The Savior

This week has been a pretty wild one. We had transfers and did a TON of organizing and cleaning, which took up like 3 days, so it was pretty rough.  Elder Abbott and I get along so well! We have been having so much fun together and have worked super well with each other! I am really excited to see what this transfer has to bring.

Our teaching pool right now is pretty small, so we are really working on finding.  We have been going to public places and literally talking to everyone, it's so sick! Even though we haven't seen too much success from this, the Lord has still been blessing us! We just had some people move into the ward from Kentucky, and the husband is "looking to be a member"! It's pretty cool how when you do what the Lord asks he blesses you; it may not be in the way that you expect, but he will always come through with his promises!

Ever since President Nelson's talk about the Atonement of Jesus Christ, I have wanted to feel His spirit and love more in my life, so this week I was studying about repentance and there were three things that I feel that are necessary for true repentance. The first of which is that we need to realize that we have sinned. We know that no unclean thing can dwell in the presence of God, so we will have a desire to become clean through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Next, we will have godly sorrow. We will be sorrowful, not because we got caught and have consequences, but because we realize that we have caused the Savior harm.  Lastly, we will seek for a change of heart. All too often we have a desire to change our actions and have self mastery, but we don't seek for a change of our nature. Along with a change of heart come the knowledge that you have changed and become something new through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, so there is no need to think or talk about our past life, because the Atonement of Jesus Christ covers all! I am a living, breathing example of that! The Savior has truly helped change me to someone completely new, it's so amazing!

On Sunday, the sister missionaries gave talks in sacrament meeting about the Savior, and shared a story that I loved so much! She was talked about this time when she helped with a production of the nativity. In the play, a person with downs syndrome was the inn keeper, so she helped him for weeks to practice his lines, and finally the time came for the performance. When the time came, Joseph and Mary came to the inn and knocked on the door, so the kid answered the door and just stood there........ everyone one was encouraging him and trying to help him out, but he just stood there. Finally after a minute or two he quietly and calmly said "I'm sorry there is no room in the inn" and closed the door, HE NAILED IT! But then, as Mary and Joseph were walking away he swung open the door and said "WAIT!! There is always room for you here!!!" It made me realize that we should always life our lives like that young man, we should ALWAYS make room for the Savior in our lives! I think that the inn keeper is permeated in a lot of people today when they turn down opportunities to read the scriptures, to pray, to teach, to serve, or just to show compassion on some of God's children. When thinking about this, I thought about the painting of Christ waiting and knocking at the door, and I thought of the question "Are you going to open the door and invite Him in, or say that there is no room?" (2nephi 2:27 & Mat 25:34-40)

GOSH!! I love this gospel so much and am so thankful for our Savior Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for us! It brings me so much joy in this life, it is absolutely amazing! I just wish everyone could just open the door and allow the Savior to stay with them.

I love you all so much! Thanks for everything!!

Elder Schipaanboord

 

 

Lucky

We got transfer calls and Elder Delamare is getting transferred to CRESTVIEW 2ND WARD!!! He is so lucky!!!!!! That place is absolutely incredible, he is going to do amazing things there! My transfer news is that I am going to be training a new zone leader, and his name is Elder Abbott, he is actually our district leader right now and I went on an exchange with him earlier this transfer, lets just say I am super excited!!! 

This week i had a lot of stuff to reflect on, and it made me realize how lucky I truly am. Last p-day we went down to the beach with a member and the sisters to play some soccer, and since the teams were uneven, I just decided to go sit on the pier and watch the sunset, one of my favorite things to do. While sitting there I couldn't help but be amazed and the beauty of this wonderful world! I sat and pondered all of the blessings that God has given me in this life, and it made me really thankful to even be here on this earth, what an amazing experience it is. While pondering the blessings in my life, I felt that I needed to give thanks to my God, so I literally just sat there and talked with God as if he was sitting right beside me, it was absolutely amazing, I am so thankful that we have a loving Heavenly Father who we can turn to at any time and he will always be there. 

I also just found out today that a childhood friend passed away this week, and it has made me realize how short this life is.... it's so weird that someone my age has passed away, I am 20 years old, that is tooo young! I am so thankful for my life here on earth! Day by day we never know what is going to happen; one day may be fine and dandy, but tomorrow may not be. There is a quote in a members home that I absolutely love, it says "I do not know what tomorrow holds, but I do know Who holds tomorrow"

Lastly, the other day we were at a part members home, and a non member was telling us about this little girl that he is trying to help out, because she has some pretty bad circumstances in life, and she actually came over, and he (showing us how bad it was) asked her "Regan, what is church?" and she sat there for a while thinking and said "I don't really know" and then he asked "Regan, do you know who Jesus is?" to which she said "No, I don't know who Jesus is" IT LITERALLY BROKE MY HEART!!!! I am so thankful for my wonderful parents and family who raised me so well and gave me an incredible life, and also took the time to teach me about this wonderful gospel, it has made my life so much better, and I just wish others knew how much it could change their lives, all they have to do is "experiment on my word" and "exercise a particle of faith" and they will see how amazing it really is.

