Returned Missionary

I have been home from my mission for almost three weeks now. It has been a very different experience that I wasn’t expecting to go through. Though I love my family and friends back at home I really was not mentally ready to come back. Unfortunately, due to some medical complications I was honorably released as a full-time missionary early. Looking back I remember dreading the thought of being medically released before I had even entered the Missionary Training Center. Now I have gained a larger perspective on the subject. Though I still have so much more to learn I have gained some insight through this experience. I had feelings of disappointment and inadequacy for coming home early. I felt like I should have been able to serve my full 18 months. I felt weak and like I had let my Savior down. I knew that medically I needed to be home to get the help I needed but I still had thoughts in the back of my mind that if I had just had more faith then I could have been able to complete what I felt was my full mission. I know that these feelings were not from God. They were from the adversary. He was trying to get me to feel worthless. He wants us all to be miserable like he is. Because of the wonderful gift of agency we don’t have to let him to that to us! We are free to choose eternal happiness by patiently and cheerfully submitting to the will of our Loving Heavenly Father. Our Father in Heaven is perfect. He has a perfect plan for each one of our lives. Better than anything that we could even dream of creating for ourselves. He knows exactly what we need, when we need it, and who we can help along the why. His plan for us is able to satisfy all three of these needs seamlessly. All we need to do is follow the plan. We do this by molding our will to His will. The best tool we have to help with this molding is prayer. Pray is used to make our will the will of our Father, not the other way around. I know that everything that happens in our lives has a purpose. There are no such thing as coincidences. Medical conditions do not pop up randomly. They are created by divine design. Like every other hardship we experience in this life, they are not usually pretty but they are worth it. Trials are refining agents in our lives. It is through them that we can become like our Father. As we become refined and sanctified we put off the natural man and become reborn as disciples of Christ like in Mosiah 3:19. I am so grateful that my life doesn’t go according to my plan. We are all blessed to have a Father that loves us enough to give us everything that we need even though we usually aren’t very grateful for it. As we follow the perfect example of Christ we not only become happier and are blessed but we are able to show love and gratitude to God for everything that He has given and will continue to give to us. Press forward with a happy heart and trust in God and everything will go exactly as you need it to! I invite you all to make a conscious effort to reflect on how your trials are helping you become the person that Heavenly Father wants you to become. Then resolve to “press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God (2 Nephi 31:20.)” I testify that as you submit to the will of the Father you will receive eternal life and joy! God loves you and wants to help you so let him!

Selfless Service

This week my companion and I had the privilege to help clean the home of an older Sister in the ward. She is unable to do many things on her own anymore, including getting to church. Seeing her situation was truly hearbreaking. She could barely take care of herself and she also had both of her adult sons living with her who had strayed from the gospel fold. One is constantly drunk. I can't imagine the hearache she feels everyday because of them. 

A group of Relief Society Sisters organized this service project to clean her home from top to bottom. It was amazing to see these women in action! There was so much love in the home. These women don't have muich but what little they had they gave to this Sister. We always have time and love" That is true charity. No matter how much, or little, we have we are using it to build others. 

I invite you all to be quick to observe the needs of others this week. Find what you have and give it , out of love, to someone what really needs to feel God's love. 

--

Irmã Wright

Culture Shock

I've been in Brazil for almost a month now and am still learning so much. I knew that I would be soaking in a new language but I didn't realize how much I would be learning about the culture as well. I still feel like I'm in culture shock. 

Duing my two week stay in the MTC in São Paulo I learned quickly how warm and open the people are here. Everyone has so much love for the people around them. They are so open and will smile at and great anyone they see. 

In the MTC I also learned that Brazilians love Americans. During meals my small little district of Americans would sit down at a table and it would soon be full of people! The missionaries really enjoyed helping us learn the language. My companion and I shared a room with a Brazilian companionship and every night they would teach us new words. I always looked forward to spending evenings with Sister Ferreira and Sister Faria laughing and playing seraides to figure out what we were trying to say to each other. 

When it come to food here I have just accepted the fact that I won't know what I'm eating most of the time. It has been great so far though. I have found a new vegetable down here that I love! Its similare to a potato excet its more stringy. So good! Also make sure you know where the water people give you comes from here or you will regret it, promise.

One thing I love that doesn't happen down here is people slamming doors in our faces. It is fantastic! Everyone is so nice even when they don' want to hear our message. 

Something new I learned this past week was that you don't wave at people you don't know. Apparentl, it is a way of flirting. Whoops" You can say hello to everyone but waving is out. That is going to be a difficult habit to break. 

It has been a huge adjustment to life donw here, and I still miss my carpet, but I love it! I can feel God's love for the people here and I am so blessed to be surrounded by some of His choice children. 

--

Irmã Wright

Enabling power of the Atonement

This week I am so grateful for the Atonement. One thing that we have to teach people about the Atonement as missionaries is that it is not just something we turn to when we have done something wrong. There is also an enabling power of the Atonement. It was this enabling power that I'm grateful for this week. 

It has been a little frustrating learning Portuguese. I was impatient with myself that I wasn't picking things up quicker. I just wanted to be able to communicate with people. I wasn't using the Atonement. I had a negative attitude and was trying to learn without the help of my Savior. When I realized what was happening I had to quickly repent! I prayed for humility, patience, the gift of tongues, and most importantly charity.

