my queridos!
I just want to share my small testimony that we are in the t r u t h. this gospel is the truth! and it just makes me want to burst with happiness! EEEEP 🙂
I have been thinking & reading of the story of the story when a rich young man asked the Savior what he had to do to have eternal life. The Savior tells him to give all he and to the poor and f o l l o w Him. as we all know, the rich young man left sorrowful…. because he did not want to sacrifice what he had.
Joseph smith once said, “any worthy religion worth living, will always require us to sacrifice & will test our faith to the points where we feel we cannot go on.”
is that not so true? The gospel truly requires everything of us. It requires to sacrifice what we want, for what the Lord truly needs in order for his work to build. And I will be the first to admit, sacrificing is HARD! And although we are imperfect human beings, God, our loving Heavenly Father, has made a perfect plan!
A plan that, if we truly live and apply in our lives, helps us “go on our ways rejoicing” (dy&c 84:105) after the Savior has told us, “give everything you have and f o l l o w me!” Because we want to improve and we think we can!
Every week on my mission, i make personal goals to sacrifice a little bit more and each week I fall right on my face and short of those goals 🙂 every week. Not lying. But because God is so good, i always go away rejoicing because I know in my heart god gives me at least credit for trying!
this week my daughter was sick, doctor appointments each day, not leaving the room, our area suffered and opposition was realllll. Let me tell ya. The opposition was pumpin the whole 7 days against us.
Well, i got blessed with angels wednesday night. A HUMONGOUS tender mercy. There names are, Luciana & Cinthya! A year ago (exactly from when I entered the real mission field) i met cinthya rafael! Who has now become such a dear friend! She was the first house we went to my first night i arrived in El Bosque. You can just imagine it 🙂 I was so tired, so lost, so not prepared, I so did not know spanish and there we were sitted on the couch. i just wanted to cry. I did not understand what was being said, I was in my own little world, and Cinthya asked me to share my testimony of the atonement in Spanish. I thought she was crazy because I just said, “no puedo.” she invites me to do it again and I through the most ineloquent spanish EVER. I shared, “La expiacion me ha salvado en estes 6 semanas.” I had huge alligator tears! It helped me so much in that moment realize how real the atonement had been for me my first 6 weeks of the mission. This past wednesday night, cinthya and her friend (both returned missionaries) went out with me to teach as other members stayed with my comp. As we were walking, cinthya looks at me and says, “why are you stressed?!” do you not remember how much the atonement has blessed your life in your mission, remember your first testimony you shared in spanish? the atonement has mad YOU, hna higginson, a walking miracle!” In that moment they helped me realize that I needed to sacrifice a little more than what I had been doing, in token for all that Christ has done for me my whole mission.
I would have never though, 1 year later, God would put Cinthya Rafeal back in my life to help me. He lives & wants us more than anything to progress!
I think I asked the questions, “why” & “because” a little too much! But “why this, why now? after all we have tried to do?” Humility is more what I need hahaha. But I learned a valuable lesson through the spirit,”you need more faith, hermana higginson! a lot more faith.” faith unto sacrifice. A little word with huge meaning. I needed more faith to be willing to sacrifice my will for my Heavenly Father´s will for me.
if we truly understand that sacrifice is a part of the plan God has given us and if we have the truth imbedded in the fibers of our hearts, each time that God makes us walk through our own “gethsemanes” so to speak, we will not go away sorrowful like the young rich man, we will go away rejoicing that God expects that much more for us! Which means that He has that more blessings just waiting for us if we sacrifice what we want for what He wants for us!
Hermana Higginson 