Sister Michelle Christine North: Home Sweet Home

So I may have jinxed it because this week was HARD (Notice the capital letters). After all has been said and done it’s not so much the physical as it is the mental tiredness that has been hard and tiring. It was hard to teach this week due to a combination of the rain and snow (you read that right! It snowed in our sector), the world cup starting/ CHILE WINNING their first game (#winning) and lots of leadership meetings (not a bad thing but it just took out time from our sector). But if anything, I learned to be grateful for the contacts that we were able to do in our travels because my most spiritual experiences this week came from them. For example: On our way home from one of the meetings, I contacted a lady named Estrella on the micro. At first she really didn’t want to talk with me. She was super cold and avoided all eye contact whenever I asked her a question. She even told me that she didn’t have time and that I should talk with someone else who needed God in that moment (Even though she was the one who need God). For whatever reason I started telling her about when I had first gotten to Chile. I had to learn Spanish and it was a BIG struggle for me. I told her of the hardship that it was on my desire to continue serving my mission and said, “But do you want to know what kept from not going home?” (And that’s when I captured her attention), I continued and said, “The people.” I explained to her of the love that I naturally had for everyone we taught. How it was easy for me to LOVE complete strangers, like her. But then I testified to her that that love that I had was a direct result of my testimony- of the truth. The gospel has changed my life; it gives me joy and I wanted others to feel that too. I promised her that she too would feel joy from the gospel if she put time to learn more about God. I tell you people, there was a 180 degree switch in her after I said this to her. When I started the conversation she supposedly didn’t have any time, but afterwards she said, “Look, I actually just got permission off of work for the rest of this week because I got injured today. I’ll be home all the days this week until Sunday. I’m not sure who the missionaries are, but you can send them over and I will receive them in my home.” AH! What an amazing experience.

So as we have been teaching our loves about the plan of salvation I have been reflecting a lot on my testimony of the pre-mortal life and came to a super cool realization that I wanted to share with you guys. Well, the Plan of Salvation teaches us that before our life on Earth we existed and lived with our Heavenly Father. He loved us; we loved Him; He taught us and we learned and grew from His teachings. Our trust and obedience to Him created a relationship with Him that each one of us personally continues to have- whether you believe in Him or not. While we are here on Earth we will pass through good and bad experiences, through which we will feel His spirit- peace, comfort, joy, love, etc. Anytime that we feel these feelings we can take it as a testimony that we really did live with God before this life and that we have an eternal home in heaven. I’ll compare this to a real life scenario that each one of us has passed through before- Leaving on a trip and then coming home. No matter how we passed our time away from home, there is no better feeling than coming home. It’s an unexplainable peace, comfort and joy. There is even a saying about it! Home Sweet Home. I know that we have all felt this so I don’t need to explain more. So it is just like that with our spiritual Home Sweet Home. Whenever we feel peace or comfort from being close to God or from the spirit, it is because our souls remember of our pre-mortal life and feel close to our Father from heaven who we knew and loved. It is a good feeling because it is familiar to us.

I shared this with Andres when we taught them on the Plan of Salvation and he shared with us of a similar experience that he had to relate to my thought. He told us of a time when he went to Argentina to buy some fish. He was only supposed to be gone for one day but when they were on their way back to Chile, the roads were closed because it was too icy. His one day trip turned into an eight day trip! He said that when he got home, he was so comforted to see his family and he just felt good- that unexplainable good that I told you guys about before. He then told us, “If I feel that same feeling again, but through reading the scriptures or going to church, then I will know that this is all true.”

So maybe if we ever wonder if we really did live with God before this life or have any doubts about things in life, we can look for that coming home feeling and then know that that is our answer. And speaking on receiving answers, this week Nancy went 5 days without smoking one cigarette! She was so pleased. But she asked for more time to prepare for her baptism. She feels that unexplainably good feeling but she still is struggling to fully quit smoking. We are still so excited for her and know that she will be in white one day. Her new date for baptism is July 26^th.

Peace and Love people!

Xoxoxox, Hermana North

Picture 1: Lunch with Andres, Joselin and Branjeli