First full week on the mish could not
have been better and I can’t wait to share!!
I am sharing the gospel in the
“Southern” language. This week's ridiculously silly phrase went like
this, "How are you doing today?" -me "Well, I'm finer than a
frog's hair split four ways!" -southern man. hahah like excuse me,
whaaat? Too \funny. People find it "terribly odd" and
"charming" when I use words such as gnarly, stoked, rad and so
on. What different worlds there are! and I love it!
So earlier this week we were
teaching this incredibly prepared family and holy moly it was just
incredible! I speak and my brain is flabbergasted that such things
came out of my mouth! It's so awesome how the Spirit truly directs the lessons;
it truly is the Spirit that is the teacher, never ever am I. It was
seriously like all the stories of Alma and Amulek when they preach
the gospel by the spirit and the people are "astonished." This family
was astonished! God does prepare the hearts of His children to hear His
gospel at the perfect and exact time.
We were teaching this
family how to pray and as we were teaching the basic structure (open the
prayer by addressing our Father in Heaven, express the feelings of your heart
and questions you want answered etc, and close in the name of Jesus Christ,
amen). So then I decided that this week I really wanted to study
prayer.
I feasted upon Enos 1 and was just
amazed by that chapter! Enos wanted to know what the gospel his father often
spoke of concerning eternal life was all about and why it made the people so
joyful. Enos then says that the joy of the saints sunk deep in his heart
and his soul did hunger to know of the truth. Obviously, God in his
almighty abilities spoke to Enos after he "cried unto Him mightily in
prayer," and responded to him that because of Enos's unshaken faith unto
the Lord he would be forgiven and blessed. Enos then mentioned that his
guilt was "swept away." How awesome is the atonement!?! Our guilt can be, as Alma said, snatched
away! We just need to come to our Father with a "sincere heart and real
intent." I had heard that phase all through out my life but after deeper
study I learned the actual definition of "real intent," it means that
your gonna act on the answer God gives us. Interesting! How often do we
ask but fear the answer? If God tells us something, it is a commandment
and we will be held accountable if we don’t act!
Multiple times in Enos 1 it
mentions "asking in the name of Christ" "receiving in the name
of Christ" and so forth. I wanted to know of that deeper meaning
behind that and found that it means something so much more powerful and sacred
that I had ever known. I've closed every prayer in my life "in the
name of Jesus Christ" and have heard every talk and such be closed
"in the name of Jesus Christ" but never really contemplated it.
I learned that it literally means that we pray in Christ's name when we have
the mind of Christ, and our wishes and wants are inline with the wishes and
wants that Christ would see us fit for. Does that make any sense? I read
that many prayers remain unanswered because they aren’t in Christ's name in the
slightest! That those unanswered prayers don’t represent Christ's mind, but our
selfish greedy minds! MIND BLOWN. WORLD ROCKED.
We need to call upon God, in Jesus
Christ's name ever so often to help us out! I'm learning now more than ever
that I am frankly a pathetic selfish person and I in no way can take on
this work nor this life alone. So thank the heavens that we don’t have
to! God is there. Waiting for us to reach out so He can lift us up to the highest
unimaginable! Let us all grasp our divine identities! Our identity as a child
of God! I am so humbled to be out here in Powder Springs, Georgia fighting for
a cause that will never ever fail. This is the true church on the planet,
fully restored today! How marvelous of a knowledge that is!
Some fun things: NO ONE can pronounce
Miyahara and it's hysterical/insane. I am PAINFULLY full every single
night after being fed by the members. Everyone has multiple multiple
house cats and dogs and they usually reek and the vile odor that they emit is
like nothing these nostrils have ever smelled! The confederate flag is
everywhere and it makes my head tilt in confusion. I am serving
stateside yet I’m teaching recent immigrants from Ghana, Japan, Nigeria, and
South Africa! Freaking rad! Thank you all for everything! I feel so
undeserving of such abundant love! The mail and packages and such just lift my
spirits and make me oh so happy! I hope ya'll have a "heel clickin"
week!
All my love,
Sister Miyahara
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| Our Valentines dates |
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| The Carnell's (the family we live with) surprised us with homemade cream puffs on Valentines day morning. Bless them!! |
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