Hope!

2/29/16

Iaorana tout le monde! 

We had a great week with lots of miracles! Heavenly Father is truly a merciful being. I know that when we are obedient and endure to the end, He will always bless us with the blessings that we need! I love the fact that He knows us better than we know ourselves. It is such a blessing to be able to trust him and put our life in his hands through our obedience. We had the wonderful blessing of seeing Robert get baptized this week! He is an amazing person. The first time we met him was a little over a month ago. He was working in his yard and did not even want to come greet us at the gate. We left him with a prayer  and followed the spirit that told us to go back and visit him. He made the decision to be baptized which was great, but this did not stop the trials. Everything seemed to be blocking him from going through with this decision. We did the program  and went last Tuesday to do his interview. When the interview was over, he announced that he no longer wanted to be baptized on Saturday, because it was too hard and he thought it would be good to wait a little bit. We were loving but direct and basically told him that if he made this choice, he would be letting Satan win and that the trials would be even harder than before. We had a good conversation and left with a prayer. When we returned to their house on Thursday, things seemed to be different. He came out and his wife was at his side. We started the lesson and did the follow up, we asked if they had any thoughts or questions about what happened the last time and then they fought over who was going to tell us their verdict. By the grace of God, they decided to pray and read the scriptures when we left their house on Tuesday. Everything they read pointed them towards baptism. They prayed as a family and decided that Robert would be baptized, and he was. It was one of the most beautiful services that I have seen as a missionary. God has big things in mind for this family and I know that the mom and daughter will follow this great example of  Robert soon! I love this gospel and know that it is true! I love seeing people make good choices that come with the consequences of  blessings and happiness. 

This week, I thought a lot about hope. Without hope and faith in life, there really is no point. I love the scriptures 1 John 3:2-3. When I read these verses, I asked myself three questions. How can we have hope in our lives? What is the foundation of hope? What are the consequences of  hope? I think that hope comes with knowing who we are and our divine identity. We are children of God with lots to accomplish here on earth. To have hope, we cannot just know our identity, we have to have the desire and the drive of actually finding our potential. Anything is possible through God, but these miracles and blessings depend on our faith and actions. The foundation of our hope is our Savior, Jesus Christ. Through him, we can hope. We can hope for a better future and for an eternal life. We can hope to be forgiven of our sins. We can hope to receive comfort when the hard times come. We can hope to be on the path of life that Heavenly Father has in mind for us. Our "hopes" in life are limitless. All we have to do is have the faith and the desire to wish for these things. Lastly, thanks to these scriptures in the bible, I learned that if we have hope, we will be purified and sanctified. I love these two words and they are something that we all want and that we all need. Purification is an essential step to our mortal journey. What a great thing to know that our hope purifies us. So when life gets hard and we feel a little lost or not sure if we are living up to the expectations of God, let us not lose HOPE! I love you all and I hope that you are happy and counting on our Heavenly Father for his heavenly help! Have a great week! 

Love, Soeur Kofford

Robert's baptism! Such a miracle!

Still love the cats of Tahiti!