I am more than happy that leah Lauritzen got to the Filifam casa de amor <3 ;) (thought of that one all by me self) She is wonderful... and how cool the whole family.. ya'll are a step ahead of me now.... not fair. I just pray November brings joy in that area :)

Family miracles have arrived. well at least one did :D She's called Kaylei. Damien Slater's younger sister. So last week after Pday had finished up we went over for our first ever lesson with her and it was brilliant. We asked her what she wanted out of our meetings together and she told us that she wanted the happiness she see's her brother have and then she said that she knows when she comes to know it is true she wants to be baptized. So we were cool about that.. I mean we freaked out... wait.. ok so outside and inside were a little different, one freaking out like a banchie and the other acting like this was exciting normal news... nah we were just excited with dignity. Yep that's it. it was an amazing first lesson. i was so proud of Sis. Giles. She did so well with everything. The gospel and religion in general is so foreign and new to kaylei so it is pretty exciting but the real exciting bit is how incredibly prepared she is. A few months ago she stopped smoking, a few weeks ago stopped drink, a few days prior her partner left her (so that wasn't by choice, but God did help her for the law of Chastity.. ya?) and she is in a humble spot. I guess after we left Damien came in and looked at her through the window, he said she was smiling so big. She told him she had never felt like that before and whatever was wrng before doesn't matter now. We set June 2 as her baptismal date and the lesson this week was just as good. She told Dsamien also that there was something different about us... and I started thinking about how when you are sincere and the gospel is in your actions not just your words than you really do become that representative.

I was writing Ben nelson yesterday and he had asked me a question of some sort and it was interesting how I replied.. because I never realized this before... but the thing I have learnt most on the mission is faith in esus Christ. Faith in Jesus Christ according to preach my gospel and all of the scriptures there in help us understand that it is more than just relying on God, it is hope, chartiy, diligence, humility, and obedience all wrapped up in one. It is literally having so much of a knowledge of the divinity of Jesus Christ that all other worry is put away and we can hold on to the rod of iron and walk straight and confidently toward Him. I was reading in Enos and thought about how his soul hungered and he remembered the words of his father and other prophets of old and was brought to his knees, where abouts he, after many supplications to God gained a remission of his sins becasue of his great faith... it is by faith that miracles occur. I know that if we are ever tempted to doubt ourselves and any situation if we but look to God and all he has given us and become more of who He is by studying out Christlike Attributes we will infact do and become what His purpose of sending us to earth is for. God lives and He loves us.. you can't run away from that. Only run towards it. "Don't question your faith, question your doubts." thanks John bytheway. You're the best. Thank you mum for sending me apart of lanae's email... she has a way with word's that is absolutely incredible. I cherish that email!!

 

So yesterday we had mission football. It was great!!! We all had a ball... ha.

I attached some photos of it with the email since last mssion football I failed to get any pictures full stop... silly me. I love you all. Fight the good fight of Faith!!! 1 Tim 6:12.. I think the tim part is pretty appropriate too :) I will send you more on Monday I pray but till then, play hard.. and pray even harder, this is not an easy time and satan is on his game, God is too.. but are you? that's always the real question.

 

Loves!!

Sista Fili

joy joy

Alright alright.... family you made me cry with all of the beautiful emails and such!! I am sooooooooo glad that the tour went so well and that there was NO DRAMA what a miracle!!! seriously. Has that ever happened before? Well I am glad that you could be blessed to end on a high. Mum I agree with you though, it won't be long till it is here again just in the place it ought to be. When we do it God's way He always provides. I keep learning this and it is so humbling. We don't really know anything, but He does. Thank goodness He does and that we know Him so we too can know what he knows at some point!! Lucky suckers we be!!!

Matthew you are amazing. I heard you did muscular in a new york accent... I pray there is video of that somewhere and that i get to see it when I get home. Mum you scared me when you said president Ogden emailed you.. I thought, oh dear what have I done... it's not trunky mail already!! I haven't hit a year yet even!! then you said what it was for and I sighed and felt sooo grateful that he took the time to do that. He is an incredible man full of inspiration and love for us and for those we work with. I could not have been blessed with a better mission president and I will be sooo sad to see him go in July.

