Test of Faith

Family!!!!

   Thanks for all of your love! I heard from everyone...almost :)  That is way cool David is moving in with Garrett, I'm sure everything will be great. I love Garrett and his family!!! Tell them I said that please!  Wow, so this week was so crazy I have NO idea where to start and what to even tell you guys. WAIT!  When I heard about the baptism and everyone who participated with everything...I was blown away and so happy.  K, so this week was very emotional actually....hahah I was a wreck haha. And I'll tell you why. So we met a guy on the street and His name is Nikolai, annnnnnnnd we got a lesson with him after 2 or 3 weeks of calling. So he came and was very nice.  He is a successful man in the world and was honestly one of the most intelligent men I have ever met.  He told us he's read all of the Holy writ i.e. the Bible, Koran, talmud...all the above. So, we met up with him at a predetermined location and walked with him to our church bldg.  On the way he says that he just got back from living in Iran so I had a little something to relate to him with ;) We sat down, started with prayer and got going on the first lesson...when he said he "read" the bible...he should have said DEVOURED it.  He knew SOOOO much. It was really hard to teach him, b/c with all of the precious truths that have been lost over the years in the Bible, he pointed out so much them and I didn't have answers for a lot of his questions, which is fine b/c I'm perfectly OK with not knowing answers to ridiculous questions.  His questions started getting controversial and and I felt as though he was trying to tear my faith down. When we got to the BOM He wasn't listening to us anymore, he was only trying to find everything that he could think of with the book and tried to show us how wise he was. He was all about "facts" as he mentioned a several times. None of that stuff he was saying to me even phased me. Then as I we went further along, It was clear that the spirit wasn't there and he wasn't listening...which happens. But before it ended, he asked me a question that for some reason I couldn't answer and it really hurt me.  It was like he was purposely trying to destroy my faith.  I, for the first time in my life, was backed up to the wall of faith.  I didn't really know how hard that would be. This man was educated and really though hard about things and after this question, I tried everything to answer it. But everything I was coming up with was not write and I felt for a while that I had lost my faith, all b/c of one dumb question. I don't know why it hurt me so bad but it did and I didn't know what to do but cry. I sat on the piano and I could barely play anything, I was honestly drowning in fear. And this may sound weak to you but by what happened next will tell you how hard it was for me and how God always will be there for you. as we were about to leave, my branch president walked in with a bag full of super famous Ukrainian cookies, milk, and Christmas presents for us.  He didn't know we were there. No one else had been there all day and no one else was there during our lesson. He just had a thought that he needed to buy lots of cookies and milk and go to the church...he was my miracle. But I found the answer to this man's question while I was on my knees actually.  I know that this experience made my faith stronger and I know that the gospel will answer ALL questions. I learned that faith is first a hope in things which are not seen which are true. Then next in this process of faith is knowledge.  Which comes after experimenting on the word of God. I learned on my mission that when you have knowledge you do everything you can to align your will with God's, in other words, sacrifice.   Then after sacrifice you can now "come boldly to the throne of grace" saying that "God, I have given you everything....help me out please".  When you sacrifice, you are able to bind God by your actions. With this last step of faith comes power.  it is by faith that all things are fulfilled.  I learned a ton this week, and I'm so grateful for this trial of faith that I was blessed with and I know that in the future I will that much stronger.   I love you all Have a great week!