A Journal for Britt: April 2014

Hey everyone! I never know how to address these emails anymore because it´s been a lot of weeks and I think I´ve used just about every greeting I can. So hey there!

I realized that probably every week I say I´m tired because we´ve been running around like crazy- but there are a lot of people who have absolutely no idea what this ´´running around like crazy´´ really means! So I wanted to explain this week. My purpose as a missionary is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them recieve the restored gospel throught faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, recieving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. So what exactly am I doing to invite the dear people of Ceará, Brasil to come unto Christ by taking these essential steps in their lives? What exactly is a missionary?

First, I am a seeker. Every week I am seeking to find at least 20 new people who are willing to hear a message of Christ and let it change them for the better! I am seeking the humble: those who recognize our need for God, the teachable: those who desire to grow clower to Him, the needy: those who recognize they cannot pass their trials and difficulties without our Savior, the elect: those who love God with all their heart and recognize his constant voice in their lives.

Next I am a teacher. I try to teach in every opportunity given during my day about what our Savior did for us when he was here on the earth! Second, that he died for us and paid for our sins. That he not only felt the immense wait of guilt and remorse for our sins but also all of our difficulties and burdens that we experience in life in order to help us overcome all of these things to find happiness in this life and eventually to return to live with our Heavenly Father and families for eternity. Finally and most importantly that Christ was ressurected, that he lives and that his gospel was restored to us through the prophet Joseph Smith after years of darkness and confusion. Through His gospel and church here on the earth we can obtain all of the blessings that he has planned for us to have.

I am an inviter. I allow other to feel the truthfulness of this message by inviting them to apply it in their lives and see the blessings for themselves! I invite people to pray to their Heavenly Father and seek out an answer about whether or not this message is real! I invite them to read the account of the people here in the America´s that was written during the same time as the Bible and includes the record of Christ´s visit after his ressurection to the people here (called the Book of Mormon). I invite them to come to church and to witness the power of God here on earth, the priesthood, through the ordinance of blessing the sacrament. I invite them to apply the suffering of Christ in their lives, to overcome all that sets them back and start a new life following our Savior through the waters of baptism and recieving the gift of the Holy Ghost. I invite them to continue growing closer to God and helping those around them recognize his hand in our lives as well.

I am a representative of Jesus Christ. I give everything I have to love the people, to help them, to serve them, to invite them, to allow them to feel the love of God in their lives. I walk all day long in the sun, in the heat, in the rain, on unpaved roads, through spiders and cockroaches and lizards and backyards- that I don´t want to know what else lives there- and bring the restored gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to bless them. And even when I get to their homes, sweating, and hungry, and exhausted, and a little depressed, and sometimes sad, and they tell me ´´no, [they] don´t want to pray, or read, or go to church, or be baptized, or do anything to feel better´´ I just keeping walking, and seeking, and teaching and inviting.

This is my life as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and I love it more than anything in the whole world. I have never felt so blessed, so grateful, so happy, so loved, so protected, so valued in my entire life!

Matthew 11:28 ´´come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavyladen and I will give you rest´´

Sister Westover