This week we have been blessed so much with REFERRALS!!! that R word brings me so much joy right onw.. and usually makes me cry. You want to know why? Usually people don't give them... but this week Damien, the blessed soul, gave us two and we have a potential one on Wednesday from Adrienn because she is great and believes. Damien's sisiters have been prepared we believe because they asked him for us... why? because the Lord works in mysterious ways!! They both struggle with different things, but see how good this has been for their brother and the worse it's gotten and the better he's been they finally bit the bullet and said we want your joy... give it us. That is the beauty of the Gospel!!! 3Nephi 12:14-16 let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven. The past week or so we've really teamed up with the branch mission leader and spoke about getting all the members to pray for the one that they can start bringing to different activities we will be having. It's good to have the activity and to tell the members to invite spur of the moment, but it just hasn't been working out, so we have a plan to get to all of them in advance and pray for one to focus on with at least one of the activities if not all of them. We start tthe committment pattern with the LIGHT of the WORLD Devo we have and basically it is all about the torch (the flash light) you know the wind-up one's that you use and have to continually work at to have the light strong... yes perfect I know, my companion is brilliant!! We all have the light, we all must work to let it shine and if and when we stop it becomes more and more dim and less and less light radiates from it till it is gone, but if we continually work at it we can always have our light shining bright. Now how is this significant to missionary work, it's our own light? Well the thing about torches is that all can see better when at least one has it and shares it. The more they let it shine the more people they help to see their path, the more they want it brighter, if you can see but not everything it's addicting and you want to see more so you find yours and let it shine. That's the whole point of why Christ compares us to light... it is the ability to see. We know and can see so much, why in the world do we want to keep that to ourselves? Let it shine!!! I know that as we have been helping members to see how easy it is and providing materials for them to do it themselves we are being blessed in many other ways and for that I am so grateful!!! he lvoes us.. all. As missionaries we are given a part of His love and compassion... as members we are given it, but with this calling comes a compete other sense of it.. maybe it isn't the calling, maybe it is simply the time put into it. Just some food for thought. We all can love and seek for others souls to be brought into the fold just as much as a missionary and ultimately like our Saviour. It starts the moment we are told of the truth and the duty comes the moment we are baptized. God is real. God is living. God is love. Therefore we are real, we are living human beings and we are loved by GOD.

So I am super stoked that on April 15 (what a day to pick eh?) we will be having a musical fireside on the Life of Christ!! easter Sunday didn't work out.. so the next sunday worked best! I am stokedalicious!! I get to sing His Hands.... again and I am overjoyed. So for those who ask if I get to sing solos at all, christmas time yes and now yes.. in between occassionally, quite rarely infact. But it is good I lvoe doing this work and things are happening, slowly.. but God's time is sooooo much better than ours, really and it is ALL BUT A SMALL MOMENT. Trials and temptations are all but a small moment, it's the good we take from them that lasts. The bad we take either festers and then boils over at one stage or another or it becomes a thing of not.. but the good we can take for eternity. This moment we have rigt now writing or reading, feeling joy or sorrow, being one of the Lord's servants or being served, etc. is all apart of that eternity and God's purpose to bring about the immortality and eternal life of man, and the puprose of Adam's fall, that we might have joy, aren't for later, they are for NOW! How blessed we are to have every opportunity to grow and to come closer to God, for that is what every heart ache is, an opportunity to pick yourself up and become more like GOD. Feel His love and bask in it. I love you dearly!!! Hope this week is splendid and full of miracles that you see, write down, and rejoice in.  As Timmy always said to me.. and maybe to you "Now let us rejoice!!"

Loves for for ever!!!

Sista Fili :D

Called To Serve Him Heavenly King of Glory

Oh my dear dear family.... you are family and that is what I love!!!

      So the other day I was reading in 2 Nephi 26 and it is all about not being one of the "wicked ones" and bringing people with you to church and to worship and the thought occured to me that we as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints forget so often that the "wicked" ones aren't just out of the church breaking the word of wisdom, breaking the law of Chastity, not keeping the sabbath day holy, etc. they can and could be we who have experienced the greater light, that greater portion and reject it for whatever reason (laziness, apprehension, fear, pride, boredom, etc.) . I am not saying any of you are wicked, but when I realized that I must keep ALL of my baptismal, endowment, etc. covenants or I am not doing my part to be 'saved'.. I started to think of my spiritual (and physical) brothers and sisters who do not know, or who do not live what they know and how in vs. 27 it states our purpose as members in helping the Lord fullfill His purpose. Then it goes on to talk about charity in Vs. 30 and how without it we are nothing and then in vs. 33 Nephi raps up the chapter with allowing us to know what God does, and does not do and who He accepts.. ALL. We are all brothers and sisters of God. And just as my family is important to me and I would do anything for them.. I am seeing how important the rest of my family is to me and especially to God. We are all children of God. Romand 8:16-17 and if we are to be heirs than we must be even as He is, perfect. Matthew 5: 48. How can we become perfect if we don't invite others to know about it and suffer with them to help them know their Saviour, brother, and best friend and in the process learn more of Him tan had we not invited. What incredible truth's the Book of Mormon has.. tis literally the BOM!!! 

