Amazing Grace

 

 

Hello Everyone!
 

So life is good. I feel like so much but so little has happened all at the same time.

I guess first of all... it's like... spring? In February? In Canada? Yah, it's weirding me out just a little.

So this week was a good one, we've been facing some days with absolutely no appointments at all and even with more discretion it's kind of scary sometimes looking at five hours of OYMing in a day. But both sister Chen and I are tired of letting our fears get in the way. So we went out and we walked and we talked, and we bus talked, and we walked some more and we talked some more and we actually found a solid new investigator this week!

We met with him yesterday for the first time and both sister Chen and I were really worried about the lesson because it was family day and none of the public sitting places were open so when we finally found him it was in front of a movie theater. The only open place in the mall. This particular theater had a play place and an area where you could sit down before you went into your movie and seeing that we had very little options left we went in. The lights were dimmer then we would have liked and the distractions were plentiful but as the lesson progressed everything seemed to fall away. He was paying attention to our words and asking wonderful questions and about mid way through I was hit with a powerful wave of the spirit. God made that little buttered popcorn covered table in the only open venue a place where the spirit could be felt. It was a wonderful lesson and we left that table with a special feeling.

We're looking forward to the coming weeks where we will keep finding and keep searching for the little miracles. I don't think we'll ever have a lesson in a movie theater again but I will always remember the lesson I learned about how God takes what we have and works with it.

I made a lot of silly mistakes this week. For example last p-day I bought myself new shampoo and conditioner and have been really confused as my hair suddenly decided to rebel and go super static-y and dry even though I was using the same brand I always do and then I read the labels this week and realized! I bought TWO bottles of shampoo and have been using them for a week already! I was so upset! Then we went to go meet a member at a restaurant and usually I'm pretty good at directions but we took a wrong turn and I got so lost and I had left my GPS at home that day! Took us a while but we made it back.

Those are kind of the minor mistakes I made this week though. I made some larger ones too. Nothing serious and none of it on purpose but I was feeling all around stupid by the time Sunday came around. It's frustrating sometimes feeling like you aren't reaching your full potential just because of human weaknesses. Especially when you know how important your current calling is.

So Saturday night and Sunday we had stake conference, one of the greatest blessings from my mission has been the conference meetings with such inspired and powerful leaders. This week we were blessed to hear from Elder Meurs from the 70 and his wife both of whom are from Australia. They shared beautiful testimonies of the savior and they were both wonderful meetings. But on Sunday Elder Meurs shared something that I needed to hear. "The atonement doesn't just cover your mistakes it covers your accidents too." When Christ was in that Garden he took on everything! Not just your sins, but you. He took you, as you are, and as you could be, and as you will be. This is what we mean when we say his atonement is infinite it covers YOU in your entirety.

The spirit touched my heart and there were tears in my eyes as he shared about an experience where he had fallen asleep at the wheel and had crashed his car injuring his family. Even though everyone walked away from that experience able to fully physically recover. For years, he could not forgive himself. It wasn't until he deepened his understanding of the atonement that he was able to change. God Himself suffered for the world that we might not have too. And until we realize how to access that power sometimes we will torture ourselves needlessly suffering for a debt that has already been paid.

Think about that pain. The pain of someone rejecting your greatest gift.

And then think about the joy and the rejoicings that we are told about in heaven when anyone repents.

This is why we worship Him as our Savior.

I love you all and plead with you to use His atonement in your life.

He already carried you.

So let Him help you become the best you can be.

The Eternal you, the one who has learned from both your mistakes and your accidents and has come out better for all of it. 

-Sister Skinner