Faith means Actions
I've been given my life, you've been given your life
TO PROVE OURSELVES.
TO
For months and months and months, Heavenly Father and I have been having conversations about a life-changing and eternity-affecting prophecy He gave me. In our conversations, daily, He told me I would be called to open up the Hindi nation here. I would be called to speak Hindi.
Half of this nation is Fijian, and half of this whole nation, are Hindi. So far, the gospel has only been preached to the Fijian people.
The Lord has ended all days behind, and opened up a truly breathtaking and new day! He has called me to go forth and proclaim His joy and fullness of truth to His children in the Hindi language!
It was a matter of when, not if. No one new except me and the Lord. But then the Lord told my Mission President, and on transfer day, I got a telephone call:
It was a fairly normal day
(these bugs can make you go blind if they squirt in your eye... I didn't find that out until after it had been on my face for 20 minutes, when I was then told. Whew!
I woke up, found ways to serve my wonderful companion. Did a GREAT workout! Had a great breakfast. And expected to be told that my companion was going to be transferred out of Bau, and that I would get a new companion, and lead this area.
But the Lord had unimaginably grand things in store.
As always, His way in literally breathtakingly better!
The President of all the Missionaries in Fiji, called us up. He told my companion that he would be the District Leader in Nadi, Fiji. And then he asked Elder Nawahine to hand the phone to me...
(These are Fijian graves. This is a Fijian meeting house up near Nadi.)
President Layton told me that the Lord has seen my exeedingly fast advancement in the Fijian language, and He has now seen fit to extend to me a call that will change my entire mission and this whole nation. I was called by Heavenly Father to save 100's of thousands of God's eternal children of the Indian/Hindi heritage. He shared with me a glorious vision for these people. I am to become a linguistic expert in this language, to then train 30-50 more missionaries after me to march for this glorious message forth for the first time to the whole half of Fiji that has never yet had the opportunity to receive it. I wasn't told very many details by the Mission President. Only that I would be going to a completely different part of Fiji (Lautoka), and that instead of serving in a Branch, I would now be serving in 2 Wards!! WOW!
After I got off the phone with the President, I went and knelt by my bed in the sunshine of the morning sun, and of my Father's love and light. I was seeking another firm witness from Him that this was the right time to step forward and rise up to the grand things I was foreordained for. Powerful emotions flooded my system. I was under the impression that this meant I had to give up speaking Fijian and leave it behind. I would have to leave behind all my investigators here in Bau that were about to be baptized. I would have to leave once again, everything I knew. Only, this time, I would not have 6 weeks in a Training Center in America to learn the language... in fact, I would have almost absolutely nothing to work with... Plus, it's not normal for two missionaries to leave an area at the same time and be replaced with fresh ones. Usually one stays behind and that way the new missionaries can get to know the investigators and the area.
Who would the Lord send to replace us?
Again, the Lord was asking literally everything I had to give. So, I went to Him, directly--and immediately.
I knelt down and had a long, fully real and veilless conversation with my personal and loving Father, exalted and eternal.
He was speaking with me and opening the channels for visions and our 2-way heavenly communication, just between me and Him alone together, stopped in space and time in His grand mission field. He sent feelings of assurance and peace and joy to my heart by the Holy Ghost, but I still had confusion and small uncertainties to small degrees.
He led me to lift my head.
Literally, God my Father told me to lift my head up. I'd been kneeling by my bedside, head down in my hands on the bed. He told me "Lift your head, my son." I did. It passed the pillow case hanging from my mosquito net above my bed. My dear friends from the Manassas 2nd Ward, 8,000miles away in the foreign land of America, had sent me this pillow case with meaningful and deep, uplifting scriptures. As my head came up past it, my eyes immediately opened and fell on 1Nephi 2:15. The spirit said go to it. "My father dwelt in a tent."
Heavenly Father has a sense of humor. I was dumbfounded... what was I supposed to get from that?
Oh.. the Lord began to tell me.
Lehi gave up all his riches and land and all things, and went into the wilderness to follow Heavenly Father's will and call. Grand promises came to him because he so joyfully and obediently chose this. There were books-worth of notes in all the margins of my scriptures on that page. They all spoke to me exactly, (almost freakily,) exactly what I needed to hear! And the voice of the Lord spoke peace to me and told me great things.
He promised me that Bau will flourish and become more than I can imagine, in His wisdom and all this has been done and will be okay. I can trust literally all things in His hands. The only thing I'm attached to is Him. All my fondest hopes and wishes will be brought to pass and more.
This mission really will change me all the way positively. Not a change, the right word is a build and a progress off of the old me which was just a foundation Heavenly Father made for bigger and unboundedly and unimaginable or unfathomably greater things.
