Monday, February 23, 2015

Power of Deliverance




Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been a little crazy, one of the craziest of my mission. I thought I knew what this transfer was bringing, my companion is going home, and I only have a transfer left (6 weeks), so naturally I thought I'd just stay in this area and finish it off. Wrong! President called us Friday night asking us if our area could sustain loosing both of us because I could be useful in helping another campus in Houston get off the ground. We have several campuses in the mission, many community colleges and things and this is the only one we can't proselyte on yet. 

So after lots of prayer and discussion we arrived at the decision that I should be transferred. It seemed a little sudden and drastic, but I feel a lot of peace with it. The Lord needs me somewhere else for 6 weeks, and though I don't know all the reasons why I am eager to find out. I feel like the Lord knew I needed a little more refining here at the end and things weren't hard enough to make me really turn to him as I ought to, so these last few weeks are going to help me learn how to really rely on the Atonement again. We got a new companion Saturday night and she's going to take it over with a new sister....so basically white-washing (2 new missionaries in an area together) thank goodness she's been here on exchanges a bunch before and is somewhat familiar with it, so the hand-off isn't completely cold. I'm excited for the new adventure of a new area!

We also got to go to the temple this week with a couple of our recent converts. We were able to work with them on Family History before hand and they both found many names and really caught the fire of the work and finding their ancestors. It was a wonderful thing to be a part of and so nice to be in the temple and find the peace that is there. I wish I had more to share, but it's really just been a whirlwind of change this week and a lot of adjusting and making sure the area is ready to go and everything is in order. I did have some cool insights in my studies today, and found some questions, so maybe y'all can help me answer them and add any insights you have :)

I was reading in Alma 4:13-14 Alma is sad because the people are again becoming wicked, it reads "Now this was a great cause for lamentations among the people, while others were abasing themselves, succoring those who stood in need of their succor, such as imparting their substance to the poor and the needy, feeding the hungry, and suffering all manner of afflictions, for Christ’s sake, who should come according to the spirit of prophecy; Looking forward to that day, thus retaining a remission of their sins; being filled with great joy because of the resurrection of the dead, according to the will and power and deliverance of Jesus Christ from the bands of death."

So while reading that I had a couple questions come to mind. What does it mean to do something for Christ's sake? How do we do that? Why do we do that?

Also, the importance of retaining a remission of our sins. Mosiah 4:12 talks about how we do that, and D&C 20:31-34 also talks about how salvation is not a one-time event. It is a process and requires that we are consistently and continually turning to the Lord and allowing Him into our lives. We need to continually avoid temptation and use the Atonement to help us transform into what Christ would have us be. Matt 5:48 "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." It's a journey and He'll be with us every step of the way. He's the one that has power to change us. He has power of deliverance. look for that phrase in Alma 7:13, Alma 15: 2-3 (vs 3, no deliverance), and Alma 9:28, 1 Nephi 1:20, and 2 Nephi 11:5. Food for thought. 

Tell me what you think.

 Love y'all bunches!! 


Sister Andreason

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