Believing Christ

March 11, 2013

I am not sure if I already talked about this before, but I read this amazing talk about Believing Christ.  The point was made that yes, a lot of believe IN Christ- we believe He is our Savior, we believe He died for us, we believe that He has risen and will come again, but do we believe Him?  Do we believe Him when He says that He can make us pure in heart, white as snow- that ALL of our sins can be washed away?  Honestly, sometimes I have a hard time with that one.  I think, how could I, being extremely weak and make mistakes and sin ALL the time, how can I be as white as snow?  But that is the true power of the Atonement.  And we must all work on our individual testimony that the Atonement works for US just as it does for other people.  Please, BELIEVE CHRIST!

I read the talk from last conference about the Temple- i can´t think of what it is called in English but in Portuguese it is ´O Padrão do Templo´by Elder Scott D. Whiting.  And it hit me a lot more than it did when I heard it.  that our lives need to be held up to the padrão of the temple- that we may have some walls that need to be sanded to perfection, or windows that need to be substituted- little things that make a big difference that we need to completely uproot out of ourselves, our lives, and we need to substitute them for better.  Elder Whiting points out that we won´t be perfect while we are here, but as we strive for this and keep the commandments and do our best we will be better disciples of Christ and we will progress and become more of who He wants us to be.

We have a friend that lives by our house- her name is Maria but she doesn´t like her name so we call her Irmã.  She is very old and has lots of problems with her feet and legs and she walks with two crutches and very very very slowly.  One day it was raining super hard and we were walking down the road and saw her under a lip of a building without an umbrella.  So we decided to stop and help her.  She wanted to wait until the rain let up a bit to start on her journey to a café.  So when it let up a bit we started walking with her- very slowly.  We got about 10 feet away from the building- which took a good amount of time and strength from her- that it started to rain really hard again.  She immediately turned back to the building.  Me and Irmã Layton looked at each other with looks like ´oh this might be awhile.´  When the rain let up again we started out and got a little farther when it started raining super hard again, but this time she kept going until she got to another lip of a house to wait it out.  It kept going like this for a while until we finally got her to the café as dry as possible.  After this experience me and Sister Layton talked to each other about how this must be how Heavenly Father feels some time.  How He is standing right next to us- protecting us in the middle of a storm but how we get scared and turn back to the safe haven- what we knew before.  But how it is so much better to keep going, trusting in the Master to keep us warm, dry and protected and He will lead us till the next safe haven and then help us through another trial and on and on until we progress to where we need to be.  But we must trust in the Master and be willing to take the steps of faith.

I found out some notices from Setúbal!  There aren´t sisters in Setúbal anymore, instead the Líderes de Zona live in our old house and are working with the Setúbal 1 ward AND the Setúbal 2 ward.  They are trying to re-activate Setúbal 2 while other elders are focusing on baptizing in Setúbal 2.  They are working super hard so that they can split the ward! woohoo!!!!  AND the Elders said they had an amazing lesson with Arlete and her FAMILY (!)  in their home with awesome members and she bore her testimony to her family.  I know that me and Irmã Suzarte will one day see them be sealed in the temple!!!  Also, a girl that me and Irmã Suzarte found while knocking portas is getting baptized and told her friends that she will no longer go to the evangelical church but only the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!  I LOVE THIS WORK SOO MUCH!!!!!!  We have been talking to TONS and TONS of people this week but the first part of the week we didn’t see much success but by the end we got lots of new investigators through the contacts we made earlier and then people that those contacts know!!!  YES!!!

I know that Jesus Christ lives.  I know that we can ALWAYS repent.  I know that this is the only true church on the earth with the authority of God.  I know that President Thomas S. Monson is the Prophet of God today and that He has all the keys.  I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and it is the most powerful book on the earth today and it was written for US.  I love this gospel with all my heart.  It makes me so HAPPY.  I hope other people can see our happiness and know that they can have it too.  I´m a Mormon!!!!  I want to tell the whole world.  Thank you all for your love and prayers and support.  HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!!!

Síster Tingey