SISTER POWELL: I’M CHOOSING TO ACCEPT HIS INVITATIONS
Hello family and friends,
The Swedish surprise for the week is that it’s November and I haven’t even broken out my big winter coat yet.
I think that’s more of a blessing than a surprise but either way I am extremely happy about it.
Monday: We were talking with a member and she wants to know what we like to do in America. I explained that one of my favorite things in the world is the DI. I told her I just love secondhand clothes. She told us about this secondhand shop that is open on Mondays in the cellar of some building. Weird. But we decided to check it out for p-day and let’s just say it was the happiest day of my mission. I found this classic Hannah-DI sweater and Syster J said I was like a new person. Oh I have missed my secondhand clothes. We’re going back today.
Tuesday: Met with this girl we had contacted a week or two prior. She sat down and said, “I know a lot about your church. I always wanted to learn more but was always too afraid to ask the sisters to teach me. So I would come to activities and they would just ask me about school and stuff. But now I want to actually learn about your church.” Well, we can help with that.
Wednesday: Zone conference. We talked about obedience, sacrifice, and prayer and how the three work together.
Thursday: Syster J is trying on her huge winter coat and complaining that she looks like a marshmallow and I’m like girl ya look great and she just yells, “You’re my mom, you have to say that!” hahahahah
Friday: Out tracting and we didn’t even realize it was Halloween. Oops. People don’t celebrate that much here so no one offered us candy but we were checking the phone and noticed the date and we were like HEY. It’s Halloween! We walked through the cemetery that night because here in Sweden each grave site is given a lighted candle so the cemeteries just look so pretty dotted with candle after candle after candle. It was so fun.
Saturday: Dropped off a little thank you note to two sisters in the branch and they offered us to stay for dinner. We’re thinking, wait no we are thanking you… you can’t give us something else! I love these people
Sunday: Talking with Syster J and I tell her that in high school I never hung out with people because I didn’t like people and I just liked to stay at home with my parents. She’s like really??? Uhhh yeah. I’m kinda an introvert… she says she seriously would never have guessed. “You love people,” she said. I just sat there and thought about how great it is to be a missionary. I am a different person than I was at home and I know that is because God needs me to be like that. He needs me to love people and talk to people and be around people and so He gives me the strength to do that everyday. I know it’s not some random change in myself that has happened in the last five months. It is Him. And I am so thankful for it. I love this calling and I just love the blessings that come with it.
This week at zone conference we were invited to accept Christ’s invitations. Matthew 16: 24-25, ‘If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. (JST: And now for a man to take up his cross, is to deny himself all ungodliness and every worldly lust, and keep my commandments.) For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.’ Christ has invited us to follow Him. We were given a little envelope at zone conference that said, ‘Accept His invitations.’ Inside we found a list that I am choosing to accept:
-launch out into the deep
-leave behind your nets
-step into the water
-give Him all that you have
-leave neutral ground
-come running
-entertain thoughts of greatness
We were encouraged at zone conference to give over something to God that we have not been asked to give. Something that is harmless, even good. Some chose to give up sleep, wake up at 6 instead of 6:30 to have an extra 30 minutes to study. Others chose to stop writing significant others or talk about home throughout the week. Each chose something individual and something they felt they needed to hand over.
I think most of my life I have been very choosy in what I give to God. I have been picky in that Oh, I’lll give You this. But I won’t give You this. You can have 2 hours for mutual on Wednesdays but you can’t have 30 minutes of scripture study this morning. I’ll pass on this movie but I wont give up this song. I’ll give a talk this week but I won’t invite my friends to church. I just wasn’t committed. I wasn’t willing to give over everything to Him.
In Omni 1:26 we are commanded,
‘Come unto Him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto Him.’
There’s no picking and choosing. There is no, you can have this but you can’t have that. It doesn’t work like that. It is all or nothing.
I know I needed to come on a mission to understand the way of that commandment. I just get it. I don’t want my happiness to be half-hearted. So why would I limit it with giving over half of my heart? It doesn’t work like that. I want God’s love and His blessings and His help everyday. And it only comes by offering my whole soul. And by leaving behind my nets. By entertaining thoughts of greatness.
President Benson said, ‘The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of the people and then they in turn take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature.’
I think this change that Christ is just waiting to start with us begins when we accept His invitations. When we come running, when we step into the water, when we leave neutral ground. That is when the change comes. That is when he takes the slums out of us and we take ourselves out of the slums. That’s when He changes our nature and we change our behavior. It is only through our willingness to give Him all we have.
So this week I decided to ‘straightway leave my nets and follow Him’. I’m turning to Him and as a result I feel Him turning to me. Or rather, I recognize that He has been there the whole time. Just waiting for me to leave neutral ground and come running. I am entertaining thoughts of greatness and I am offering my whole soul. I want to be changed. I want to become His. I want to forever and always be a disciple of Jesus Christ and I want to know Him. I love being a missionary. I love learning more and more about this journey of life and learning how to turn to my Savior. I want Him to change me and mold me and shape me and I want to invite others to Him. It wasn’t until I watched a single mother give all that she had to Christ and change her life and accept these principles that I realized that I have never once handed everything over to Him. It wasn’t until I watched a young, pretty Swede with everything good in her life decide she needed to change her lifestyle to know Christ that I realized that I have never changed my lifestyle to come closer to Him. Oh I need Sweden.
My mom wrote me this week and shared an insight she found from Mosiah 18:30. ‘These chapters are about Alma and everything that transpired in Mormon. “And now it came to pass that all this was done in Mormon, yea by the waters of Mormon, in the forest that was near the waters of Mormon; yea the place of Mormon, the waters of Mormon, the forest of Mormon, how beautiful are they to the eyes of them who there came to the knowledge of their Redeemer; yea, and how blessed are they, for they shall sing to his praise forever.” It said earlier in that chapter that Mormon had been inhabited at times by wild beasts. And it was probably not much to look at really. It was a forest and lake but what made it beautiful was what happened to the people while they were there. It became a beautiful and special place to them. The cities I served in in Spain were big and dirty and often smelled like urine but they are beautiful to me because of the experiences I had there and how I came to know my Redeemer while I was there. Katrineholm may be the armpit of Sweden but it is beautiful to you because of how it has helped you come to know your Redeemer. It will always be a beautiful and special place to you.’ I would have to agree. Katrineholm will forever and always be beautiful to me because I understand my Redeemer. And that understanding blossomed here in Katrineholm. I have a desire to come to Him and to let Him change me. I want Him to have my whole soul. I want Him to know that I am entertaining thoughts of greatness, that I am leaving neutral ground, that I have left my nets. I’m launching into the deep and stepping into the water. I am being changed and strengthened and I know that it is because of this experience and the people I have met here. I love my Savior and I encourage you all to run to Him. Leave your nets and launch into the deep and let him change you–from the inside out. Let Him mold you and craft you and pick you up and help you along. I promise you He will.
I am thankful for this opportunity and I am just so darn happy. Thank you for all the letters this week. I am so spoiled.
I love you all. KÄMPA PÅ
Syster Hannah Powell
