Compared to Him We May Be Nothing, but to Him We are Everything

That's a lot of events for a couple days. So an experience I had this week... I've been trying to imagine Jesus in the room with me in many situations lately. The other day I sinned then imagined him in the room. I prayed and said, "Sorry, what do you want me to do?" I thought His answer would come, "Get on your knees and beg for forgiveness", but instead it was a "Come here and hug me" answer instead. I stood confused and in awe at that amazing revelation. Why would he let me off like that? I had messed up. I was mad at myself but he let it go like it was nothing. This didn't seem fair. Why? But then again if all of this was fair we might as well give up now. Realization flooded and I was filled with a deep sense of gratitude that this is God's system: forgiveness, hope, light, mercy. Jeffrey R. Holland said, "surely the thing God enjoys most about being God is the thrill of being merciful, especially to those who don’t expect it and often feel they don’t deserve it". We experience the atonement more often than we think. The world tell us we're small and unimportant. God tells us we are the reason he took the time to create worlds without number and a perfect plan. Compared to Him we may be nothing, but to Him we are everything.

I read a scripture this morning... it's included in my notes, D&C 78:17 Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye are little children, and ye have not as yet understood how great blessings the Father hath it his own hands and prepared for you.

We don't understand all that He has for us.

Thanks for your thoughts mom. I share them often with missionaries, members, and investigators here. I've shared them in trainings as well. They are very valuable to me. Dad's have been very valuable as well. I let a struggling elder borrow the quotes dad sent me because they are so insightful and motivating. You are doing better than you think you are. You're relationship with Christ is better than you think it is. I bear testimony of these things. You truly are never alone.

D&C 76:72 describes what you were talking about with the "I will keep trying to do it by myself" comment. This scripture describes those will attain a terrestrial glory.

D&C 76:69 explains your "I can't do all this by myself" comment. They who are just men made perfect through Jesus... These are they whose bodies are celestial.

Keep up the good work mom. This life was meant to be one of learning. There is a great series on mormonchannel.org called His Grace. It's amazing to see what our Savior does for His children.

Oh and don't ever worry about writing too much... I have plenty of time to email in this area. We're doing a combined zone pday and training today, so there will be 44 of us each playing volleyball and receiving a great training. It's crazy that there are 42 missionaries in this stake compared to the 2 in our home stake. Life is going well. Life is happy.

So we got an investigator named Anne this week. She is a single mom of 3 children. She has a 20 year old son in the air force, a daughter at OSU, and a daughter in junior high. We met her at another investigators house and she walked up with "You should probably leave" attitude, but we started talking about her family and her walls just crumbled. We bore testimony of the atonement and gave her a priesthood blessing. It was amazing to see the change in attitude. People here are scared of the white shirts and name tags, but we're 20 year old missionaries with the best message they could possibly hear. It is amazing to see the Spirit soften the hearts of people as we meet with them.

Thanks for everything Momma! Love you! HFF

-Elder Hoddy