This week was pretty, rough. We had some great plans, we´d found a bunch of new people to teach but then this week every single plan we had fell through and we lost a lot of people to teach. So we´ll be starting pretty close to scratch this next week. We have some good ideas though, so onward we go.
Honestly, my mission has been pretty hard, I´ve worked as hard as I can, yet I´ve experienced a lot of disappointments and a lot of times I´ve felt pretty hopeless. (Don´t worry this´ll get better)
But this week, after a lot of long, rough days, I felt like this. Sometimes I´ve felt in my prayers at night like I´ll just collapse, but at the end of my personal study this week a scripture caught my eye that really encouraged me to keep reading, it literally seemed to speak to me. The scripture is in the Book of Job, in which, if you didn´t know is basically about a dude who is super righteous, then in an instant loses everything, in this part one of his friends is offering him some advice and words of comfort.
Job 4:
3 Behold, thou hast instructed many, and thou hast strengthened the weak hands.
4 Thy words have upholden him that was falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees.
5 But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled.
6 Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways?
7 Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off?
8 Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.
...
12 Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and mine ear received a little thereof.
13 In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men,
14 Fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake.
15 Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up:
16 It stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof: an image was before mine eyes, there was silence, and I heard a voice, saying,
17 Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker?
18 Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly:
19 How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth?
20 They are destroyed from morning to evening: they perish for ever without any regarding it.
21 Doth not their excellency which is in them go away? they die, even without wisdom.
Right. So all of this is complicated, I honestly had to read it a couple of times to understand it, and I don´t even know if I understand it perfectly, but I definitely think I understand what I was supposed to. A lot of times I´ve felt really sad or depressed because I hadn´t accomplished any big change in anybody´s life, I´ve had some great, really powerful experiences, but then afterwards it´s almost as if there was no change, so a lot of times, I felt pretty down. But I really liked how Job´s friend reminds him that he´s taught a lot of people, and that a lot of people have been strengthend by him, because even though I haven´t accomplished that great impact I was always looking for, I can say that I have taught a lot of people, I have been there in the exact moment that they needed comfort, I have offered the exact words needed to strengthen them. Then in verse 5 Job´s friend acknowledges that he´s had a lot of troubles, but asks him in verse 6, basically, "Isn´t this what you believe in?"
"Don´t you know that everyone must pass through difficulties?"
"Isn´t this what you believe in?"
He qoes on to explain that even though challenges can be to punish us, most often they are to teach us something, they´re there so that we can grow. And if we´re experiencing difficulties, we should know that the innocent never perished, that the righteous were never cut off from the Lord. So we have to know that He´s right there beside us to help, strengthen, and guide us through the trials.
Later on his friend explains a vision he had that´s a little tough to understand, but he basically asks "Shall mortal man be more just than God?" which is to say "Do you think your plan for you life is really better than God´s?"
"shall a man be more pure than his maker?" - "God literally made you, I´m pretty sure He knows why He made you"
"Trust in His plan, even though it´s tough, it´s better"
Maybe God´s plan for me is much more day to day, to help on the smaller yet just as important scale.
At the end he says, a little strongly, that we all die without wisdom, but what I think he means is that we´ll die one day, and still not understand why we went through so many difficulties. But one day when we´re back again with our Heavenly Father we´ll understand. And we´ll thank Him.
"Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed. For I am thy God, and will still give thee aid." - How firm a foundation
"When ye are weary he waketh morning by morning." - 2 Nephi 7:4
Even when it´s tough, when all you can do is get to the next day, He´ll be there to wake you up, and He´ll watch over you day by day.
I love you all, have a great week!
(I definitely did not describe all of that well enough but oh well)
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