Nothing is Unbelievable

While I was serving in Missoula, I was blessed to know the Furrer family. Brother and Sister Furrer quickly became such wonderful memories in my mission. On Saturday I was blessed with the opportunity to go to the temple and see them get sealed for time and all eternity. This experience taught me so much.

The atonement can change us. It is meant to change us. I have faith that any and all people can change when they rely on the atonement of Jesus Christ. We learn of Alma the younger AND Alma the elder who both relied on the atonement of Jesus Christ to become great men of God. I was able to watch Brother Furrer rely on the atonement of God. I went from believing that he could enter the holy temple to be sealed to his wife, to seeing it. I have always believed in the unbelievable. Brother Furrer did not believe in himself, but I did. I believe that everyone can enter that holy temple, when they have faith, repent, are baptized, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end. Whether you lack faith in yourself or in someone else, please hear me: You/They are a child of a merciful God. The atonement is available to all, and all have the potential to change. Mormon 9:27-28 tells us, “O then despise not, and wonder not, but hearken unto the words of the Lord, and ask the Father in the name of Jesus for what things soever ye shall stand in need. Doubt not, but be believing, and begin as in times of old, and come unto the Lord with all your heart, and work out your own salvation with fear and trembling before him. Be wise in the days of your probation; strip yourselves of all uncleanness; ask not, that ye may consume it on your lusts, but ask with a firmness unshaken, that ye will yield to no temptation, but that ye will serve the true and living God.”

There is nothing more rewarding than being an instrument in the Lord’s hands. Be the faith that someone needs to return to their Heavenly Father, even if that someone is you. Doctrine and Covenants 18:15 says, “And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!” Find/Be that one soul.

I love you all, and invite you all to keep the temple in your sights. Go to the temple or go back to the temple. Be a missionary. Talk to a missionary. Write a missionary.

Love,

A Missionary

Sister Myers ❤

Repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. What do those words mean to you? To any active Latter-Day Saint they can be recognized as the steps in the gospel of Jesus Christ. I was taught these steps as the steps of a ladder. You start with faith which leads up to repentance which will step up to baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and the last rung of the ladder is enduring to the end. But then I began to see it more as a circle because as we continually step forward we must always have faith and repent and remember our baptism and confirmation by partaking of the sacrament. Enduring to the end is a continual process of the living the gospel. So, after seven months on my mission, I’ve come to see the gospel of Christ not as a ladder nor as a circle, but as both: a winding staircase. As we progress forward, though it does come back around, we go higher each time–closer to our Heavenly Father.

Jesus Christ said that in his gospel “ye must repent, and be baptized in my name, and become as a little child, or ye can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God.” I’ve already once spoken about becoming as a little child, but want to talk more about it. What do I know about children? After working with children for three years I know a few things: they are honest, loving, they learn more easily, they are not as corrupted by the world as adults are, they are more ready to believe gospel truths. We must become as they are. We must be honest in our beliefs, loving towards all men, learn all that we can, strive to not be corrupted by our world, and be ready to believe gospel truths.

Why do I tell you this? Preach My Gospel: A Guide to Missionary Service says that Heavenly Father “wants every one of His children to find peace in this life and a fulness of joy in His presence after this life. It is my purpose as a called and set apart servant of the Lord to “invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.” I know that by living the gospel that I preach I can come closer to my Heavenly Father and thereby bless my family and “honor my father and mother” both earthly and Heavenly. I know that you can begin now to live this gospel: to come unto Christ, repent, be baptized, and become as a little child. I invite you to meet with missionaries wherever you are. That decision will bless your life and your family. I testify of that in the name of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

❤ sister Myers

 

If You Know Not, it be Because You Ask Not

3 Nephi 5:13–“Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  I have been called of Him to declare His word among His people, that they might have everlasting life.”

I invite each of you to ask me questions about the church if you have any. I am always open to questions. I am not a perfect teacher. I can only tell you what I know, and I can try to learn what I do not know. I am a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It is my privilege to answer your questions, it is my purpose to invite you to Christ.

❤ Sister Emmalee A. Myers-Parraz

Missionary from October 2013-April 2015

Member from April 2012-eternity

To Show Many People the Way to Greater Happiness

Every six months, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints holds a conference that the whole church worldwide watches. We believe that we are lead by a prophet who is called of God and he is one of the speakers at this conference along with our twelve apostles and some of our seventy (our church is organized the way that Christ organized the church while he was on the earth).

