Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Being A Missionary Doesn't Mean You are Perfect!

I have learned a lot about the atonement in the last few days. Yes, I am called and set apart to represent Jesus Christ. I am here to act in Gods name and tell people about the restoration of the gospel and help others come unto Christ with baptism by immersion and receiving the gift of the holy ghost. My calling is powerful and great. I am called to preach repentance and to call those who need it to repentance.
I am also a 19 year old young adult who has had little to no life experience and still makes dumb decisions. I am a missionary for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and I am not perfect.
People hold missionaries to a higher standard. We are expected to be better and be held on a "higher plane" and I completely understand that. I know that happens whether I like it or not. I wear Jesus' name on my chest every day, and I need to act in accordance with that. But something people sometimes don't understand is that I am still human.
I will still mess up. Don't judge missionaries too harshly when they mess up. They're still people, just people with a different lifestyle and calling in life than you. I still do stupid, immature things as a missionary. I shouldn't, but I do.

I have learned and am still learning to repent quickly and easily. I use the atonement so much in my daily life. The biggest thing I have learned on my mission is exactly how powerful the atonement of Jesus Christ is and what is covers. It covers EVERYTHING. If you're sad, depressed, lonely, upset, angry, hurt, judged, anything, the atonement takes care of it. You just have to be the one to give it to Him. You have to be the one to get on your knees and ask him for help. You also have to be the one to forgive yourself. That's what I struggle with the most. I am still working on it.

I will always make mistakes. But with the atonement, I can erase those mistakes and be better all the time. When I was baptized I made that covenant that I would take on Christ's name always. I also promised to keep a remission of my sins, which means to stay as clean as I can.
Repentance, the Holy Ghost, and taking the sacrament makes that remission possible. That is why baptism is so important. I love this gospel.

This week went by pretty quickly, we had a lot of lessons with some less actives. We did have a lesson with a recent convert named Lela, she was baptized in April of this year. It is so interesting to see someone who hasn't been a member their whole life grow so much in just a few short weeks. We are teaching her the new member lessons, and she agrees with everything. She loves it. She loves the church and is so excited for callings. She is 69 and is so glad she found the church in her lifetime. I love her already.

Our mission is making a big push towards family history. We are trying new door approaches and introducing how we can help people do their own family history. The church came out with new pamphlets for the missionaries to teach from involving family history and temple work.
People may not always be interested in the church, but they are interested in their own family and ancestors. I'll let you know how it goes. I'm excited, I've never really gotten involved in family history before. The hype is real right now though, I wanna get home and do the temple work for my own ancestors. Missions only make you want to be better.

Sister Wall and I have a lot in common. We could talk for hours about anime and music and movies. Our current topic is Korean soap operas. A few days ago we talked about Nacho libre. I don't think I'll ever get bored of Sister Wall. She has so many facial expressions for everything and she is hilarious.

Also I got a haircut this week.

We had a great lesson on Saturday with one our investigators, her name is Danielle. She's been taught by the missionaries for a very long time. She is on date for baptism, and we wants to be baptized in July.
Hopefully that happens. We went over the requirements for being baptized and she straight up said she will do all we ask her and more.
Ok yes. That was amazing. Her husband Chad is a less active and is coming back to activity. Danielle desperately wants to be married and sealed in the temple to him. Definitely a worthy goal.

That's about it for this week. Prayers are appreciated always. I love you all so very much.
Talk to you l8r!

Love,
Sister Ginn



1. Me and sister Watson, I started my mission with her in citrus heights and it was good to see her again 2. Elder Forson and Elder Hébert, both from the south 3. The old Lincoln crew #lincolnswag 4. Elder Willis and I, he was my first district leader ever and he goes home in three weeks 5. our companionship in a picture