That day was the first day I really stepped back and realized how drastic and irrecognizably I have grown and improved and progressed and advanced since day one of mine and Heavenly Father's mission. I must change fully and fully positively every day. My love for the Hindi people grows and grows by the minute! I am so grateful for this opportunity to show Him I hold back truly and indeed literally no thing; That I really do only that which highest pleaseth Him, I do only those things His spirit tells me He Himself would use His agency to choose if He were me in my place. That I really will withhold no thing from Him. The life i fully give Him--He thereby fully magnifies and sanctifies. The life I give Him is one of Doing; one of Proving. There will indeed be no thing which I did not give Him. I exist for and choose only a fullness; not a someness at all! This is how I choose to use the Agency He gave me! Only one thing (perhaps,) is so certain in life; and that is that CHANGE is continual and constant. but here's your great key: if you give your whole self and life over to Heavenly Father who loves you and has the best plan for you, then all those unending changes are for your good, advancement, joy and positive unending upward progress-- each change changes you to in real, tangible ways be as He is , and all of what the grandest version of the highest destiny of you is.
All I know is that I am fully and all the way in His hands.
Changes still come, but they're pleasant surprises, and you're not negatively governed by them no matter what they possibly ever are or could ever be! That's the power of Christ! That's real! Rather, become the governor because of a greater capacity to choose your attitude and access His power , vision, strength and wisdom. If you save (retain, withhold,) your life, and not freely and fully give it to Him, then change is still ever constant, continual and unending, but so is your uneasiness, fear, confusion, lack of full blessings, and downward pull and perhaps destructive negative affect they have upon you while you are going through them. But, blessedly, these two alternatives are ours to freely choose for ourselves. Pick the first and you'll have a first-class life and eternity in all things now and through every change and pleasant-surprise-from-
Who would the Lord send to replace us?
Again, the Lord was asking literally everything I had to give. So, I went to Him, directly--and immediately.
I knelt down and had a long, fully real and veilless conversation with my personal and loving Father, exalted and eternal.
He was speaking with me and opening the channels for visions and our 2-way heavenly communication, just between me and Him alone together, stopped in space and time in His grand mission field. He sent feelings of assurance and peace and joy to my heart by the Holy Ghost, but I still had confusion and small uncertainties to small degrees.
He led me to lift my head.
Literally, God my Father told me to lift my head up. I'd been kneeling by my bedside, head down in my hands on the bed. He told me "Lift your head, my son." I did. It passed the pillow case hanging from my mosquito net above my bed. My dear friends from the Manassas 2nd Ward, 8,000miles away in the foreign land of America, had sent me this pillow case with meaningful and deep, uplifting scriptures. As my head came up past it, my eyes immediately opened and fell on 1Nephi 2:15. The spirit said go to it. "My father dwelt in a tent."
Heavenly Father has a sense of humor. I was dumbfounded... what was I supposed to get from that?
Oh.. the Lord began to tell me.
Lehi gave up all his riches and land and all things, and went into the wilderness to follow Heavenly Father's will and call. Grand promises came to him because he so joyfully and obediently chose this. There were books-worth of notes in all the margins of my scriptures on that page. They all spoke to me exactly, (almost freakily,) exactly what I needed to hear! And the voice of the Lord spoke peace to me and told me great things.
He promised me that Bau will flourish and become more than I can imagine, in His wisdom and all this has been done and will be okay. I can trust literally all things in His hands. The only thing I'm attached to is Him. All my fondest hopes and wishes will be brought to pass and more.
This mission really will change me all the way positively. Not a change, the right word is a build and a progress off of the old me which was just a foundation Heavenly Father made for bigger and unboundedly and unimaginable or unfathomably greater things.
That day was the first day I really stepped back and realized how drastic and irrecognizably I have grown and improved and progressed and advanced since day one of mine and Heavenly Father's mission. I must change fully and fully positively every day. My love for the Hindi people grows and grows by the minute! I am so grateful for this opportunity to show Him I hold back truly and indeed literally no thing; That I really do only that which highest pleaseth Him, I do only those things His spirit tells me He Himself would use His agency to choose if He were me in my place. That I really will withhold no thing from Him. The life i fully give Him--He thereby fully magnifies and sanctifies. The life I give Him is one of Doing; one of Proving. There will indeed be no thing which I did not give Him. I exist for and choose only a fullness; not a someness at all! This is how I choose to use the Agency He gave me! Only one thing (perhaps,) is so certain in life; and that is that CHANGE is continual and constant. but here's your great key: if you give your whole self and life over to Heavenly Father who loves you and has the best plan for you, then all those unending changes are for your good, advancement, joy and positive unending upward progress-- each change changes you to in real, tangible ways be as He is , and all of what the grandest version of the highest destiny of you is.
