The reason is because of two things, the first is the enabling power of the atonement. We got a packet when we first came out called the atonement packet, it has a bunch of good talks on the atonement. Well i was reading it and read a talk that Elder Bednar gave while he was president of BYU-Idaho called "In the Strength of the Lord". He talks about what the enabling power of the atonement means. Describing what the enabling power is he said, "Grace represents that divine assistance or heavenly help each of us will desperately need to qualify for the celestial kingdom. Thus the enabling power of the Atonement strengthens us to do and be good and serve beyond our own individual desire and natural capacity."
He then talks about how we can apply it. He goes into detail about the story of Nephi loosing his bands when his brother tied him up in 1 Nephi 7. He then gives what we get out of the story he says, " Brothers and sisters, the implication of this episode for each of us is quite straightforward. As you and I come to understand and employ the enabling power of the atonement in our personal lives, we will pray and seek for strength to change our circumstances rather then praying for our circumstances to be changed. We will become agents who "act" rather than objects that are "acted upon".
This hit me so strong and has helped me out so much. We all have the ability no matter how bleak or how dark our situation is to overcome what we face. God never gives us trials that we cannot overcome, The real question is are we going to turn to the savior for the strength to do it. Ever since I have read that I have been praying for the strength to overcome the things I've been facing rather then for them to go away. This has helped me out so much, and I've literally felt the savior bear me up and strengthen me to face what I've been dealing with. What an amazing blessing it is to be able to know that there is a perfect being out there who has gone through everything that we have, and all we have to do is turn to him and he will wrap his arms around us and carry us through our trials. He is waiting for us to ask him, and even if we don't he is standing right next to us with open arms. I pray that all of you as you face your trials will turn to the savior and ask that through the enabling power of his atonement for the strength to overcome anything you face. I testify that the savior through his enabling power will give you the strength to overcome all things.
The second thing that has really helped me overcome what I've been facing is through Brother Crenshaw. Brother Crenshaw travels around and helps missionaries who are really struggling and i was able to meet with him on Friday. The meeting was amazing and I was able to learn a lot about myself and how to overcome my problems. He not only helped with that but helped me come up with some things to do to really change our area. The members in our area aren't that excited about missionary work, and we are having a tough time working with them because our ward mission leader is not the greatest haha. Its not his fault though his family is facing some super hard trials, so he cant do much. What were going to do to "fire" up our ward is through M&M training. Every week were going to have a member and missionary training to go over what they can do and how they can help us out. Were really excited to start it and we think it will be really successful. We have come up with a bunch of ways that they can help us and hopefully we can start seeing a lot of big things happen around here! We are meeting with bishop this week to go over it with him and see how he feels about it, so i let you guys know next week how that goes!
These two experiences and all of your guys prayers have really caused me to do a complete 180. Im so happy now and loving the work! This is really long already so I'll just add one quick story. Yesterday we met some people that we thought were potentials, because they called us out of no where and asked us to help them move, we had no idea who they were. Jerry knew who they were and was actually wanting us to go over there. We end up going over there and they talked to us for like an hour about themselves. They told us how they were moving to Alaska and how that's where they were originally from. They told us the craziest stories! So to sum up the story, I'm moving to Alaska with Jerry sometime in the future hahaha. Also i somewhat held a baby which is against the rules, but she was so cute and kept hugging my leg. It as really funny i kind of just had her stand on my lap, because they cant sit on your lap but doesn't say anything about standing hahaha. Im sorry that this email was so long, but im doing great and working hard! I want you all to know how much I love you and appreciate all of your prayers and for all of your emails. I pray for all of you everyday and hope everything is going great!
Much love,
Elder Taeoalii
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