I am here learning this language to help other people, not for myself. I forgot that its not about me! I turned inward instead of outward. It is so easy to do! I have a strong testimony of the fact that our hardships are to refine us into people who turn outward in love and charity toward the people that surround us like our Savior did.

Once I started relying fully on the Atonement to learn Portuguese several things happened. The first was that I was able to understand a lot more of what was going on. Second, I was much happier. Thirdly, I am able to focus on the needs of others during the day rather than stressing out about trying to cram Portuguese into my brain! I was truly enabled this past week. I know that Christ wants everyone to be blessed by this enabling power, That's why we have missionaries. I know that the happiness that comes from the Atonement is available to everyone that will accept Christ by living His gospel. His arms are always open to lighten our burdens. The only things standing in our way of receiving His love is ourselves!

I invite you all to take a moment and inventory what things you are struggling with right now. Then make a choice to turn those things over to the Lord. Choose to be made whole through His Atonement. Pray for strength and I testify you will receive it!

--

Irmã Wright

Pictures from June 2015

Here are several pictures Sister Wright has sent us since she has arrived in Brazil. She is now serving in a city called Sete Lagoas.  It is located about 2 hours north of Belo Horzonte.

Finally going to Brazil

This last Saturday I received my long awaited visa to Brazil. When I
was told this by President Craven I had a strange mixture of emotion
that I wasn't expecting. Even before entering the MTC I was dreading
being reassigned to a mission in the United States. That was the last
thing that I wanted to happen. I was so excited to go and teach the
restored gospel of Jesus Christ in a foreign country in a new
language. It sounded like an adventure that I had been longing for!

When I got my reassignment in December to Charlotte, North Carolina I
was excited to spend a little time out east then head to my ideal
destination in South America. I expected to stay here for 6 weeks then
be on my way to Brazil. Obviously, things didn't quite go according to
my plan.

My stay here in the Mission of Miracles has had some ups and downs but
I have become a much better person because of it and I wouldn't trade
it for anything in the world. At this point I'm a little sad to leave
it behind. It seems that whenever we get comfortable with where we are
God decides to change things around. One of my favorite one liners
that I've heard so far is "There is no growth in the comfort zone or
comfort in the growth zone." At the beginning I definitely wasn't
comfortable here. It's not because it was extremely difficult
adjusting to missionary life. It was because I wanted to be somewhere
else. I wasn't where my feet were.

This past transfer in Greensboro I fell in love with missionary work.
I have enjoyed all my time as a missionary but I gained a passion for
it here. I think that's why I'm leaving. Because I love this area, the
people, and my companions! God can't let me get too comfortable! :)

I expected to be much more excited about this transfer. I've been
looking forward to it since I got here! It's not to say I'm not
excited, I know it is going to be a blast in Brazil! However, I am
going to miss my home in North Carolina. This is where I learned to be
a missionary. North Carolina has changed me.

This is a bitter sweet moment. I know that I'm going where I need to
be though. I am excited for what the future has in store. I've become
comfortable here and so it's time for me to move on. I am so thankful
that I have a Father in Heaven who loves me enough to put me where I
need to be to grow the most. That is the point of this life. To learn
and grow to become like Him. I know that I'm nowhere near but I know
my potential and I trust His plan. If I've learned one thing so far
it's that it's always God's plan, not Sister Wright's. I am so
grateful for that. I have learned to accept what comes and love it.

I know that God puts us where we need to be for a reason. The people
that come into our path are there by divine design of a Father with
infinite love for you. We can learn so much and be he happiest in our
current circumstances if we simple look for what He intends for us to
learn.

I invite you all to go about your days for consciously. Happiness and
knowledge is all around you. It's placed there by your Father in
Heaven. You just need to take the time to notice it. It is your
choice. Choose to be happy and grow everyday!

We all need the help of others

Every week during our planning session we compile a list of members
that we want to involve in the work that week. After that it is a lot
of calls and voice mails before the real magic happens of laboring in
the Lord's vineyard with the members of our ward.

This past week we called a Sister in the ward to come out with us and
we were surprised with the response we got. She came up to us at
church and told us the voice mail we left for her about coming teaching
with her made her cry. We were a little confused by this. She went on
to explain how it has been years since she has gotten a call from the
missionaries for her. Her husband is not a member of the church and so
every time the missionaries called it was to see if ye could teach her
husband. She told us how she felt very used and unappreciated.

It was a great lesson to me of how easy it is to overlook some of our
Heavenly Father's precious children. I'm sure that the missionaries in
the past had their hearts in the right place. They wanted to unite
this family for eternity by bringing the father into the gospel fold.

Through this experience my attention has been heightened to the needs
of everyone in the ward. Just because it someone may be firmly planted
in gospel soil does not mean that we can over look them. Every single
person you encounter is a child of God who needs love and support.
None of us are perfect. We all need the help of others.

The structure of the church is divinely inspired in such a way that we
have many opportunities to serve each other. We need our brothers and
sisters. Heavenly Father often meets our needs and the needs of others
through acts of kindness from His other children.

I invite you to take the time to observe the needs of others this week
and then act. It doesn't take much exertion to brighten someone's day
and make their burden lighter. Pay extra attention to the person who
doesn't get a lot of attention. I can testify that when you do this
you will be the Lord's hands on the earth.

Mosiah 2:17 And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn
wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your
fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.

Enviado do meu iPad


NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.