Good morning, my beloved friends and family. I've been contemplating a lot about what I want to share with you all today. It's been a rough week.
I think I've mentioned this before, but they say that the mission is a sort of reflection of your life. Well, I'm coming up on 8 months now. I fear that that means that I'm at the head of my mid-life crisis. Or at least it would appear so with how stressed out I am.
I'm not going to tell you a lot about the actual experiences we've had. I can tell you that yesterday we lost our baptismal date with Jorge because he wasn't able to go to church. That was pretty devastating for us. We love him so much and we were so excited to help him get baptized this month. We'll have to wait till the first week of March now.
We've been reading Doctrine and Covenants as a ward council to invite the spirit into our meetings. This week we read from DyC 6. Have any of you read that section before? If you haven't, you need to. It's a good one. I love all of it, but the last few verses really got me this week.
34 Therefore, fear not, little flock; do good; let earth and hell combine against you, for if you are built upon my rock, they cannot prevail.
Here the Lord is talking to Oliver Cowdery. I love that the Savior refers to us as his 'little flock' or in Spanish, his rebañito. He is our Good Shepherd. How is it that our Shepherd directs us to overcome fear? By doing good. Not by crying. Not by avoiding situations. Not by eating your weight in your favorite flavor of Ben and Jerry's. But by doing good. We are always going to be faced with opposition. And if we let this opposition get the best of us, we just might get lost for a little while. How do you fight the opposition? We build ourselves upon the Rock. We construct our solid foundation. We trust in the Lord and abide by His commandments, because He knows what we need and why. As we follow this council we find that neither earth nor hell can overtake us. THEY CANNOT PREVAIL. Remember that when you're feeling like you just can't fight the fight today.
36 Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.
37 Behold the wounds which pierced my side, and also the prints of the nails in my hands and feet; be faithful, keep my commandments, and ye shall inherit the kingdom of heaven.
The Lord, as our Good Shepherd, is inviting us to follow Him. He will never force us from behind. But He is waiting for us. And when we're lost, well gosh darnit He'll go out and find us. But why would we want to face the danger of leaving the flock?
I don't want any of you to freak out or take pity on me. I don't want any extra emails trying to console me. I'm alright. But I want you to all understand that the mission is hard. It's not a bunch of gumdrops and rainbows every day. I love you all very very much and I think of you when time permits. Be strong and be happy. And go find a lost sheep.
Con mucho amor,
Hermana Schroader
I think I've mentioned this before, but they say that the mission is a sort of reflection of your life. Well, I'm coming up on 8 months now. I fear that that means that I'm at the head of my mid-life crisis. Or at least it would appear so with how stressed out I am.
I'm not going to tell you a lot about the actual experiences we've had. I can tell you that yesterday we lost our baptismal date with Jorge because he wasn't able to go to church. That was pretty devastating for us. We love him so much and we were so excited to help him get baptized this month. We'll have to wait till the first week of March now.
We've been reading Doctrine and Covenants as a ward council to invite the spirit into our meetings. This week we read from DyC 6. Have any of you read that section before? If you haven't, you need to. It's a good one. I love all of it, but the last few verses really got me this week.
34 Therefore, fear not, little flock; do good; let earth and hell combine against you, for if you are built upon my rock, they cannot prevail.
Here the Lord is talking to Oliver Cowdery. I love that the Savior refers to us as his 'little flock' or in Spanish, his rebañito. He is our Good Shepherd. How is it that our Shepherd directs us to overcome fear? By doing good. Not by crying. Not by avoiding situations. Not by eating your weight in your favorite flavor of Ben and Jerry's. But by doing good. We are always going to be faced with opposition. And if we let this opposition get the best of us, we just might get lost for a little while. How do you fight the opposition? We build ourselves upon the Rock. We construct our solid foundation. We trust in the Lord and abide by His commandments, because He knows what we need and why. As we follow this council we find that neither earth nor hell can overtake us. THEY CANNOT PREVAIL. Remember that when you're feeling like you just can't fight the fight today.
36 Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.
37 Behold the wounds which pierced my side, and also the prints of the nails in my hands and feet; be faithful, keep my commandments, and ye shall inherit the kingdom of heaven.
The Lord, as our Good Shepherd, is inviting us to follow Him. He will never force us from behind. But He is waiting for us. And when we're lost, well gosh darnit He'll go out and find us. But why would we want to face the danger of leaving the flock?
I don't want any of you to freak out or take pity on me. I don't want any extra emails trying to console me. I'm alright. But I want you to all understand that the mission is hard. It's not a bunch of gumdrops and rainbows every day. I love you all very very much and I think of you when time permits. Be strong and be happy. And go find a lost sheep.
Con mucho amor,
Hermana Schroader