GOD LOVES HIS CHILDREN (and don't you forget it)

 

Hello all!! This week I hit my 4 month mark on the mission! I am so grateful for each and every day I've had the opportunity to come closer to Christ, and be able to reach out a hand to others and help them do the same. Cannot wait for the next 14!! I'm not going to lie though, this week was tough. Of all the weeks on my mission, I spent the most amount of time on my knees, far more than an other week on my mission, which is saying something. As a whole lot of you know, my cousin Maddie went missing this week. And it was and is so hard. I truly cannot believe the amount of love and support friends and family and missionaries and random strangers have given our family. SO many prayers were answered on Saturday night when we got news that she was found. And about a million more prayers of thanks have been said since then. But those few days were HARD. But instead of focusing on the hard, since no one wants to hear that, let's focus on the joy and the lessons learned. 

LESSONS LEARNED THIS WEEK:

• God loves His children. He is watching out for each and every one of us, and knows us individually. God loves YOU. And in the end, that is all that matters. 

• The priesthood is real. It is power directly from God, and He has the power to change hearts and lives. And we have access to it because He loves us. 

• Prayers work. When we talk to God, HE LISTENS. I have no doubt about that. He wants to hear our joys and our struggles and our mundane and our insights and our thoughts and our feelings. He wants it all. And when we give Him that much, He will magnify that to more than we can ever imagine. Because He loves us. 

• Miracles are real. Miracles are not just parting seas and raising people from the dead. Like Elder Rasband said "the magnitude does not distinguish the miracle, only that it came from God". How crazy or irrational or sudden a miracle is doesn't define a miracle, it's the fact that we could not have made it happen without God. And there were miracles after miracles after miracles after miracles that happened this week. If there was The Book of Annie in the Book of Mormon everyone would be jealous of me and all the miracles I have seen, cause boy, there are about a million of them. And these miracles happen because God loves His children, all the time, no matter what. (Sensing a theme?)

• It will all be made right in the end. A cliche sentence like that has never felt so real. Because I don't understand why things happen or why things are hard or why things don't make sense, but He is a just God who makes everything okay. And more than okay, it'll be joyous. Because He loves us. And for that, I am grateful. 

This week I'm just grateful for this gospel. And good people and kindness and prayers. Thank you to every one of you who sent prayers and notes to me and my family, and everyone who shared posts and just continued to be faithful. Thank you thank you thank you!!!

As far as missionary work goes, there wasn't a whole lot of it this week. I was a little preoccupied. But we taught some good lessons and did some good finding! I found that every person I walked past could be dealing with something so hard, and I would never know, so this week being hard helped me to reach out more to others and talk to a ton of people. God is good. Also, a guy in our ward who makes music wrote a song about us, (in a not creepy way) and it's lowkey really good. So when Kemuel is famous, let it be known that I'm mentioned in one of his songs. Pretty much that's all for the week, sorry there's not much of a missionary update, but if nothing else, I hope you all know that your Heavenly Father loves you so much. Through Him, there is peace. AND ALSO ITS ALMOST CHRISTMAS SO MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL YALL!!!! I would love to hear from you and hear about all your Christmas plans and festivities!! HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND BE A LIGHT IN THIS WORLD!! 

Love, Hermana Allen