Week 11 - Faith, Actions, then blessings.

Hello Family and Friends and people I know and love!

This week has been a roller coaster.  At first, I really couldn't sleep at all because of my bug bites, but then I had a talk with God and this is what we discussed.  I noticed that nothing I was putting on my bug bites was working to take away the itching, but they really felt a lot better after taking a shower in the morning and washed everything off.  So, I told God I was going to stop putting creams and stuff like that on my legs and I was just going to take Benedryl all day, which I realize may have consequences on my ability to stay awake, but I told Heavenly Father I was going to do my best when it came to the work and I was going to stay faithful with taking it as often as I could and then take two pills at night to help me sleep, which was my biggest problem.  I just was not able to sleep because my bites were itching so badly to the point of driving me nearly to insanity.  So, I had that talk with God late Wednesday night, just before I went to bed.  I didn't get any sleep that night.  Or the night after that, but the night after that?  I slept straight through.  And, during the day, my legs weren't itching anymore and I was able to focus on the work.  It was very very hard not getting sleep for a while, but after I made a promise to God about being faithful to taking my medicine, He made a promise to me that He would provide me with the sleep necessary to continue His work in Andrews and He would carry me throughout the day, and He did!  After that whole experience, I have a new testimony of the Lord's timing, the true nature of God (He is my loving Heavenly Father), prayer (we can talk to God about literally any aspect of our lives and He can and will help us if we truly have the faith and if we ASK Him - it will always take some sort of ACTION on our part, but He will always help us if we truly need it and in the way we truly need it), and i am a witness to the fact that God can bring about miracles, but only when we ask in faith, nothing wavering.  James 1:5-6 promises us this: "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.  But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.  For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed."  That last part of the scripture is the key to truly receiving an answer from God!  Moroni 10:3-5 says, "Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye would read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.  And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.  And by the power of the Holy Ghost, ye may know the truth of all things."  THAT, my friends, is a powerful promise.  And all he asks is that we take that leap of faith and have real intent to ACT to receive an answer and to ACT when we receive that answer.  I could not have healed that quickly if I told God, "Okay, you need to heal me because I can't do missionary work with these things on my legs - SO HEAL ME.  NOW." It doesn't work like that.  I needed to have the faith that God would heal my legs quickly, but I also needed to promise Him I would take the medicine that was working and not do the medicine that wasn't.  That is when I received my help from on high!

Another thing that happened this week was Stake Conference!  We went to Midland on Saturday night to attend the adult session and then stayed with the Sisters there so we could go to a missionary meeting the next morning and then the Sunday session of Stake Conference.  The missionary meeting is so amazing!  I guess before every Stake Conference, President Heap holds a question and answer session where we can ask him anything we want to, doctrinally, or with an investigator, or anything else we want to.  THAT was an amazing experience!  I didn't ask any specific questions, but somehow, he was able to answer some I didn't even know I had!  It was incredible.  I really love President and Sister Heap and their willingness to serve.  Stake Conference was amazing as well!

Last thing is that this 86 year old man we go and visit who can't come to church very often because of his arthritis, Bro. McMahan (pronounced MACmahan), gave me a bracelet that belonged to his recently deceased wife!  It has an "h" on it (picture below) and he didn't know anyone with a name that starts with h until he met me!  So he gave me this beautiful bracelet and I immediately cleaned it when I got home (it was FILTHY) and I love it so much!  He's always giving us things, but this was really really special and I really appreciated it!

The other pictures are a bird skull Sis Kynaston found for me, a picture we made for Bro McMahan that he FRAMED!!  I did the lettering and Sister Kynaston did the water color flowers, and a picture Bro McMahan had in his back room that I thought was hilarious.

Sis. Overson did the lettering, and Sis. Kynaston
 did the flowers.  So pretty!!!

I love you all and I hope you have an amazing week!

Love,

Sister Heather Overson