Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Faith and God's Will

YO. 
So this week has been pretty ridiculous, and Ill tell you why in a second, but first the questions from Dad! 
1) The food that I have found that I enjoy the most would probably be Molotes....those giant things we ate in Huejotzingo. They are delicious. Included in the list would be posole, tinga, and tort as. 
2) Most common thing here that you all would find shocking? Id have to say its a toss up between people peeing in public and 90 year old women carrying really heavy bags on their backs. These people never stop working, seriously. 
3) Cold? No. good loaf no. It is sooo freeking hot in my area right now. Im dyinggggg. Seriously its like 98 degrees every day in this pueblo we have called Chilac. Its seriously insane. And even when its cold its not really cold. Like coldest it gets is when it rains and thats like 55 degrees or something ridiculous like that. 
4) Almost everywhere there are only 2 elders to a house. Even if the areas are really close. Dont really know the reasoning behind it but yah 2 elders only.

       Sooo this week was sooo freeking busy. So we realized last week after changes that we have to take care of one ward, one branch, and 9 different pueblos (little towns). So we have been tracting all over everywhere trying to find investigators and find out where the members are actually located. Its been pretty stressful to say the least. Im sore from walking so much, we are straight brokeeee (so its a good thing our money just came) from taking all the combis everywhere, and we still have 4 more weeks of it. Its gonna be a longgg change. Lets put it that way. Highlight of the week would be when we were tracting and we ran into this guy waiting for a combi and we contacted him....This is not going where you think its going. We asked him if he had ever heard of Jesus Christ. He was like yall don know nuttin bout Jesus Christ...and Im like, i mean, i feel pretty confident saying I know SOMETHING about Jesus Christ. And hes like Jesus Christ wasnt crucified on a cross.......he was crucified on a cactus. I couldnt help it, i laughed. He got on the combi, and we both went on with our lives. But it was a tension breaker for the week. Me and my comp now have a friendly invitation we leave with all the people here. It goes something like this...."You should really consider actually reading the bible sometime. It'll clear up a lot for you." hahaha i think its funny.

       And the spiritual thought for this week comes from a terrible, yet enlightening experience I had this week. Sooo my zone leader Elder Mendez has a saying that he shared with me in my moment of defeat. "If you didnt lose a cell phone on your mission....you never went on a mission." Yes, ladies and gentleman, yes. I lost the cell phone. I put it on my lap in the combi and then proceeded to contact a woman and it was soo dark cause all the lights were out in the pueblo we were in and then we got off the combi and it hit me like a sack of bricks....i lost the cell phone. the brand new, higher model, cell phone. It was awful. And so we got back to the house, borrowed our neighbors cell phone to call it and i called it a hundred times but nobody answered it. Our member neighbors told us to have faith, that if we prayed we would get it back. And it made me start to think of something that I have been thinking about a lot for a while now. Ive been struggling for a few months now with the difference between Faith, and Gods will. I mean, Ive been thinking that it doesnt matter if i pray and ask with faith for something to happen, cause if it isnt Gods will then its not gonna happen. so then why pray at all? And if im not praying then whats the point of having faith? BUT as I had yet another oportunity to reflect on this topic....i finally recieved an answer. All this time I have been looking for the difference between faith and God's Will....but there isnt a difference. Having faith isnt praying that youll find your cell phone that you lost and then trusting that youll find it....Having faith is is knowing that God your Heavenly Father loves you. Knowing that He wants the best for you. And above all knowing that He has a plan for you. And if that plan involves losing your cell phone then you need to trust Him that its His will. That this experience will somehow make you stronger in some way. I had to realize that this time, and thats why I lost the cell phone. So God could give me the opportunity to get down on my knees and humble myself in my frustration with the trial He was giving me and tell Him Heavenly Father, I dont know why this is happening, but I will trust you completely, knowing thy will be done. Mosiah 15:7 "...the will of the son being swallowed up in the will of the father." I am His son, and I know He loves me and I will humbly sumbit myself to Him and all he sees fit to inflict upon me, and I will love Him for it. That is my testimony.

Love,
Elder Josh Hamm

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