"Peace I leave with you..."

TERE!!! Oh how I love you all :) I hope everyone has had great weeks!! You know, there is a phrase many missionaries say about missions: "The days feel like weeks, and the weeks feel like days." Well, I have realized WHY. It’s because in a day, you feel a week’s worth of emotions and you learn a week’s worth of lessons! I am so grateful to be serving a mission right now so that I can learn and experience all that I am learning and experiencing! 

The work:

• I’ve been praying for an increase of faith that God will place prepared people in our path...the day I began praying for that and studying about that this week, I got on a bus and had a wonderful conversation with a young woman that gave me her number and wants to meet again! The next two days I had similar conversations with two more young women that want to meet up! The amazing thing is...the woman we baptized back in June has recently been called as the Young Women’s president, but there are no baptized young women in our branch yet. There has never been a Young Women’s class or program set up here because we haven’t had the young women for it.  But we are teaching many young women right now, and those three young women from the busses who gave me their numbers this week have amazing potential to be baptized young women in the branch! So I know that God is simply opening a door, helping us set up a Young Women’s program in the Pärnu Branch, so that when He continues to  send young, bright women our way to teach and baptize, we will have a Young Women’s program set up, ready to welcome those young women with open arms. I am so grateful to take a part in this pioneering stage in the history of The Church of Jesus Christ in Pärnu, Estonia. 

• We met with an amazing young woman for the first time and shared with her the video, "Because of Him." It was so powerful. And when we asked her how she felt, she said it was "powerful," but a "different powerful." I invite you all to watch it, even if you have seen it before! Please pay attention to how it makes you feel, because I can promise you it will make you feel something powerful: https://www.lds.org/youth/video/because-of-him?lang=eng.

• We were going to go home, but Õde Durfee felt like we should go visit a less active member. On our way over, Õde Tullis suggested we grab a pastry on our way, because why not! As we were sitting outside, eating our pastry, a young woman who attends our activities walked up and talked with us for a while! She was on her way home from school. Then, as we started walking away, an investigator that accepted a baptismal date that we have not been able to get in contact with for a month rode up on his bike!! He was so friendly and told us to call him back in a few weeks to set up another appointment! And THEN, on the bus ride home (a different bus time than we would have been on originally), we ran into our other investigator that had a baptismal date, but that we haven’t been able to get in contact with for a month! MIRACLES!! And all that because we decided to go a different way and eat a pastry :) As Õde Durfee wisely stated later, "Always follow your stomach...it will always be right." ;) 

• We were in our sports clothes and needed to visit some less actives, so we spontaneously decided to RUN to the less actives to visit them with notes! It was so fun!! And speaking of running....our district ran an almost 10K this morning! Followed by a pancake party on the steps of our home hahahahahah. People passing by were so entertained...LOL. 

Funnies:

"My love language is mashed potatoes."- Õde Durfee

Culture:

We pay to use public bathrooms here!

Spiritual thought:

I read Exodus 14 this week about Moses parting the Red Sea. I realized something very interesting! In the story, the Israelites are trying to escape the Egyptians. They come to the Red Sea and start to freak out because they thought they were doomed. And Moses says, “Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.”

Moses is amazing. I’m sure he was scared too! He reassured the people that God would fight for them and helped them even before he knew HOW the Lord would do so. That is amazing faith in the Lord right there. 

THEN “Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.”

AMAZING MIRACLE!! The Lord parts the Red Sea and the Israelites are able to walk through to the other side. But my insight came at this point. When I normally thought of this story, I imagined the Israelites slowly walking through the Red Sea, marveling at the walls of water on both sides and rejoicing that the Lord had  helped them. While I’m sure they marveled, pay attention to the next verse here: 

“And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen.”

The Israelites were STILL being pursued by the Egyptians! The ground was just as dry for the Egyptians as for the Israelites because the Egyptians were following right after them! The walk across the Red Sea was surely not a peaceful one! I am sure many of the Israelites were thinking, "Great, God, thank you for parting the Red Sea for us, but LOOK - THEY ARE STILL FOLLOWING US!! How does this help the situation??" This process (the Israelites walking, probably running for their lives, across the Red Sea and the Egyptians continuing to follow them) continued all night. There were thousands of people to cross the sea, so this was a long night. And the Israelites must have been having great faith in the Lord to CONTINUE WALKING, even though the Egyptians were still following them. 

24 And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the Lord looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians,

25 And took off their chariot wheels, that they drave them heavily: so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel; for the Lord fighteth for them against the Egyptians.

26 ¶ And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.

27 And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.

Notice that phrase, "in the morning," in verse 24. The lord waited and tried the Israelites’ patience and faith all night...It wasn’t until the morning that He showed Moses how he would still deliver his people - by causing the waters to come back down onto the Egyptians once the Israelites were passed through. 

Friends, you could be feeling like you are at any stage of that process. You could be at the edge of the Red Sea, wondering how to cross it. You could have just witnessed a miracle but not knowing how it will actually help you. You may be freaking out feeling you are being defeated by something you will never be able to conquer. Or you may be on the other side of sea, watching the thing you thought would destroy you...get destroyed itself. 

Wherever you are in this process, I promise the Lord can provide you peace. Even though the Israelites were nervous, I am sure the Lord was with them the whole time. He had a plan the whole time. 

Continue to trust Him. Continue to love Him. I promise He will always provide a way for you to feel overwhelming happiness.

Trust in the Lord. Choose joy. Find peace!

Õde Smith-Driggs

John 14:27: Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.