January 12, 2009

faith is essential [11.03.08]


More then ever I am realizing how essential faith is ..
Hebrews 11:1“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
= Substance in the footnotes is translated to assurance =

Elder Gene R. Cook in a talk given in the MTC on June 7, 1983, “Qualifications for the Work” said,“It is an assurance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen. In other words, you can’t see it beforehand. You just have to believe in the feeling you are getting.”
Hebrews 11:3“Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”

Paul is speaking about spiritual creation, which is also talked about in the Book of Mormon in Alma 32 .. Elder Cook goes on to say,“Alma 32 tells us about the spiritual creation, the temporal creation, and the eye of faith, meaning that you create in your mind first of all, Elders & Sisters, the spiritual creation of that which you desire, and you concentrate your mind on it until it comes into reality in the real world. Every idea, the exercising of faith, anything that has any value that I know of, is created first of all spiritually in the mind of man and then later, because of his exceeding faith, he brings it about temporally – he literally causes it to happen.”
Isn’t that so crazy and yet SO true ??! I have seen this so much on my mission in just the little ways that make a big difference. As s’hood & I have planned who we are going to see or said prayers about activities we have seen them come to pass because we have created it spiritually first .. just think about it !

This week in the WMM didn’t feel as profitable in missionary work but yet we were still way busy ..

Last Monday night we THOUGHT we were having dinner with Carmen from the Spanish Branch but it turned out to be “noche de hogar” with the Spanish elders and 3 Spanish families .. mi español capacidades no son buenas .. so s’hood & I didn’t understand much but we did play a little game after that you either had to chiste o canción .. well I got canción and luckily e’morales sang “estoy asombrado a todos” con mi en español !

Oh also last week on pday we ran out of gas ! I told s’hood like 5mins before that we NEED to get gas and she just kept driving, bless her heart, and LUCKILY the car stopped in front of 2 older men’s house, Chuck & Ed on Oneida St, and they both had gas cans to give us enough gas to make it to the Shell Station ! we are making them cookies tonight to bring to them and of course teach them about the restored gospel !

There was a missionary apt that got closed when I came out to GB and we had a huge cleaning party for district meeting ! s’hood & I got a good couch out of it for our apt and also there was a ton of weights from the old elders that went home SO we sold them back to Play It Again Sports and got 40$ ! the elders were so kind and carried our couch up 3 flights of stairs and we had a feast ready for them with the weight money !

On 10.28.08 my amazing sister Heather had my beautiful niece, Evelyn Allen ! she is by far the most beautiful little girl ever but of course I AM a little biased .. I am so grateful for her example of selflessness and following the will of the Lord .. thank you Heather and thank you for my wonderful family for being there with her .. I couldn’t ask for a better family .. I love you !

A lot of our time was gone because we helped at the annual “Poppinga Halloween Bash” .. our costumes were given to us by Sister Poppinga herself and believe me .. s’hood & I felt ridiculous !
We had the chance to teach along side President Robertson this week .. he is the Sturgeon Bay Branch President and he was asked to teach a class @ NWTC [Northeast Wisconsin Technical College] on Mormonism ! we gave out about 15 copies of the Book of Mormon ! they had wonderful questions and it was so amazing to see and feel the spirit work on them during the presentation.

On Halloween we were on lockdown ! not really but yes .. it was the WMM deep clean day and we cleaned our whole apt top to bottom and it looks GREAT ! we rearranged [got the skills from my papa !] and started decorating for CHRISTMAS ! I know we are skipping thanksgiving BUT s’hood leaves before Christmas so we are getting in the mood early !

i DEF missed my annual Halloween in Spanish Fork .. I would of carried my little Sydney, Solomon AND Naomi ALL together the WHOLE time just to be there trick or treating ..
s’hood & I teach YST [youth strength training] @ the YMCA on Saturdays and we had 5 little 11 & 12 year olds to teach .. we taught them about stretching and the cardio machines .. what stuck out to me was there were twin 12yr old girls that HATED being twins and it made me laugh because I am SO grateful for my twin big sisters .. I love you both and even more being twins !
we had Sunday dinner last night with Bishop & Sister Huzzey [their daughter is on a mission in Argentina & their son is in the MTC right now to serve Spanish in the San Francisco Mission !] Bishop Huzzey is the best .. he is so funny and so spiritual and just a great man ! well he really LOVES chocolate and eating contests so after we ALREADY had desert we [b’huzzey, e’pulley, e’jolley, s’hood & I – s’huzzey declined b.c. she is diabetic] had a half glass of chocolate milk and 3 oreos and had to see who could get it all gone the fastest ! e’jolley won and I got 3rd and am pretty impressed with myself !

we taught CORRY on Alma 42 and about mercy, justice & faith in Christ .. she is so smart and her prayers are so beautiful .. she is still trying to find the opportunity to tell her mom she is getting baptized so that is what we are praying for .. she is applying to BYUi and is meeting with Bishop Huzzey for an ecclesiastical on Tuesday .. we think that will help her really see the need to be baptized sooner.

I don’t think I mentioned this but there HAS NOT been sister missionaries in GB for over 4 YEARS [s’hood opened the GB sisters area 1transfer before I came out !] it is such a blessing to have sister missionaries in the mission field [not only b.c. we can sew shirts like I did for e’jolley !] BUT because they really have a different effect on people BUT of course I am BIASED !

I feel SO blessed to have a car as a missionary .. the WMM is one of the biggest land missions in the US and if we didn’t have a car we would never have enough time to get anywhere ! also it’s the biggest blessing because of the COLD ! we get a limited amount of miles each month so our driving time is sacred .. last month we went up to Sturgeon Bay more then we expected and we went over our miles BUT luckily our great ZL’s had extra miles of theirs to compensate for us !
UWGB is still going strong .. we are on campus ALL DAY Tuesdays and usually a couple hours another day during the week, students are starting to recognize us and we sometimes see them around GB and they say hi ! its great ! the Poppingas nanny, BRITT, goes to UWGB and she is not a member and we are having lunch with her tomorrow !

i LOVE being a missionary .. i am learning SO much about myself, life, the scriptures, planning, faith, prayer, others, service .. my list could go on !
i truly know and feel that Wisconsin is where the Lord needs me .. I have come into contact with so many great people and I have been building lifelong friendships with investigators, ward members and other missionaries !

really I could go on and on BUT this is already WAY long so congrats to who got this far !
Christ church has been RESTORED and the FULNESS of the gospel is found in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. i KNOW this to be true.

I love you all and thank you for everything !
Sister Warner

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