Faith in the Lord'sTiming

With a few minutes left in our weekly email time I asked Elder Scott if he had a quick spiritual thought he would like to share this week. Within a couple of minutes he shot me back the following message,"This week's spiritual thought is on the topic of whether or not we are doing what the Lord wants. This was a topic Elder Cruz and I talked about a lot this past week because we ran into it a lot this past week. 

Many times we wonder why the things we are doing just are not working out. Why, if we are working on things we feel are good, are they not going the way that we think they should?  The answer that we discovered was we needed to stop and ask ourselves if we were doing what the Lord wanted us to be doing in that moment? If the answer was 'no' we changed and made new plans. 

Many times in our lives we run into this problem. We are doing the right activities and  it seems they should be the correct path, but sometimes they aren't if that's not what the Lord wants us to be doing in that moment. It's not that it's a bad activity, it's just not the Lord's will in that current moment. I loved thinking and pondering that all this week, and hope you do to."

Sometimes we try to do the very best we can, and yet, even with righteous intentions, one setback after another weighs us down. There will be times it is easy to get frustrated in the process and succumb to the discouragement, but in those moments it's important to remember that although our plans may be good, Heavenly Father has an even better plan. In fact He has a perfect plan for each and every one of us. The plan will be one that stretches us, helps us to grow, and teaches us vital attributes we need in order to become more like Him. 

In an Ensign talk I was reading, one of the contributors, Sung Eun compared trials she was facing to the apostle Paul and said, "He always had a positive attitude and willingly waited for what God had for him, rather than hoping for his own timing. I learned something from his example: The period of waiting is not merely the process that we must go through to get what we want. Rather, it is a process by which we become who our Heavenly Father wants us to be through changes we make".

(When Good Plans Don't Work Out, Ensign July 2012).

Every opportunity we are given, both ones we view as good and ones we view as bad, are chances for us to learn...to gain knowledge....to become a more perfected person *if* we put our faith and trust in our Father's will and then act on the counsel He guides us to do. 

This week Elder Scott will be putting his own advice to the test quite frequently as he was transferred to another area this past Tuesday. He is really excited to serve with Elder Ganoza who will be finishing off his mission with Elder Scott as his companion. But as the case has been every time, it was hard to say goodbye to families he was serving, and those who were serving him with such love. 

PICTURES OF HIS FINAL DAYS IN THIS CHIMBOTE ZONE

This is a boy who LOVES his ice cream, and what a treat it was to have a special sundae made for him once again.

It was hard to say goodbye to these sweet families

A cool new Elder Scott shirt

Time to say goodbye to Elder Cruz for now.