Truly Good

Hey Family!

Man it has been a crazy couple of weeks! So for those of you who don't know, I was transferred! To Lakeland. I'm now serving with Sister Loveridge. She is great! She and I actually came out together and we are surprisingly a lot alike. We also kind of look alike... Seriously like three times a day we hear "are you two twins?" from members, investigators and strangers on the street! They are always shocked to find out that we aren't even related at all. The ward here is incredible. The leaders are so organized and they are committed to missionary work. Its so much fun serving here. We see miracles daily!

We had a baptism this past Saturday. He was so excited to be baptized and we were so excited for him. He  was a referral from a girl that was baptized a few months ago. He is the perfect example of humility, meekness and a pure heart. I wish you all could have seen his face when he went up to be confirmed on sunday! Pure gratitude and joy, it was beautiful!

I also found out that the week after I left two of the people that I was teaching in Sebring were baptized! The nine year old girl and the other guy:) I was so excited to hear about that, but also pretty sad that I wasn't able to be there. The 93 year old man that I've told you about passed away this past week Tuesday. Also, kind of sad I didn't get to say goodbye to him, but I know I will see him again. I'm grateful for the love God blesses us with for the people we are teaching. I love them all so much!

Our teaching pool here is pretty decent. We have three investigators with baptism dates. Two for this ward, and one for the Spanish branch. There are no missionaries serving in the Spanish branch so we have been teaching this lady that doesn't speak any English! Its kind of a challenge, but the relief society president in the Spanish branch is always at the lessons and translates for us. This lady is struggling with some things, but she knows that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet and she wants to be baptized so badly!

The other person that has a baptism date, we met just two nights ago. We had a ton of empty time so we decided to go tracting in the neighborhood near our apartments. We prayed before we left and expressed our faith that we would find one person that night that was prepared to accept the gospel and be baptized. We met a lot of friendly people, but no one that was really all that interested. It was getting pretty late and dark so we decided to just start heading home. We walked past a house that we had already knocked at but they had looked through the peephole at us and locked the door (it was actually pretty funny), and there were two men outside working on the car. One of them, the older one, obviously didn't speak any English. But the younger one called out to us and said, "what are you guys doing?" Not in a rude way, just curious. So we walked over and told him exactly what we were doing. Then we explained the Book of Mormon to him, gave him a copy and set up a time to come back and explain more about it.

The next day we went back and taught him the first lesson. He had done research on LDS Missionaries the night before, and he was telling us all kinds of stuff about what we do. He thought it was the greatest thing ever! As we were teaching him, we just felt the spirit so strong and we could tell that this guy was truly humble and ready to receive the gospel. He told us right at the beginning of the lesson, before we had even started teaching, that he wanted to learn how he could be a better son in his family, and how his family could have eternal life. We were like, um, we might know a thing or two about that! :D

The other man that is getting baptized this month is the husband of a returning member who recently went to the temple. He has watched his wife make all these changes in her life so that she could go to the temple, and he saw how happy it makes her. He said the only thing holding him back from becoming a member was smoking and drinking coffee. But God took care of that! About two weeks ago, he was admitted to the hospital and told that he had better stop smoking and drinking coffee or he wasn't going to live too much longer. After that he got a hold of us and told us that he wants to get baptized! Their 21 year old son is also taking the lessons and will hopefully accept the invitation to be baptized as well so that they can start working as a family to get to the temple.

We truly have been seeing so many miracles. I go to bed each night with a heart full of gratitude and awe for what the Lord did for us that day.

Oh here is another miracle for you! So our mission is doing a thing this week called Find a Family in Seven Days. Basically you find a family that is prepared to be baptized by faith and fasting. So you start out and tell God your desire, and pray and ask what kind of family you are looking for, like size of family, and age. Then you fast. Then you work super duper hard and look high and low for that family.

So, we prayed and felt like we were looking for a family of seven with twins. Then we fasted. On Sunday, we told the ward council what family we were looking for and asked if any of them knew someone who fit that description. The primary president got chills and said, "I know exactly what family you are looking for!" Then she told us about the family that lives right next to the church. The ward has reached out to them multiple times and invited them to activities. And they have come to one! It is a mom and a dad and 5 little girls, two of them are twins. Prayer and fasting works, and if you have enough faith, anything is possible! We are going over with the primary president tomorrow to visit them.

I have also been learning a ton this week. I think, right now, I want to focus on something that stuck out to me in a talk from General Conference: Truly Good and Without Guile. I won't go into the talk too much but you all should read it this week!

When I read this talk, I was like "I want to be truly good, and without guile! But how?" I have been really focusing on this this whole week and praying to know how to do it and I have come up with a few conclusions that may or may not be totally obvious.

The first thing I realized is that becoming truly good is going to take a change of heart. And our hearts can only be changed by the Holy Spirit and because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. 

So how do we change a heart?...

Is it simply changed by a change of mind? Or a new understanding of doctrine? Can it be changed through sheer will power? Maybe.

But I think that a more sure way to truly change a human heart is through acting upon truth and living true doctrine. Because when we act upon truth, we invite the spirit into our life. And the more we have the spirit in our life and in our hearts the more our hearts will transform into something truly good.

Every aspect of the Gospel is related to the next. Everything goes together in a complicated, and almost impossible to understand, way. But I know that when we are obedient to the commandments of God, pray always, read and study the scriptures diligently, serve others, teach and preach the Gospel, attend church weekly, and follow Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit will be able to get into our hearts and change them

And over time, we will be able to become truly good.

That is how the Gospel changes lives. Its truly incredible!

Another incredible talk that I would totally recommend reading is The Music of the Gospel.

He says, "The music of the gospel is the joyful spiritual feeling that comes from the Holy Ghost. It brings a change of heart."

I know that sometimes when we take a look at who we are and who we are to become, it can be a little daunting. Sometimes it seems like we will never be able to reach it. No matter how hard we try, we are unable to be patient enough, loving enough, kind enough. Sometimes we wonder how we are supposed to change those things about us that are so much of who we are.

Just live the gospel. Do it. Act on it. And the change will come over time. It will be subtle, almost unmeasurable. But someday you will look back and see who you were and who you are. And you will be able to get on your knees and thank your Father in Heaven for making you into who you need to be. For seeing you as you could be and never giving up on you. Because HE NEVER WILL.

I know that we aren't perfect. But I know that our Savior is. And that because of Him, we can be made perfect. I know that perfection is a lifelong pursuit. I know that God has given us all the tools that we need to get there. I know that this gospel is true, and I know that it changes lives.

I love you all so much and I hope you have an incredible week!

Love always, Sister Rowland