"What
an incredible week it has been. I love being a missionary and I
absolutely love exercising my faith and trust in God by being obedient
each and every moment. I am so grateful for the opportunity that we have
to serve the Lord with all our heart, might, mind and strength. Time
really flies when you lose yourself in the Lord's service."
I
really had the opportunity this week to recognize the amazing blessing
that I have been given of having been raised in the gospel. I cannot
imagine my life without it! It is such an amazing feeling to be able to
help others receive this incredible gift, but over the course of my
mission I have been able to realize just how difficult it is to
transition into this new world of accepting Christ's restored gospel. I
had never even thought about it before, but being here has allowed me to
witness it firsthand. For these new converts, it is an incredible and
life-changing journey, but it is hard. This week a recently returned
missionary in our branch invited us to his homecoming luncheon so that
we could meet his family, NONE of which are members of the Church. His
family members were all wonderful people, but as I sat there at his
house, I just found myself being eternally grateful that God didn't ask me to
be the pioneer in my family. I honestly don't know if I could have done
it. It takes so much strength. I have become so much more grateful for
my mother and for her amazing example. She, too, to this day is the only
member of the Church in her family. Because of her decision and
strength, I was able to blessed to be raised in the gospel! Wow.
And as missionaries, THAT is what we are bringing to
these people--the opportunity not only to change their lives, but the
opportunity to change dozens, even hundreds of lives in the future. As
they remain strong in the gospel, their future families will be blessed.
As a YSA missionary, we do not often get to see the blessing of
baptizing whole families. However, each YSA we baptize has their ENTIRE
life ahead of them to bring others into the gospel, and that is an
exciting thought. Many of those that we bring to Christ now will also
serve missions, such as our recent convert Remington who is SO excited
to serve a mission next year. They will have the opportunity to find and
marry others who hold their same beliefs and bring children into a
family where the gospel is taught from birth. What a blessing it is to
be a part of this great work!
I have become a lot more in-tune with the
Spirit over the course of my mission, and it has been amazing to see the
miracles that occur as we just listen to and act on promptings. This
week, we saw some awesome harvesting miracles as we found those who were
ready and waiting for answers to their prayers! On an exchange, Sister L
and I went to a street that I had picked on the map the night before.
We weren't having much luck finding people at home and had talked about
maybe leaving and going somewhere else, when we turned the corner and
saw a beautiful yellow house. We knocked on the door and the woman,
Barbara, let us in without hesitation. After the prayer, she was in
tears and asked if she could give us hugs. She told us, "You do not know
how needed that prayer was. You don't know the things that you said and
how I needed to hear them. People from your Church have never knocked
on my door before. I know God sent you here!" Moments like that have
happened frequently on my mission, but every time, it is a miracle. I
love being a missionary! I am praying so hard that I will still be able
to see daily miracles like this when I go home!
Sybil continues to be ABSOLUTELY
AMAZING....this week when we visited her she asked, "Where can I get a
Doctrine and Covenants?" and "What's a patriarchal blessing?!" Keep in
mind, she hadn't even been confirmed yet! She received the Holy Ghost on
Sunday and can already see the amazing changes in her life. She sent us
a text telling us about how powerful her prayers on Sunday night were
and how all of her daily activities just seemed more fulfilling. Wow!
She is incredible. I have learned so much from her.
Well, I definitely never thought I'd get to this
point on my mission....but I did. I only have 6 weeks left in this
wonderful and amazing adventure. It's really a painful
thought...especially since I am leaving just a little three weeks before
the temple open house. I guess I just have to trust that God needs me
home instead of here at that time, otherwise He would have sent me out
on my mission a few weeks later! It's still hard though. I honestly feel
like this IS my life. And I don't want another one! I promise I still
love you all....don't be offended if I don't really want to come back to
you. :)
Love you all,
Sister Dougal
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