This week was an interesting week and for reasons that I can't really talk about to much today it was kind of tough! However Andra is doing great and we are really excited for her and Indra! They love the Book of Mormon! It makes teaching them so great! I love it!
This last week I have also just been blessed so much by so many different people and their influence on me! Wow it has been incredible to see how great people still are in a world that isn't so great! I have grown to love people so much here in Grenada! The Grenadian people are wonderful and the medical students in the branch are my heroes! I love these people!
This week i was able to see the members rally around another member at a time of need and it was so incredible to see! Elder Bingham and I were in tears time and time again as we watched this unfold. And because of the situation we kind of had to simply just sit back and watch the members step up. And did they ever! I am honored to be able to work with these people!
I don't have much to say today but I just want anybody that may be having a hard time as they read this to just pay attention for a second. Because of the events that have happened this week this is something that I am kinda passionate about right now. I want everyone who is reading this right now to know that God loves them. I know that. You matter to Him. You are His work and his Glory! I testify that God loves each of us with a perfect love. He is very mindful of us. I also know that the Savior is as it says in Hebrews, "the Mediator of a better covenant" and "An High Priest of good things to come." Things will get better. He conquered, not just overcame, but conquered every thing that any of us has been through, are currently going through and ever will go through. Trust Him. He is the Way! I know that He loves us. Hang on, and hold on. If things are hard, take heart. With His help you will reach your promised land.
With love,
Elder Smith
ps this is a story from an Elder Holland talk that I love!
"Katie Lewis is my neighbor. Her older brother, Jimmie, is battling leukemia. But like the faithful Latter-day Saints they are, the Lewises turned to God with urgency and with faith and with hope. They fasted and prayed, prayed and fasted. And they went again and again to the temple.
One day Sister Lewis came home from a temple session weary and worried. As she entered her home, four-year-old Katie ran up to her with love in her eyes and a crumpled sheaf [stack] of papers in her hand. Holding the papers out to her mother, she said enthusiastically, “Mommy, do you know what these are?”
Sister Lewis smiled through her sorrow and said, “No, Katie. I don’t know what they are. Please tell me.”
“They are the scriptures,” Katie beamed back, “and do you know what they say?”
Sister Lewis knelt down to her level and said, “Tell me, Katie. What do the scriptures say?”
“They say, ‘Trust Jesus.’”
Sister Lewis said that as she stood back up, she felt arms of peace encircle her weary soul and a divine stillness calm her troubled heart.
In a world of discouragement, sorrow, and sin, in times when fear and despair seem to prevail, I too say, “Trust Jesus.” Believe that He can lift mankind from its bed of affliction [trouble], in time and in eternity."
"Don’t give up, Don’t you quit. You keep walking. You keep trying. There is help and happiness ahead.You keep your chin up. It will be all right in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come. Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don’t come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come."
Jeffrey R Holland
"It isn’t as bad as you sometimes think it is.
It all works out. Don’t worry.
I say that to myself every morning.
It will all work out.
Put your trust in God,
and move forward with faith
and confidence in the future.
The Lord will not forsake us.
He will not forsake us.
If we will put our trust in Him,
if we will pray to Him,
if we will live worthy of His blessings,
He will hear our prayers."
-Gordon B Hinckley
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