So, first, I love you all and I am so thankful for your emails and prayers. I don't really have much to write about this week other than a couple of things, so this will probably be a really short email. This week we focused a lot of member work and tried to reach out to our members in Istanbul. There are over one-hundred on the list and around 5 come to church, so thats a little rough. So we have been working on that. We had some really cool lessons this week as we met with some of our friends. It has been such a blessing to see their lives change bit by bit as we teach them the gospel. I also became a true Turkish Sister as of yesterday because I got my first marriage proposal. A man called me and I wasn't able to answer, so I called him back later and he began to tell me that he wanted to move to Germany and he wanted to marry me. So, that was definitely interesting.
A quick spiritual thought: We recently were talking to a member who left the church. They told us that the reason they left the church was the doctrine of Heavenly Mother. This response has been stuck in my head for the past couple of days as I have tried to think of the best way to respond back to this member. I have been realizing how blessed I have been to know that we have both a Heavenly Father and Mother. They both love us deeply and perfectly. I quickly just wanted to share something from the church's website about our Heavenly Parents. It says, "As with many other truths of the gospel, our present knowledge about a Mother in Heaven is limited. Nevertheless, we have been given sufficient knowledge to appreciate the sacredness of this doctrine and to comprehend the divine pattern established for us as children of heavenly parents. Latter-day Saints believe that this pattern is reflected in Paul’s statement that 'neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.' Men and women cannot be exalted without each other. Just as we have a Father in Heaven, we have a Mother in Heaven. As Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has said, 'Our theology begins with heavenly parents. Our highest aspiration is to be like them.'" I am so thankful for Heavenly Parents and the love that I have felt from them as I have served my mission. I think it is so incredible that we have this divine potiential to become like them and I know that as we strive to develop our own relationships with them that we will be so blessed in this life and the life to come.
Again, so thankful for all of you! Here is my google photos link, although I didn't end up taking any photos this week.
Comments
Post a Comment