To Be Consecrated!

Gig Harbor Stake sent me a poster and picture of themselves:)

Okay, so last night we stopped by a families home who we have slowly built up trust with.  The mom and dad are inactive members and their 15 yr old son isn't.  They harbor some negative feelings, but we haven't let that deter us from loving them!  And we really do haha :)  But we stopped by SUNDAY night...and they invited us upstairs where the rest of the family was. BAD IDEA!  They had the Super Bowl playing and Sister Macrum's team is the Broncos!  They were giving us a hard time about mission rules and what not...but we withstood and didn't watch it and left shortly after. But it was hard!

Earlier we went to a Stake Youth Fireside with our Recent convert Ezzie and her sister Monica who is our new investigator.  3 girls had recently returned from their missions and shared stories and insights from their 18 months of service.  It was neat to see their take on a mission and think about how I want to reflect on my mission experience. 

Something I was reading these last few days really hit me about what a mission is...and how I wanted to live my mission.  Serving is more than just going out because we have a sense of duty or obligation.  Serving a mission is about consecrating ourselves and laying everything on the altar of sacrifice.  When Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute mile he collapsed at the finish line into the hands of his well-wishers.  A journalist sensing all that was involved in that historic moment wrote, "The runner, open mouthed, thin legged, knowing only pace and goal, spending his strength so that the finish at one mile, there was nothing more."  For a consecrated missionary there is nothing more to give at the end of the day.  we have put it all on the altar of sacrifice.  Consecrated missionaries are missionaries who would finish the marathon.  They are missionaries who would go the full fifteen rounds.  They are missionaries who carry no white flags. 

Us missionaries came out here to change the world, to change lives, but there is a cost.  It costs everything that we have- we place it on the altar of sacrifice.  Our fears, our pride, our laziness, our disobedience, our weaknesses; we cannot hold anything back.  When we came into the mission field we burned the bridges behind us, I burned my ships in the harbor.  There is no retreat to my former life.  I cannot have one foot at home and one foot in the mission field.  The Lord demands our whole soul on the sacrificial altar.  That is the price we must pay, and when we do, we then become instruments in the hands of God. 

What is the driving motivational force for a consecrated missionary?  It is the Savior and his atonement.  If we fail to be obedient, if we fail to be humble , if we fail to be fearless, perhaps we intellectually understand the atonement, but somehow we fail to grasp the underlying love of His sacrifice.  Once we feel that, as well as understand it, we will give our all.  We will realize that our all is a small repayment for His all.

Whatever the weakness may be that holds us back from becoming this consecrated person, missionary, individual....the Lord has promised that if we have faith in him, and humble ourselves before him, that he will make weak things become strong unto us. (Ether 12:26-27)  I believe that.  I do not believe there is one missionary/person's weaknesses that are greater than the potential strengths within him. WHY?  Because each of us is a son and daughter of God, with his divine nature and divine potential woven into the very fabric of our souls. 

May we not be content with being GOOD, even GREAT.  When we have the capacity to be CONSECRATED.  Mormon declared with boldness: "Behold I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  I have been called of him to declare his word among his people that they might have ever lasting life."  (2 Nephi 5:13)

Love you,
Sister Golden

Exchanges

Boiled Peanuts ~ the Southerners love these!

Super Salty!!