Remember the Worth of Souls is Great in the Sight of God

Hi Everyone!

I hope that your Christmas is going well and that you guys are staying as warm as we are. It has finally started to cool down a little bit, but it's still warm enough that we were able to go hiking last P-day, in the middle of December. We saw a lot of Christmas miracles though!

Scripture/Spiritual Thought:

"As we follow this divinely designed covenant path, our commitment and efforts to take upon us the name of Jesus Christ will give us the strength “to retain [His] name written always in [our] hearts.” We will love God and our neighbors and feel a desire to minister to them. We will keep His commandments and yearn to draw nearer to Him by entering into additional covenants with Him. And when we find ourselves weak and incapable to act on our righteous desires, we will plead for the strength that comes only through His name, and He will come to our aid. As we endure in faithfulness, the day will come when we will see Him and be with Him, and we will find that we have become like Him, thus qualifying us to return to the presence of the Father."

- Elder Paul B. Pieper, All Must Take upon Them the Name Given of the Father

Favorite Spiritual Moment:

The most active recent convert in our ward is a man named Dan. He is from the Philippines and had a head injury a couple of years ago that makes his comprehension level a little slow. He also does not currently have a home, so he stays the night at the place he works when he can and actually rents a hotel room for the rest of the week. He doesn't have a car, so he has to take the bus everywhere. He's a little socially awkward, so he doesn't really have many friends in the ward, and because of his head injury, he hasn't received a calling because they aren't sure if he would be able to fulfill it. Despite all of these things, he is still at church every single week. He comes to Book of Mormon class every Tuesday, and we are usually able to meet him for a lesson once a week also. The leaders of the church have suggested that every recent convert needs a friend, a responsibility, and nourishment of the good word of God in order to help them stay active. Dan only has one of these things. He does everything he can to understand the gospel better, even though it's really hard for him. I was thinking about that in the lesson we had with him this week, and how he is very converted to the Savior and His Gospel, even though he has a lot of things working against him. Then the thought crossed my mind that Dan has a very valiant spirit. Before Dan was born, I'm sure that he had some general idea of a few of the trials he was going to face, and yet, he agreed to them. His agreed to have to find the gospel amidst all these difficulties, because he knew how important it was for him to have the gospel in his life. So now, even though it's hard for him sometimes, he keeps on chugging, coming a little closer to the Savior each day. It was kind of inspiring to think of such a thing. I know that our Heavenly Father cares about each one of us, and that all of us have divine worth, with the potential to become like He is someday. He trusted us with exactly what we can handle, with His help. It's an amazing thing. I am so grateful to have been blessed to have a glimpse of the way the Lord sees us!

Favorite miracles:

With last Sunday being invitation Sunday, we invited even more people to church than usual. We had about five people confirm that they were going to come, at least three of which we thought were serious. Then, when Sunday came, none of them showed up. It was so depressing! We sat through the meeting, and at the end, still went to go talk to everybody on their way out of the chapel. While we were there, we realized that one of the members who just moved into the ward had invited her nonmember boyfriend, and he was there. The member left, but this guy, Calvin, was still at the church and started asking us about what the differences are between our church and others. We got to teach him the whole restoration and picked him up as someone we're teaching.

Later, we stopped by this member we didn't know, and when we knocked on the door, the housekeeper said that the person we were looking for wasn't home. She let us in anyway, because it turns out that she is also a less active member of the ward! We got to share a Christmas message with her and her kids. It was an awesome spiritual coincidence.

Other stuff:

I received a couple of emails the other day that meant a whole lot to me. First, Brother Alfarro got the Melchizedek priesthood! I am so excited for him and his family. It is so cool to get to see wonderful people like them continue to progress down the remarkable paths the Lord has for them.

The second email was from this sweet lady I ran into in Newhall more than a year ago now. Her name is Carol, and she is a part member family that we met under some pretty miraculous circumstances. Right before I left, she had come to church twice, was starting to be fellowshipped by the relief society and her older daughter had signed up for girls camp, but right after I left, I heard from the missionaries there that everything came crashing down. I didn't hear anything else about her after that until this week. Carol sent me an email that said in part:

"I have had a lot of challenges and what I like to think of maybe midlife crisis revelations that have brought and are bringing about good changes to my life. And well now more than ever I truly need and will continue to seek my heavenly father's guidance in my life. I really love you two girls for helping me when I really needed some help. Thank you for that, and I will always remain thankful to you both. I can't begin to tell you how much our lives are changing in a good way."

I'm not exactly sure what changed, but I am so grateful that it did. I know that Heavenly Father really does watch out for each of us, no matter our circumstances, and no matter how far we think we've strayed. He is always there for us. When we turn to Him and rely on Him, we can do all things.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Love,

Sister Garfield