1 Nephi 20:18
"O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments—then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea."
We got transfer news, sadly my companion sister perry will be leaving me :( but I'm so excited for her, she's going to be companions with my trainer sister Blaney!! My new companions name is Sister Tshimanga! She's from Africa, and I'm super excited for this next transfer with her!!
This past week we were able to get a lot of work done. Sherry and Gary Dodson were interviewed for their baptism that's on Saturday! They are the first convert baptisms this ward has had in 3 years!! To say the ward is excited would be an understatement, especially since they have been active investigators in the church for the past 20 years. I'm very grateful to be here for this big step for them. Sherry was diagnosed with cancer a few months ago, so any extra prayers for her/them would be very appreciated :)
As I have been going through and studying the book of mormon, I have tried to read a conference talk that goes along with each chapter I read and try to tie in what they say to what I read from past prophets 2600+ years ago. This one particular verse that I put at the top of my email really stood out to me.
I ended up finding an ensign article titled "a river of peace" that quoted this verse. She talks about how in our hard times we need to stop and ask for peace and comfort. No matter how hard the thing is that you are going through, you can feel peace. But you have to ask for it! His peace and his love for each one of us, isn't a one time thing. It's constant. And it's sometimes overwhelming when you really have the faith and are yearning for the promised river of peace that comes when you follow his commandments, and ask for it. We all have that fear though, the natural man inside of us that causes us to "fear God" and not want to ask for the things that we really need most, like to feel his love for us or to feel peace and comfort. So I decided to look more into the word fear, and what it means to fear God.
There are 2 ways that fear is spoken of in the scriptures, the first way means to fear Him in an act of having reverence and respect for Him.
The other way that it's talked about is that fear is spoken of as something unworthy of a Child of God, something that "perfect love casteth out". It said "the first effect of Adam's sin was that he was afraid". He knew he did something wrong, so when he heard God's voice, he was afraid and wanted to hide. It talked about how sin destroys the feeling of confidence God's child should feel in a loving Father and produces instead a feeling of shame and guilt.
After reading this I wrote in my journal, don't live your life in fear, let yourself feel his love for you! Ask for forgiveness and expect to receive it!
Have the faith and the confidence that God will answer your prayers. We can always turn our lives around and become better. I have seen it in so many people, including myself.
Pray for peace this week and expect to receive a whole river of it!!!
"Despite the heartache, I have experienced a constant underlying river of peace that flows from the Savior (see 1 Nephi 20:18). At particularly hard moments, days, or even weeks, His peace has carried away my sadness. I have but to ask for it. Heavenly Father doesn’t want us to go through mortality alone."
- "a river of peace": July 2012 ensign, by Lanise Heaton
I hope y'all have a great week!!
Love,
Sister Brooklyn Thorpe
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