Drew mail 8-11-2019: "Heavenly Father makes a way."

Hi everyone! I hope you are all doing well, and know that I love you, and Heavenly Father loves you so much! I wanted to share a few thoughts and experiences I’ve had throughout this week about how I’ve seen that Heavenly Father makes a way for us to do all he asks us to.

So on Sunday my district decided that we would do an “English fast” and only speak Spanish from Sunday night to Monday night. At first I felt nervous and wondered if I would be able to actually do such a demanding thing, but then I decided to just do my very best and rely on the help of my Savior. As I went throughout the next 24 hours, I found that I was able to speak much more than I thought I could! I found excitement and desire to speak in Spanish and I know that these blessings were from Heavenly Father. Now, of course I said a few things in English, there’s no way that I can be perfect, but I know that I worked as hard as I could and received great help and happiness because of these efforts. I think that it is really important for us to just give our all, don’t beat ourselves up when we aren’t perfect, and keep trying. I know that when we do this Heavenly Father will magnify our efforts and help us to do more than we believed we could.

I’ve been really focusing on specific goals this week, and I’ve found that this has really helped me see that when we give our all to improve, Heavenly Father will give us opportunities to learn and grow, and then recognize his help. In personal study I read the talk by President Nelson called “Drawing the power of Jesus Christ into our lives”, and I think that a quote he said really establishes what I’m talking about. He said, “When you spiritually stretch beyond anything you ever have done before, then His power will flow into you.” I know each one of you can know and see this for yourselves.

So one more experience where I saw that Heavenly Father makes a way for us to help others was during one of our TRC lessons with Elizabeth. Elizabeth is simply amazing! She has so much desire to learn and develop her faith and has done all we’ve invited her to do.  During our first lesson we invited her to read the introduction of the Book of Mormon, and we were planning to go into our second lesson and talk more about the Book of Mormon, but right at the start we found out that her questions and what she was needing to hear were about the plan of salvation. So even though we had not prepared for that lesson, and we were a little unsure of ourselves, Elder Howe and I decided to just go forward and do our best talking about the plan of salvation.  We saw so many blessings and help in knowing what to say, and as we trusted in the direction of the Holy Ghost, a path was made clear one step at a time. At one point in the lesson, I had the thought to read Moses 1:39 with her and I know this was a prompting from the spirit. This experience was such a strong testimony to me that when we just give our all and try to be directed by the Holy Ghost, that direction will come.

Yo testifico que Dios tiene un plan por nosotros. Él puede guiarnos y enseñarnos para ayudar otras personas y cumplir su voluntad. El Espíritu Santo es real y podemos recibir paz, gozo, y conocimiento por medio de su influencia. Yo sé que Dios ama todos ustedes.

(I testify that God has a plan for us.  He can guide us and teach us so that we can help other people to fulfill his will.  The Holy Ghost is real and we can receive peace and joy and knowledge by way of his influence.  I know that God loves all of you.)

Quote of the week: “I’d ask them to do hard things because I loved them.”

Scripture of the week: D&C 122:7

Elder McDonald