Potential, Potential, Potential

This is a sweet little missionary!  She titled this photo “I dropped my bike!” But what I love is her face!  She is such a joyful girl.  She inspires me everyday.  So grateful to be her mom!  Katie

Received 5/4/15

Hola familia!
Crazy week! First off, my new beautiful companion is Sister Gailey! She is from Farmington, UT and is basically a mini-Mollie. It’s wild! She’s awesome! I love her. We’re having fun and working hard, just how it should be.
We saw some huge miracles this week! On our first night together, Sis. Gailey and I committed Cerene to give up smoking and took her cigarettes and lighters from her to remove the temptation (don’t worry, we asked first and she gave them to us). She is striving hard to live the Word of Wisdom so that she can be clean again, and we are working with her on a few things so that she can arrive there! We and a few ward members helped her move this week, and, fortunately, she is still in the ward boundaries! Hallelujah! She has such sincere desires to change and really is beginning to find a home here among the other Latter-day Saints. So cool to see her change and become happier, step by step.
Gigi and Brusner came to church again yesterday! They stayed the whole time and really enjoyed it. He has really opened up this week and has been sharing his testimony left and right at every opportunity. We learned that he hasn’t been to church consistently since he was baptized in Haiti a few years ago and is now excited to unite his family in the gospel. We’re still working on helping Gigi resolve a few of her concerns for baptism, but she is set with a date for this weekend. She has really strong desires to have an eternal family and is finding a lot of peace and happiness in our message!
Funny moment of the week: I made Sister Gailey fall off of her bike because she was laughing so hard at me talking about the Gold Rush.
Sister Gailey and I have been OYMing EVERYONE on our bikes and we have seen miracles! We had a few really cool experiences meeting Shanna, William, and Cindy, all potential investigators that we will begin teaching in the next day or two! They all are experiencing their own personal struggles right now, but each of them had questions that we could specifically answer with the doctrine of the Plan of Salvation. It has helped me to more fully realize the blessing of having this knowledge – we really are here to become our best selves, to become like Him. And every single one of us has the potential to do it. Which leads me into some spiritual nuggets I found this week!
The majority of my scriptures today come from Luke 6.
31-35: All men, wicked or evil, love those that do good unto them, but Christ requires us to “love‍ ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward‍ shall be great, and ye shall be the children‍ of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful‍ and to‍ the evil”. We must do good to all and expect nothing in return and remove the mentality of “What’s in it for me?”
39: Can the blind lead the blind? Everywhere, we see this happening. Too often men are relied upon to interpret the things of God through their own opinions. We must rely upon someone who can see. Someone who is standing upon the watch tower, ready to warn us of spiritual danger. I am so grateful for the blessing it has been to receive guidance from a prophet of God and twelve apostles, and that we have the ability to receive our own answers to our questions through the Spirit.
40: The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect‍ shall be as his master”. That is a promise. All of us, as we strive to keep the commandments of God and deny all ungodliness have that potential. And that is why I am here: to help others recognize their potential! I also found great spiritual light in 2 Nephi 26:23-25. You should read it too – it correlates. Our message is true, our potential is great, and our leader is perfect. As long as we are obedient, we cannot fail.
The Church is true! I love you! God loves you! Go and do.
Sister Burdett