Why I Serve This Day

Let me pose a question to you:

If God came down and said to you, “I know you have made certain plans for your life and they will make you good, but I need you to take a break from that because I offer you something that will make you great. Something that will bless you and your family. Something you will bless the families of others. Something you will never regret.” Would you look at Heavenly Father in that moment and say, “Well thanks, but no thanks. I’m content with what I’ve got going and I really need to finish this part of my plan before I do any of that.”

“Choose you this day whom ye will serve…but as for me and my house, we will serve The Lord (Joshua 24:15).”

It does not say choose tomorrow, or choose when it’s more convenient. It says to choose this day. I will never regret my decision to go on a mission. Yes I had a year of undergrad left and acceptance into a good master’s program. Yes I had four jobs lined up for the next semester. But guess what, all of that stuff will still be there, or something better will be there. I chose to serve God in the day that He asked me, and I will never be sorry for that.

For those of you who are “proud of what [I’m] doing but disappointed that [I] didn’t finish school first,” and I know there are a lot of you, I invite you to find the time to open your heart and turn to God and ask Him if this was His plan for me. I can testify to you that He answers prayers and that he will always give us what’s best for us. I chose to serve The Lord first. I chose to “seek…first the kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33).” I know that because I am here I am blessing the lives of many people in Montana. I hope that my family will see the blessings that they have received from my missionary service as well.

I invite each of you to read Matthew 6 or 3 Nephi 13, Matthew 28:19-20, and Alma 42:27

“Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, he son of God. I have been called of Him to declare His word among His people that they might have everlasting life (3 Nephi 5:13).”

 

I have great love and respect for each of you, but an even greater Love and respect for The Lord,

❤ Sister Emmalee A. Myers-Parraz

The Tenth Commandment Applies Today

Imagine:

You have a group of children. To each little girl you give a toy and tell them that they can always have their toy, but they can only play with them during play time. To each little boy you give a toy and tell them that they can only keep their toy if they are good, and if they share their toy with others, and never use their toy to hurt anyone or hold power over anyone who doesn’t have that toy, but as long as they do that they can always have their toys with them. Now the little boys have to work hard to keep their toy and the little girls get to use their toys whenever it’s play time. Eventually, the little girls decide they want the boys toy as well as their own toy. The little girls don’t see that their toy is just as special as the boys toy and that when used together with the boys their games can become far greater than they ever imagined.

 

Because God

Last week we were helping some investigators prepare for their baptismal interview with a fun game. It was much like jeopardy, but it would require them to have basic knowledge of the gospel as well as bare their testimony of simple doctrine. At one point we asked a question that involved the word why. It was something similar to “Why did we have to come to earth?” The youngest boy, wanting to be super helpful, raised his hand. His reply was so simple and sweet, “Because……God.” I couldn’t think of a more perfect answer to any of the why questions of the Gospel. Why do we do anything in this church? Because of our love to our Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ. If you ever find yourself asking why you have to do something (go to church, pay tithing, obey the word of wisdom, etc) just turn to yourself and say, “Because God.” Simple truth from the mouth of a child.

 

❤

How You Make Them Feel

“People will not remember what you say, but they will remember how you make them feel.”

You Have to Glow

Hope is Jesus Christ

She said that hope was a thing with feathers but I don’t think it’s that weak, hope can turn a mouse into a lion it can make the shy to speak, hope is a lot like faith it can give a person wings, it can take the greatest ship and move it far across the seas, hope was in the cries of Job when he refused to hear his friends, hope was in the arm of David who didn’t know if Goliath was his end, hope was in the eyes of the adulterous woman as her accusers began to leave, hope was in the heart of Jairus when he was told not to fear but to believe, hope was the sight of the prodigal son and the hug that healed his soul, hope was the title of liberty that was just a coat on a pole, hope was the page that Hyrum turned down before the bullets flew, hope was in the brave pioneers going somewhere new, hope comes from our savior from his atoning sacrifice, hope for love and hope for peace and hope for eternal life, hope was in the blood that came from every pore, hope is the sounds of his knock on our heart’s door, hope was the cries, “Abba,” and “Nevertheless, thy will be done,” hope was in this moment made for every single one, hope was in the suffering to take the trials and the pains, hope is in the fact that he would do it all again, hope is an abiding trust in our Lord of Lords and King of King, hope helps us stand as witnesses at all times, in all places, and in all things, you can say that hope is a bird but birds all fly away, hope is my savior Jesus Christ and He is the same forever and today.

❤ and written by sister emmalee a. myers-parraz