email dated 2/1/10
The church upgraded the missionary email, so this is my new email address. Make sure you mark the change! My address is now: blocked, (if you want it, please contact a family member)
Just so you know, this Friday is my 6-month mark. Weird, eh? Crazy. Wild. Unbelievable.
So I guess that Christian has 3 ulcers in his stomach. Christian is the last person in the family that I expected to have ulcers. I would have expected it from how high strung and stressed some of the rest of us are, but not in a million years from him. I guess it is due to all those jalapenos and hot sauce. I told you that stuff would kill you someday...
So I am teaching a super awesome family. The parents are both from Mexico, and they have 2 daughters who are 5 and 4 years old. They love reading and learning, and they are pretty much ready to get baptized. The only problem they have is that the parents aren't legally married, and in order to get married here, they would have go through the court (they aren't legal citizens here) which means that they would get married, baptized, and then immediately deported, and the family would be split apart. I've already seen it happen once with a family who got married, baptized, and then they sent the father and the 3 children back to Ecuador, and the mother was forced to stay here for loads of other money and legal issues. Immigration law is so annoying. Many of them had visas, and came here legally, but the law changed since then, and now they're legalization was made 'void', and they are no longer considered legal. I'm learning a lot about immigration law here. It's really heartbreaking to see the dire circumstances many of the Latinos here are in. We recently baptized a woman who was forced to leave her 5 children, parents, and brothers and sisters in Ecuador to come here so she can work at the McDonald's and support all 10 of them because there is NO food and NO hope for her family back in Ecuador. She can't go back because she doesn't have enough money, and she can't bring them here, and they are completely dependant upon her McDonald's salary for their livelihood. I could tell dozens of stories just like hers.
A woman in a similar circumstance asked me the question this week, "Why do some of us have harder trials than others? Why is my life harder than theirs?" That's a very difficult question to answer, and I couldn't really relate to her circumstance from my own life experience, but I do know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the answer to all of life's questions and problems. I related to her why it was that we have trials, why we suffer sometimes, and what God expects of us through it all. All of us are unique in our life experiences and trials. God knows us, better than we know ourselves, and He has prepared a way for us in this life to learn, grow, and come back to Him. Each of us has a unique and different burden to overcome in this life. My problems aren't the same as someone elses, but that doesn't mean that God deals unjustly with His children. He knows the struggles that we must go through to grow in our faith and testimony, and He knows what we are capable of overcoming, even when we don't believe enough in ourselves to do it. He is just, but He is also infinitely merciful and compassionate.
Don't let your problems overshadow this eternal truth: God is our Heavenly Father, who loves us more the we can comprehend. Jesus Christ is our Savior, and he prepared the way for us to repent of our sins, and receive mercy at the Judgment. The best answer I can give is what Nephi said to the Angel in 1 Nephi 11:16-17. The angel asks Nephi, "Knowest thou the condescension of God?" and Nephi answers, "I know that God loves His children, nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things." At first, this answer kind of seems like a cop out, but in all reality, Nephi gave, in my opinion, the best answer possible; that is, "I know that He loves His children." How much suffering could we spare ourselves if we would just hold fast to this truth: God loves us, no matter what. How many people would be spared from depression if they just knew that God loved them? How many people would remain in fellowship with the church if they knew that regardless of what they've done, God still loves them? Doesn't this truth set us free? How differently do we look at life and our problems and trials when we hold fast to the knowledge that there is a supreme being who loves us with all His heart! What kind of attitude do we embrace? After a tragedy in our lives, we often say to ourselves, "Where was God?" The reply: "Well, I don't know the reason that happened, but I KNOW God loves His children." When we can take this attitude, we can overcome any problem that life throws at us. You don't need to know everything, or the reason for exactly why things happen the way they happen or in the time they happen; however, you do need to know that God loves you, and will never forsake you.
I have to go, but I love you all, and I pray continually for your welfare.
-Elder Shepherd
No comments:
Post a Comment