So this week was great!! We had an appt. with Adrienn who when we first met her husband he said she wouldn't be interested and when we first met her she wanted to know for knowledge sake, but no further. Well the other day we went over and had a chat with her. Her husband, Duncan, was ill so it was just a girl's chat :) We asked her some pretty bold questions about everything and she told us that the Book of Mormon and te lessons and everything has been helping her so much in her life to see things differently, to be so much more happy nd she is now becoming more of the person she admires instead of dislikes. We asked her about her opinion on Baptism now (it was pretty low before) and she said it would be the hardesr thing for her because of her family, but if the Lord told her too after she'd come to chruch she would take the leap of faith and do it. Can I pelase say how strong the spirit was and how joyful I felt at that moment. No greater joy can be had.. ok so maybe there are some things, but at the current moment no greater joy can be had than someone tellin you that what you have brought into their lives is actually having an effect that lasts longer than the hour we are with them during the week. I felt sooooooo blessed and so assured that what I was doing and where and with who was exactly right. Then later on in the evening we saw Damien and since baptism life's been hard for him and he's found it so hard to adjust to life and find the joy the Gospel brings because he was expecting something that isn't quite possible... on it's own, it needs alittle personal help. But anyways, he has been struggling with somethings and he said that he wanted to go to the temple for help. he is scared of the inside (somedayy you'll understand it's just Damien) but even the outside just effects him so much. He wanted to go  and volunteer around the grounds and clear his head away from where the drama was and go to God for it.. what a major blessing to see him come sooo far. So many times we don't know where to go and what to do to bring ourselves out of the slumbs, but Christ always shows the perfect example and earlier that day I had been reading in Matthew 14:1-23 about when John the baptist is beheaded and the appostles go and tell Jesus and Jesus doesn't tarry and comfort them, He departs thence (v.13). He leaves on a boat and goes to the desert and finds people to have compassion on and serves them. He had a hard time because He lost the cousin He loved so dearly in such a tragic way and he knew it wasn't just because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, he knew it was for He and His Father's name's sake. This is also when Christ feeds the multitude with the 5 loaves and 2 fishes. He then afterward sends the apostles and the multitude away and goes to a mountain to pray to His Father alone. (v.23). Christ not only suffered for us in Gethsemane, but He lived a we live  and suffered as we suffer. He had hardtimes too and He set the example of where to go when they come and what to do. He knew the paln perfectly, loads more than you or I and yet He stil mourned. Mum, He still mourned, never forget that in our times of need and woe that we need not feel ashamed for being down, only look to God and go serve someone who is also having a hard time and then pray pray pray to the Father on the mountain tops (or in your room.. or the temple.. whatev's) and He will give you strength to go perform the miracles that lie ahead.

 

I bear you my testimony that I know this is all true. I know that God lives and loves us and I know with all my heart that He hears and answers our prayers. This is a glorious work and I am so privileged and grateful to be apart of it!! Mat,t I hope all is well. I know you are in good hands and I hope you know you are as well  D&C 121:7-9. Mum, just keep pressing forward. You are amazing and never foregt it!! all that you do meand the world to me and to so many. You are literally a light in the lives of all around you! Dad, I hope tour went well and that it was a success on so many levels. I am so proud of you and all you are about. Thank you for your example and forn the hero you are to me and so many others. Heather, girl you are amazing! I miss and lvoe you and can't wait to get an update on more of your life that is so hectic and incredible. I hope I can be more like you someday, serving all. Liz, you are so kind and loving and thank you for all you do, I am so prtoud to be your 'mini me'. So many have told me that the blog is great and i hope it is not a bother for you to copy and paste and what not. I know you are all busy and great. and wonderful and i hope it continues. i love you love you love you!!! cheerio!!

Loves, Sista Fili

 

SZEREFLEK- I love you in Hungarian

(sound this one out.. I had to nd she didn't know how to spell it so here it goes) neeahcotanda - I love you in Zulu

 

Life of a missionary mother as told by Sister Filichia

Dear family,

   I love being a mum. Yes mum that does mean I am training... and can I pelase say I have never been so filled with an excitedment for the work. You know how all ya'll real mothers say that being a mum changes you and all of a sudden you think less of yourself and more of others and especially your children and what you need to teach them, what they are teaching you, how others are percieving them, etc. Yup it's truth, even as a mum on a mission. So this is antoher good mother prep  for me!! I love it!

We have this awesome training program where we study for 2 hours a day as companion's and it is amazing. I am learning so much and becoming the missionary I want to be.. the Lord is definately answering my prayers. He does that, you know?

This morning we were studying Charity and love in the Christlike attribute's of Preach my Gospel and going over some of the scripture's and it was an amazing discussion we had. Charity is something that has become massive to me here on the mission. I can't say I have always had it, but I can say that I am gaining it as I rely on God for solace and for the answers. It's no longer about having the spirit with me for me, but now other's are relying on me to have the spirit for them, so I can teach them what the Lord needs them to hear and know.It's a pretty big deal. Yesterday at church was when I realized it's not just for missionaries, but for us all. Angelina came again and it went well, but I was talking to a Branch member, Adam Miller, and I said how I felt bad about making my responsibility (Angelina) someone else's (Sis. Jessop) and he said.. "sister Filichia it's not just your responsibilty, it's hers too. the joy of members. I was so grateful. i hope we all remember the responsiblity we have to have the spirit with us to help bring about the Lord's wqork whenever the opportuntiy arises, and they arise whenever and wherever. great stuff!!

Hope you enjoy the pictures!! Loves and peace!!

Sista Fili