Thanks for the birthday wishes!
Thanks to my family on both sides who send such sweet gifts! I felt your love so strongly and I am so grateful for the support I have been shown during my full time missionary service. God is so Good! I think that is the motto of my mission!
I have been thinking back upon my life and I am certainly not who I used to be...Now by saying these things I am very aware that I have quite a long list of flaws and imperfections and mountains to climb in my life... But I have gained so much faith in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in my mission.
I know at they live, and love me, and have a PERFECT plan for me!
Let me tell you a story--
After I got my mission call I was angry at the Lord for not sending me somewhere that was seen by others as an amazing mission with an amazing language or something completely exotic. I cried and could not understand why God would send me to the very mission that I did not want to go to (one where I had visited before, where my family loved, that was stateside and English speaking). I felt like I was almost looked down on and people thought I wasn't good enough for staying stateside or just speaking English...I really took it hard and held a grudge against God (looking back I so wish I hadn't felt or acted this way but I did learn much from it). My farewell talk was not the best because I basically talked for 10 minutes about how I didn't know why I was called to Mesa but I was going to just go for it and trust in the Lord...after settling into the idea of serving a mission and as the days drew closer to the time I would leave I began to have doubts and wonder if this was the right thing to do... Or if I could even serve a mission. I remember talking with my dad a few days before I would enter the MTC and wondering if I should even serve. I was angry at God for sending me to Mesa and I didn't understand His plan. I wanted to serve somewhere else and was not happy with what God has given me. I felt the spirit prompting me that I needed to serve a mission but I wanted to serve for the wrong reasons... So that I could receive praise from others. I had a lot of pride! But that day my dad told me that it was about time I decided whether I was going to be obedient to the Lord or not or not. And so I took a step into the darkness and gave the Lord everything so that He could make me more
like the Savior...
Day after day the Lord has washed away my pride and I know that He loves me and that he won't do anything to hurt us... Only to build us if we can endure the fire and pressure of our trials. And I know... Without a doubt...that this is exactly where I am supposed to be! God has shown me very intimately how much He knows, and cares for, and loves me! Wow, I feel so much gratitude to be in the Lord's service and to have His spirit with me and to be able to see the power of the Atonement working so strongly in others lives as well as in mine.
(Hopefully that made sense... I'm typing as fast as I can)
So, needless to say, my heart is full! We're learning a lot about God's timing this week... An how we should always bring our Ward mission leader to the apartments with us because
drunk people are frightening!
Enjoy every day this week and keep praying! He hears every word!
Love,
Sister Zimmerman
And for the pictures...
 |
| Sister Ibarra and I on exchanges |
 |
| - sister DUIAI shoved cake in my face on my birthday... Love her! |
 |
| Our MTC group for our 1 year mark PARTAY today!!! |
-
-
No comments:
Post a Comment