Here are some bits and pieces of Trey's emails the last couple months! We can't believe he has been out there for almost 4 months. Sometimes it feels like 4 years...
August 19, 2013
I
feel God's love and the spirit testifying to me that it's true. Everything that
this church stands for, believes in, and participates in is true.
When you feel like you may be doubting
yourself, or the church, or any of the teachings that come from it, just
remember how you feel when you had that spiritual experience during sacrament
meeting. Or when you were faced with a difficult time and you prayed so hard to
Heavenly Father, & He flooded you with His love. Remember those times and remember
when you thought to yourself "How could I ever deny this!?" And if
you haven't had those experiences yet, GO HAVE THEM! They are wonderful! Read
the scriptures, try not to sleep during sacrament, meet with the bishop and
just ask what you can do better to gain a testimony!
August 26, 2013
We also got to go to my very first zone conference. That was
marvelous! I LOVE my mission president and his wife. They are so inspiring,
and truly inspired by the Lord. The president's wife talked about adversity and
truly, how much of a gift it really is! I had never thought of it that
way before, and I'm so glad that I can look at it that way now because
now I almost look forward to the hard times. Because we all know that
without dark, there is no light. Without bad, there is no good! Without
adversity, there is no way we can feel rewards, happiness, joy,
excitement, or love! Our Heavenly Father truly thought of everything.
That's why it was so necessary for Adam and Eve to partake of the fruit
of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It was so that we can all know what
the other side feels like so we can truly appreciate the good times. I'm
so thankful for adversity and what a blessing it really is in my life
and how it can all make us stronger. She also said "You may not
know how happy you are today, until you look back on it tomorrow." That
blew my mind. How many times do we think "Oh back then is when i was my
happiest." And then when we were "back then" we never realized how
happy we were! I never realized how happy i really was when I was around
my family and hugging my mama, and wrestling and joking around with
brady, and having deep discussions with dad, and carrying micah around
on my back, and throwing brynn's little body in the air onto her bed. I
wish so bad I would have realized how happy i was, because now when i
think of my happy moments back home...those are my happiest moments.
I love you all very much. And the Savior loves you
too. He knows how to make us happy and realize how happy we are. Have a
wonderful and exciting week everyone!
Love Elder Thayer
September 9, 2013
I had an experience this week that I would like to share with ya'll,
so we have been teaching this less active member who hasn't been to church in
like 20 years! She forgot everything about our church and has been going to
another Baptist church. So we just decided to teach her as a regular
investigator and give her all the missionary lessons again. And it has been
awesome because she is so fun and so funny and responds to our lessons super
well! She is
reading the Book of Mormon and praying and everything! Well she told us that she really wants to come to church this Sunday
so we were super excited. We got a text from her Sunday morning saying
"I'm not going to be able to make it. I had a talk with my sister about
coming to the service today and she told me that since I joined the Baptist
church, I shouldn't fellowship at that church. I'm not gonna be able to join.
sorry". I was so devastated. I love her so much and couldn't understand
why that happened. We went over to her house after church cause I knew there
was something more to it than that. We got talking and I eventually got out of
her what the real concern was. She told us that she reviewed our
"rules" and decided that it was too hard. I thought to myself, "Our church is not easy! It's never been easy and it WILL never be easy! If
Jesus Christ went through all he went through, the man that was perfect and
without sin, why in the world would it be easy for us? It wasn't easy at all
for him! It's supposed to be hard. The 'hard' is what makes it great. It's what
makes US become great." I was so sad that she felt that way, and of course
I didn't throw all of that on her, I didn't think it would help anything, I
just told her "Yeah, it is hard to be a member of our church. But when we
endure to the end...that's when Christ is pleased with us. Because of our
efforts to follow him." I don't know if it helped at all, but we're still
gonna try and meet with her and still be her friend.
Know this guys, it is hard to be a Latter Day Saint. God asks for us
to give up the things of the world, and to put him first! Someone that we can't
even see, we are supposed to put him first. In order to do that we have to
"walk by faith, rather than by sight." and if we do that, we are
gonna seriously fly.
I love you so much! Endure to the end!
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