Sunday, March 6, 2016

Trials are small

Howdy howdy!

In our zone, there are four major cities, Liberia is the largest and has an airport, that´s where the zone leaders work. Then there´s Santa Cruz, Nicoya, and Huacas. We worked in one city each day. In Santa Cruz, we've contacted just about all of the investigators, and three of them came to church last Sunday. Next week we hope to have eight. We are teaching some amazing families.

By the way, sorry for not writing yesterday, I got a little sick, so we stayed in house all day.

Also, I had no time to write in my journal this week, and I´m having a hard time remembering what happened, so if this email is short...sorry :) Also the man at the computer next to mine just exclaimed ¨I believe in Satan, Not God!¨ So I offered him a card with a picture of Jesus, it seemed to help.

They closed an area in our zone yesterday, so my area just got bigger, again. AAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall the way to the beaches. I´m going to figure out how many miles it is, all's I know is it´s a lot. Days of walking, hours by bus.

If you remember the name Cesar, it´s because he´s the first person I baptized. After his baptism, he kinda dropped off the edge of the earth, we called, passed by his house, sent texts, nothing worked, he was always busy or not at home. When we finally had a lesson with him, he informed us that he was moving away, and that he doesn't really have a whole lot of time at the moment for a lesson. So we left. And honestly I felt like a complete failure. It felt like it was all for nothing, this message can´t help those that choose not to live it, and I knew that if he moved away, he´d stop coming to Church for good. (He hadn't been coming for awhile.) Fast forward a month and a half, he shows up in church and tells me that he decided to stay in Santa Cruz, and he moved into the apartment under mine! Golly me it felt like a tender mercy. It felt like there is a Heavenly Father who looks out for His children. Now maybe you´re thinking ¨What about all the bad stuff that happens? Where´s the love in that?¨ I think about that a lot. And I have found a fairly simple answer. If our existence were limited to this mortal life, I´d have to say that it is all rather unfair. But I believe that there is more to us than meets the eye, and that it doesn't all end with an eternal sleep. That even though things may be hard now, there will be a recompense. I believe in Justice. I believe in Mercy. And I believe in a God who is both. With those premises the only logical conclusion is that this pain we endure can and will be alleviated. And that the end result (resultant of the pain, which equals learning and progression) is a person who is more like God. Therefore, happier, infinitely more able to Be. Trials are small when considered in a long perspective, they only loom indomitable when we put blinders on.

Thankfully,

Elder Noah M. Toney

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