Hermana Webb in Washington: Transfers and Fresh Views on Eternity

August 10, 2015

Well, folks! It's time to say goodbye to my beloved Lynnhood! Oh how I will miss it!!! These 7 1/2 months here have been some of the very best! Just the thought of leaving Carolina, Alberto, Lyli and Elvin, and Hermana Clark just make me want to bawl my eyes out! The charity is so real.

I also got an unexpected call on Friday that I will be serving as a Sister training leader, which means that I will be in charge of about 4 or 5 other companionships of sisters to be an example and help train them to be good missionaries! Nooo pressure...haha. I'm excited. Just more opportunities to serve and to love more people! :) And it will be in a new area with a new companion, so lots of changes this week! I'll spend the rest of the day packing and with many tearful good-byes I'm sure! It was the saddest thing- when I told Lyli and Elvin that we had transfers this next week, Elvin looked at us in all seriousness and said "I'm going to cry Hermanas. We've known lots of missionaries, but we have such a special bond with you".....I am not looking forward to going over there and breaking the news

Anywho, I'm especially grateful this week that I served in the US to come back and visit!! I'll be back to see Lyli's new baby girl (she's due in November :))...Carolina is already planning on flying to Utah in a few months so we can go to the Salt Lake City temple together. All is well! Goodbyes are not really the end!

And on Sunday, I figured it would be my last in Chennault Beach, so we arranged to sing with two of the Elders "I need thee every hour." The angels were literally singing with us because singing is not Hna Clark and I's strongpoint. We didn't sound that great when we practiced, but somehow when we got up there, everything was on-key and it sounded so beautiful! We looked out into the congregation and saw grown men crying!!! It was a good Sunday to end on.

Wow. It's kind of crazy. When you finally get used to your companion and really, truly enjoy their company...you get split up. But I am so glad my companion and I have had this past week together--we have done some incredible studying and have just had our minds blown with revelation and new perspectives. I would like to share with you all some things that we have learned that have changed our perspectives that I hope will help change yours--for the better of course!!

In a sense as missionaries, we have learned that it is out job to find those who are prepared by our Heavenly Father to be leaders in His kingdom-not just leaders for His kingdom now, but in the eternities to come. The declaration made by the Lord in D&C 121:34 has never been more true: many are called, but few are chosen. The Lord sees our potential and wants us all to become leaders in His kingdom, however, the truth is that very few will actually do so. That is why as missionaries we must diligently search out those who will do what it takes to accept and receive this calling from our Heavenly Father.

Now of course, the fact that you are not a full-time missionary does not make you exempt. Let me apply this principle to us as individuals:

Why are we here on this earth? If we read in Abraham 3:35 which says, "And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them." we might say that we here to be tested. And that is true. But for what purpose? Are we here to leave our Heavenly Father, be tested, just to have some reunite with Heavenly Father and others not? Of course not! If that were the case, it would not be called the Plan of Happiness. But when we understand that Heavenly Father is looking for those who he can trust to be His leaders both now and in the eternities, we can understand better this test here on earth. We are being tested to see if we will use our agency, our ability to choose, to be obedient to His commandments. When we are obedient to His commandments, we show Him that he can trust us. I like to think of this life a little bit like an internship:

God, our "boss," has a certain position He wants each of us to fill as individuals, but we must prove to Him that we are worthy to fill that position and that He can trust us to get the job done the way He asks us to.
This is the task of our lives. To show Heavenly Father that he can trust us. How? Obedience. The necessity for commandments and agency makes much more sense when we realize this. He gives us commandments to see if we will do what He asks. He gives us the ability to choose to obey and gain His trust, or disobey.

I've learned, especially here on my mission, that Heavenly Father really has to find His leaders amongst a world full of followers. While I am searching for future leaders, I must also use this leadership role in my life to show my Father in Heaven he can trust me with another role in the future. The term, "magnify your calling" has never meant so much to me.

Makes more sense why we have callings in the church, right? Why developing leadership qualities is so important? In His church, he is preparing us for divine and eternal roles and positions we will fill in the eternities. Don't ever forget the potential you have. You have the restored gospel and every resource to become what your Father in Heaven wants you to become.

Be a leader. Work to be one of His chosen. That is the challenge I leave with you this week (and hopefully you apply this the rest of your lives). Live in such a way that if you had to hand in your resume to Heavenly Father today, that He would say,

"Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been true and faithful, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord" [Matthew 25:21].

-Hna Webb