at some flowers Jason had sent me, my neighbor's name came to mind. Random... must be inspiration :) so I had the kids help me take some of the flowers over to her. We then found out that she had been in the hospital for two days and needed a visit and a pick-me-up. I don't know how to express how I felt when I learned this and realized Heavenly Father had talked to me. Me, Jill, Heavenly Father had given me a super power of answering a silent plea.
The Gospel is true and getting people to commit to baptism, to start making the covenants they will need to stay worthy and stay close to God is so important. But, I know that the only way to be truly successful is by answering prayers. The only way to do that is by following promptings. Because President Monson followed the promptings RIGHT AWAY a friend's life was saved, a woman was comforted right before she passed away, a young man was helped to make the decision to serve a mission that will bless his, his family's, and those he teaches, plus their families and friends... lives. You will be interacting with people you do not know, but Heavenly Father does. You will not know who is behind the closed doors or walking towards you down the street, but God does. Listen and act on those random thoughts and feelings and you will find that sharing the love of God will come naturally and easily. That you will be able to be a blessing to those special and loved children of our Heavenly Father.
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