All I know is that I am fully and all the way in His hands.
Changes still come, but they're pleasant surprises, and you're not negatively governed by them no matter what they possibly ever are or could ever be! That's the power of Christ! That's real! Rather, become the governor because of a greater capacity to choose your attitude and access His power , vision, strength and wisdom. If you save (retain, withhold,) your life, and not freely and fully give it to Him, then change is still ever constant, continual and unending, but so is your uneasiness, fear, confusion, lack of full blessings, and downward pull and perhaps destructive negative affect they have upon you while you are going through them. But, blessedly, these two alternatives are ours to freely choose for ourselves. Pick the first and you'll have a first-class life and eternity in all things now and through every change and pleasant-surprise-from-
We have no way of learning this language except by going to the people. There aren't even any dictionaries. This program is so hard, that there are only 6 of us missionaries in it in the whole nation, and some of them find it so hard they want to give up. But the Lord has better plans than that. He's going to magnify all of us fully.
The whole future of this program and the Salvation of half an entire nation is riding on our shoulders and depending on us... 6 missionaries and one other: the True and Living God, our Father who is literally and constantly with us and revealing great revelations and help to us. This really, and fully literally is His work. It is true.
I know I was foreordained and prepared for this very purpose. I enthusiastically agreed to these obligations before I was born.
The scriptures are the key to everything good in a day, in a week, in a life. I challenge you, just open the scriptures. It's as simple as that. Pick up the Bible! Pick up the Book of Mormon! My assignment to you all this week, individually, is that whenever you feel sad, discouraged, worn down, afraid, confused, have a question, want to feel important and glimpse your grand destiny, or any thing like that, will you open your scriptures?
God will talk to you whenever you do that.
The Lord led me to these valiant and celestial souls! They're my best friends in Fiji... I love them with all my heart!! The Lord so undeniably led us to them and them to us. They are an absolute miracle. They are going to be baptized this month and then prepare to go on missions. I admire each of them and will never forget them. I pray for each one by name every single day.
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The Lord sent our replacement missionaries to our area the day before we left it, and we got to introduce them to all our investigators and show them the area quickly. I was so comforted, those missionaries that replaced me are absolutely perfect for the area. I testify we can trust Heavenly Father perfectly. I mean it! Literally perfectly!!!! You can't trust Him too much!!!!
So far, 6 people are now to the waters of baptism from this my Father and mine's mission in Fiji. What a joy these souls are to watch. They are my heroes, and examples!!!! I love this work and will only work harder and harder!
Just as Abraham in the Old Testament, if we're willing to give up even the great blessings we sought for so many years or months, then that turns out to only infinitely multiply the blessing!!
That's how the principle of sacrifice and following the Lord always works: You give up something so dear, and it comes back multiplied!
The whole future of this program and the Salvation of half an entire nation is riding on our shoulders and depending on us... 6 missionaries and one other: the True and Living God, our Father who is literally and constantly with us and revealing great revelations and help to us. This really, and fully literally is His work. It is true.
I know I was foreordained and prepared for this very purpose. I enthusiastically agreed to these obligations before I was born.
The scriptures are the key to everything good in a day, in a week, in a life. I challenge you, just open the scriptures. It's as simple as that. Pick up the Bible! Pick up the Book of Mormon! My assignment to you all this week, individually, is that whenever you feel sad, discouraged, worn down, afraid, confused, have a question, want to feel important and glimpse your grand destiny, or any thing like that, will you open your scriptures?
God will talk to you whenever you do that.
The Lord led me to these valiant and celestial souls! They're my best friends in Fiji... I love them with all my heart!! The Lord so undeniably led us to them and them to us. They are an absolute miracle. They are going to be baptized this month and then prepare to go on missions. I admire each of them and will never forget them. I pray for each one by name every single day.
|
The Lord sent our replacement missionaries to our area the day before we left it, and we got to introduce them to all our investigators and show them the area quickly. I was so comforted, those missionaries that replaced me are absolutely perfect for the area. I testify we can trust Heavenly Father perfectly. I mean it! Literally perfectly!!!! You can't trust Him too much!!!!
So far, 6 people are now to the waters of baptism from this my Father and mine's mission in Fiji. What a joy these souls are to watch. They are my heroes, and examples!!!! I love this work and will only work harder and harder!
Just as Abraham in the Old Testament, if we're willing to give up even the great blessings we sought for so many years or months, then that turns out to only infinitely multiply the blessing!!
That's how the principle of sacrifice and following the Lord always works: You give up something so dear, and it comes back multiplied!
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