Wheat & Tares, Faith & Prayers

I gave a training this week in our zone training meeting about goal setting and applying the power of faith. Joseph Smith said, "Faith is not only the principle of action, but of power also." I used to hate goals. It gave me a stomach ache when I thought about them. Now, I absolutely adore the process of setting goals. I think it's because I understand faith a little more, and see how the combination of a vision, faith and hard work can move us in a meaningful direction. Sister Risenmay gave us these steps to include in our trainings. 1. instill desire, 2. set goals, 3. make plans, 4. commit, 5. visualize, 6. work, 7. pray constantly, we will be able to witness the mighty works and plans God has for us. I really learned number 5 when I was in diving in High School. It was incredible how much difference visualizing a perfect dive each time helped me to improve the live action dive, it's the same with any goal. Things go much better if we have more than just the beginning and the very end in mind, a video rather than a before and after picture.  And my dad helped me to really understand the importance of number 6. Thanks comPadre.

To be completely honest, these past few weeks have been difficult because no one has been baptized lately and we feel stuck in a rut. We are finding people on the square and online to send to their local missionaries every week and stay in contact with, but we aren't really seeing the results or much progression, people just aren't willing to commit even when they seem so gosh darn awesome and ready when we meet them. But last night I was reading in Jesus the Christ about the wheat and the tares, one of the Savior's many beautiful parables, and it gave me comfort. This time reading, I saw in it a lesson of patience. The wheat or good seed typifies the honest in heart, righteous minded children of God. The tares representing those who have given themselves up for the opposite, or temptation and wickedness planted by the enemy. The servants were so eager to just rid of the tares(basically weeds) that had been mischievously planted right alongside the wheat. But the Lord of the Vineyard reminded them that they needed to wait until the wheat was discernible from the tares because the wheat was tender and needed growing, and if they didn't wait, there was the potential of just ripping out the sweet wheat with the tares. I need to just have the patience the Lord has for his brothers and sisters, yes the work is hastening and we need to keep up, but this is a one by one process. No taking the lawnmower to this one. 

Hope your summers are playing out wonderfully so far.

Love, 

Sister Cox

"Cause we live in a beautiful wooorld, yeah we do yeah we doo." -Coldplay

My companion is really good at sneaky taking pictures of me. This was our 8 am flagpole tour (people join the tour unscheduled) and it was raining so no one came. But WE LOVE THE RAIN so we weren't too bummed.