Seeing the promises a far off...and then waiting.

Hi Family and Friends!

This week has been a great test of faith and a builder of faith as well. Last Sunday, we had set up the baptism for the birthday investigator for the following Sunday, not knowing if she would make it. We made announcements and gave them to her to give to her family. But we decided that we were going to do our best and leave the rest of it up to the Lord. On Monday, she called us because she had something going on and wanted to meet earlier. It was amazing that she called us because she is sometimes forgetful. We thought that it was going to go smoothly the rest of the week. I don't know why I thought that because it never goes smoothly the week before a baptism. The next day we go over and she is mad at the world and wouldn't talk to us. So a day passes. But we kept calling people for the baptism and scheduling it. Wednesday comes and we call her and she is still hating the world. So we pray harder. The next day, she calls us and apologizes and asks us if we could come over. So we go over there and we are really worried that she will cancel the baptism. While we are sitting there talking to her, she brings up that she is making cakes. We ask what for and she says that she is making them for her baptism. Duh! She tells us that for those past two days, Satan had been working really hard on her and she would get thoughts to cancel the baptism or not go to church. So now we only had two days left to teach the rest of the lessons. We go over there on Friday, and as we teach the commandments we start gettting worried that she won't remember for the baptismal interview. But we put it in the Lord's hands again and we know that if she isn't ready the Lord will let the interviewer know and we would keep working with her. So we set up the time for the zone leaders to come by and interview her. We show up the next day and she's not there. Not again! We call her mom's, her brother's and no one knows where she is. So we pray again and ask that she could get her interview that day and we had full confidence that it would happen. Both us and the Elders kept stopping by all day long and then finally, two hours before curfew, she's home. She passes the interview and is super excited for Sunday. We go over all the problems that could stop her from coming to church and set up a game plan. Sunday comes, we stop by in the morning about an hour before church and see if she's up. She was already taking a shower and everything. So we drive to the church and have our meetings with the bishop. About 45 minutes later, the investigator's ride calls and said that the investigator didn't feel good and she isn't coming. (She was having major anxiety.) AWWW!!! So we take off to her house to bang down the door. She doesn't answer and we know she's there. We go back to the church in defeat but we knew that we did everything we could and the Lord had miracles happen all over the place to get her that far. Finding her was a miracle too. We did everything we could and so did the Lord, without taking away her agency. She just chose to use it in the wrong way. So we were exhausted at the end of the week and as we learned that it requires a lot of mental power and strength to have full confidence and faith in the Lord.

Faith is something that I've been learning very quickly. In my personal study this morning, I turned to my study journal and read notes I had taken from a conference talk in Nov 2003, "Seeing the promises afar off" by Anne Pingree. There are some quotes I wrote down and scriptures she used. I always turn to this when I need a boost.

D&C 123:17- "...let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power, and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed."
"Faith, the spiritual ability to be persuaded of promises that are seen "afar off" but that may not be attained in this life, is a sure measure of those who believe."
Heb. 11:13- "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them and embraced them..."

The hard part about faith is waiting on the Lord's timing. It might be tomorrow, it might be in a year, it might be in the next life but in Alma 37:17 it says,

"For He will fulfill all His promises which He shall make unto you..."

Faith needs to live within us and we need to live our faith.

Love Sister Sumsion