I love you all so much and hope you had a Happy Easter!!

Elder Schipaanboord

 

 

Happy Easter

Man, being out here in the Mobile stake, we literally drive so much!! This week we went all the way up to the top of the zone to visit with the Toxey Elders in Butler (3 hour drive) and go to their district meeting, and then we had an exchange planned with the assistants over in Tallahassee, so we literally drove from one end of the mission to the other, it took a total of 7 hours!!! It was so crazy! For anyone that knows me knows that I will fall asleep within 10 minutes of being in the car, so I said a prayer that I would be filled with energy to make it all the way to Tallahassee while being attentive and not once on that drive did I ever feel tired, it was so awesome!! I love how the Lord answers even the simplest of prayers!

While in Tallahassee I was able to go on an exchange with Elder Renslow, it brought back such great memories! Chad has honestly grown so much since we were companions, it is amazing to see! So the assistants are now on TCC (Tallahassee Community College) campus, so we spent all day roaming a college campus together, it was so sick!! I swear we walked like 10 miles and talked to like 100 people, I loved it!! There was this one girl that literally asked us "What do y'all do? Like why are y'all so happy all the time, y'all are always smiling and waving at everyone, it's awesome." The students there were able to see the Light from us and want it, what a wonderful blessing! That is what this gospel has to offer, light and joy! While together Chad taught me so much! He taught me about not having fear in any situation, and also what it means to have confidence in the gospel, it was incredible to work side by side with him again! 

We had a zone training this week. As we were preparing for it, we were having a hard time figuring out what to train on, but we finally decided that rather than having a whole training on the "how to's" of missionary work that we would just simply teach the Savior, because the study of doctrine will change behavior faster than the study of behavior will change behavior. So what we did was focus on the new "Prince of Peace" Easter initiative put out by the church, and how the Savior has brought peace into our lives and why those around us need the same blessings, it was super good!! It is really cool how the Spirit guided us to train on the things we chose, because almost everyone was in tears and said that it was the best zone training that they had been apart of, and the coolest thing is that we didn't train at all, we had 8 missionaries from the zone train on the "principles of peace" from the initiative, I LOVED IT!!! 

If you haven't seen the new Easter video, you should check it out at mormon.org cause it is one of the most powerful videos that I have ever seen!! After being out for 18 months, I have come to a greater understanding of who the Savior is, and how much He truly cares for each and every one of us.  He didn't just die for our sins and heart aches, but he suffered for each sin, and each heart ache and trial, he knows exactly how we feel in every situation, and knows exactly how to help us!  He has taken me from the person that I was, and molded me like a potter and turned me into such a greater person, and I know that He can do the same for you, you just have to be humble enough to allow Him to mold you into what He wants, and trust Him enough to know that He is the Master Potter and never makes mistakes.

I love you all so much, and hope y'all have a great week and a Happy Easter!

Elder Schipaanboord

 

 

Conference

General Conference this go around was so amazing! I felt like the whole conference was all about knowing that we are all children of God, and with that knowledge treating others with love and respect. So recently I have been trying to see others through the Savior's eyes, and honestly, just become more like the Savior, I know that that is the goal in life, but I have been trying to do all that I can to just simply study about the Savior, and it has been great! So it was really cool to see that the exact same things that the Apostles felt inspired to teach us about was exactly what the Spirit has been trying to teach me about. Something that President Smith has been doing lately is asking us after a training "What will you do different in your life now?" and I think after General Conference the thing that I took away most was to have an attitude of gratitude. I feel like I do not give enough thanks to my God for all of the things that he has given me, so I am going to start having a gratitude journal, so even on the hard days I can recognize the Lord's hand.

Wow, that is all that I can really say.

It has officially been 18 months since leaving my "perfect life" back in good ole Sandy, Utah, to embark on a journey of a life time, and boy has it been a ride! It has been the hardest thing that I have ever had to do in my life, but honestly, the hardest things in life bring the greatest results. All the hard work that I put into the baseball field for 11 years allowed me to play varsity baseball for the next 4 years. The hard work of studying granted me a 3.8 gpa. And now, the hard work that I have been putting to serving the Lord has taken me from the person that I was into someone much better!! I am so incredibly grateful for this opportunity to serve the Lord, I can honestly say that I am becoming the person that I have always wanted to be. It is so amazing how the Lord can take someone who is "weak" and make them "strong!" The Savior literally knows how to help with anything!! He is the perfect doctor, the perfect Teacher, and the perfect Leader! If we just trust in him, LIFE WILL WORK OUT!!! I can't stress that enough! I know it's hard, I still struggle with it and have so many areas that I need to improve, but every time I hand my trials over to the Lord, he ALWAYS helps me, with out fail!! Our Heavenly Father is bound when we do what he says, but if we don't do what he says, we cannot receive the blessings!

I love this gospel! No matter what anyone ever says will never change the fact that I know it's true, and it fills me with so much joy, I just wish that others could see that and accept our message more, but there must be opposition in all things.

I love y'all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Schipaanboord