Christmas in Korat (that could be a movie)

Dear Family,

Thanks for the short update on how things are going with our family. Some of the news is exciting and some sad. But truly the Lord is looking out for us. I didn't think about it before but I wrote down a seven step pattern of success that I have found in my mission (coming from me and no official source) that I would like to share with our family.

1. Envision
2. Pray
3. Study
4. Sacrifice
5. Endure
6. Show gratitude
7. Increase Mightily

Each of these steps are deep and applicable to every situation I have found myself in. Often times I find myself doing every step at the same time. I will try to explain and expound simply on each of them as they apply to missionary work.

Envision. Vision is the first step. It is the eye of faith. We need to work out our vision with God and ask for His inspiration. Our vision could be distant or near at hand but we need to be able to envision what sort of changes we want to see in our lives or in the lives of others so that we can apply our faith to making the vision become reality. My vision for Korat included an increase in happiness of each of the members, excitement in spreading the Gospel, and an increase in church attendance, etc.

Pray. Pray mightily. Don't give up after a week or two. Pray several times per day. Praying can be a spiritual experience. How do you want Heavenly father to feel? We can't accomplish our goals without God's help. The prayer of faith is how we invite the Spirit to be with us.

Study. Eat the scriptures up. Our preparedness and intensity makes it powerful. We can find personal direction and revelation from studying the scriptures. Scripture study is another way that we can find the spirit and God's will for us.

Sacrifice. Sacrifice your sins, your time, your pride, obedience, hard work, and anything else it takes. Sacrifice is a principal of power. Sacrificing is how we show our faith.

Endure. Endure through the trial of our faith. There's definitely going to be a trial of our faith. Sometimes it takes time before we get what we want. Sometimes we go on in the dark and it doesn't seem like things are going according to our plan. We must pass through the trial. That means we need to be willing to give up everything and accept God's will. After we prove that we are willing, usually God gives us according to our desires. But not always. Sometimes we can't see the effects of our sacrifice but we can be assured that God will take it and use it for good. God will prompt us and let us know that we are on the right path. That's how we know that we still need to endure.

Show Gratitude. Even if we worked really hard, really the one who really did everything and gave us the strength we needed wasn't us. It was God. Gratitude is important. It is a sin to not be grateful. God blesses us with more when we are grateful. Gratitude goes a long way.

Increase Mightily. This is my favorite step. Increase your faith. Increase your commitment, sacrifice, humility, love, strength.... God want's us to learn from our experiences. So take every trial as an opportunity to grow. And make it mighty!

Yesterday I interviewed 3 more investigators. 2 of them passed and the other will be ready before this coming Sunday. Em and Sally's 2 kids Eve and Oy will be getting baptized this Sunday. God has blessed us a ton.

When would be the best time/day for you to call for Christmas? I suppose it doesn't really have to be Christmas.

I love you all so much.

Love,

Elder Lilly

p.s. I didn't get the Thanksgiving pictures. Also I wasn't the one behind the camera for Christmas, I've been grabbing other peoples cameras and using their pictures. I would like a really nice digital camera that I can go crazy with and take a lot of sweet pictures with for Christmas. That would be the greatest.