Good morning everyone!
I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas, I know I did! It felt so good to see my family and be able to talk with them face to screen to screen to face❤️💻 I'm so grateful for technology!
This week has just flown by! Wow this year has just flown by! But it has been packed with so much goodness! I have learned so much about myself, about the world, and most importantly about God. I feel very blessed to have spent this year serving the Lord. It's like I've been in an incubator for spiritual growth, now I'm about to hatch my little egg🐣! Haha anyway...
Let's see what happened this week. Marino and Maya came to church AND brought some family members with them! Yay for progressing people!
It's been really rainy here in Forest Grove this week. But despite the weather we are still out and about finding as many people to talk to as possible! One lady who we met this week started out the conversation by practically screaming at us that if we were there to talk to her about God we could @#$&, and that she was really angry at Him for taking someone she loved. As the only thing fitting for the situation we said nothing as requested and offered her a hug. She broke down in our arms and opened up to us about her struggles. It was such a tender moment and as we listened and talked we were able to testify of God's love for her and of the plan of salvation. She invited us back to teach her more.
As we walked away from that interaction I could feel so strongly that God was mindful of her situation, that he knew she was in pain and needed to talk to someone. I am grateful that we were able to help comfort our sister and feel humbled that God uses such imperfect instruments to accomplish His work and serve His children.
Spiritual Thought:
I've been thinking about the word conversion and convert recently. It's the term by which we distinguish those who join the church and were not born into it. We use it with ourselves to talk about the depth of our testimony. It is even used by those on the street who know that we are there to invite them to change.
As I have been reading these most recent conference talks there have been a lot of references to conversion, with the change of the church curriculum the goal and promised blessing is "deep and lasting conversion." Many of the talks focused on taking upon us the name of Jesus Christ, and becoming new creatures in Christ.
It is that definition of conversion that has taken on great meaning to me. I think a lot about the purpose of life and how we are here to learn and to grow. Part of that growth is learning to put of the natural man and become as Jesus Christ. Becoming a new creature in him. Conversion is metamorphosis, from caterpillar into butterfly.
It is learning to see through his eyes and therefore seeing so much more than our narrow perspective allows. Ultimately the goal is to return to live with Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father, but we will not return in our fallen state we need to be converted to be like them to live with them.
Moroni 7:48 says; "... Pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart... that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may be purified even as he is pure."
I believe conversion is a longer than life process. We will not be perfect when we die, we will continue to learn after we have passed, but while in this life we should strive to become converted to the Lord.
I love you all so much and hope you have a great week!
Sister Peterson
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