This and That: PRINCE OF PEACE

August 21, 2017

HELLO LOVES,

I hope all is well! It's a bit Rainey/Stormy over here in London! I Love the weather here so much!! This week has been hard and great! I Love the Hard, it makes me grow! So... because of last week and the scary and really harsh rejection I got with finding, as well as being spit on lol, I have found myself getting anxious and almost sick when we go out to find! It's like one of those bad food experiences! Where you eat something you think you're gonna love and then you get super super sick from it. And then later, just getting a glimpse of it makes you want to hurl! Ya, well that's what finding has been like for me!

On Thursday I realized that this fear was affecting my personality and who I was! I also realized that it was slowing the work of the Lord! I got super upset with myself and started to be really negative towards myself. "Really Annie, you're so afraid to go up to someone and try to give them PEACE, you're so selfish" "I'm letting down my savior" "What have I gotten myself into" These were the thoughts I was having, and I was tearing myself apart!

Thursday night I came into my room and just collapsed onto my bed! Then my sweet Mommas voice came into my mind "We choose our happiness Annie, and All Good Comes from God" The thoughts and bad feelings I was having about myself were not from God, they were from the Deceiver. I got on my knees and accounted to the Lord. I let everything out to him!! My weaknesses, my strengths, my success, my failure, my goals, my pain... I told him I wouldn't give up, that I would give my best!!! In return, I got this..."PEACE be unto thy soul, for I will be there so be of glad cheer" This warmed my heart and I was at PEACE!

CHRIST THE PRINCE OF PEACE

The next day I reflected upon the words that were spoken to me...

"Be of Glad Cheer"

I decided to go out and take that advice! I was going to find/talk to EVERYONE that I passed, as well as put a smile on my face and be of glad cheer! So that's what I did! And I found PEACE! How can someone be filled with stressful thoughts when you have got a big cheesy grin on your face? I'll tell you right now, you can't! Things are just good:) And because of this, a miracle happened! My companion and I set the record for most found investigators for sisters in 1 hour in the Zone!!! We found 14 people in 1 hour to teach!! It was so awesome... it's CRAZY what a simple smile can do! Later that night I received a tender mercy from my Father in Heaven...

A woman from Poland came into the Visitor Center and wanted a tour. I took her a round and then showed her a video in the cinema. Afterward, we talked for quite awhile! She was the sweetest thing, and it was so nice to talk to someone who actually would listen and be gentle. She said "May I share my favorite poem with you? I don't know why, but just now I was impressed to share it with you" to my excitement and love of poetry I eagerly stated, "I would love that!"

"Smiling is infectious,

you catch it like the flu,

When someone smiled at me today,

I started smiling too.

I passed around the corner

and someone saw my grin.

When he smiled I realized

I'd passed it on to him.

I thought about that smile,

then I realized its worth.

A single smile, just like mine

could travel round the earth.

So, if you feel a smile begin,

don't leave it undetected.

Lets start an epidemic quick,

and get the world infected!''

This sweet little poem, from this sweet little lady, brought so much PEACE into my heart! I knew it was a tender mercy from God. It's amazing how we can take his advice (Be of Glad Cheer) and do as he says, and it changes our world for the better, and then to top it off he fulfills promises (I will be there) and gives blessings... for simply listening to him!! Such a Beautiful thing. I truly love him with all my heart, there is never a day that goes by where he is not there for me!

I had another experience this week that I find interesting. I feel like the Lord has used me many times to help other Sister missionaries.

Since I first started my mission in the MTC I have had this experience. I have had many sisters come to me in tears expressing a hardship of some kind. I had this happen to me with several sisters in the MTC and now this past week I have had other sisters come to me! Some come to me and talk about personal problems and struggles, but most of them have come to me about how their companionship is really struggling, or they don't know how to deal with their companion. I hope this is because they can feel the genuine love I feel for them.

This past week I had one of both...

It was later in the evening and I was studying (my favorite thing to do), and a sister approached me, came into the room and shut the door, and just started crying. I was a little surprised because I don't know her all that well, and I have only been out for 2 weeks! Anyway, I hugged her, tried to comfort her and loved her! Isn't that what we all need? LOVE? We had a very long conversation about how she was struggling with her companion and how she has been out for 16 months and feels that she hasn't changed at all. She even expressed to me how before she came out on her mission she was suicidal and took a bottle of pills. My heart broke. I sat and listened and just let her get it all out. When the tears started lightening up, I simply told her how amazing she was and that she needed to stop being so hard on herself, we talked back and forth for a long time. In conclusion, she just told me that she felt she could trust me and was thankful for me. I was grateful.

The next night almost the same thing happened, but this time it happened to be her companion. She too expressed to me she was struggling with her companion, and how she bottles things up and burrie's them inside her. We talked back and forth, and I did my best to comfort her and solve the problem. She even told me that back home she saw a therapist every week. I shared my love for her her and tried to give her comfort. She still expressed she was struggling with her companion. So I tried what I had done in the past with another sister companionship.

I pulled both of them into a room and had a very open and honest conversation. It lasted what felt like forever! I felt like a mediator, but eventually through pointing everything back to Christ and his attributes we got things figured out:)

What I have realized from these experiences is that EVERYONE needs CHRISTS PEACE, even missionaries! I came on my mission to find those lost sheep, yet I feel like I have had more success helping sister missionaries then lost sheep. I'm so grateful these beautiful sisters put their trust in me. I pray I can be a trusted vessel for Jesus Christ and share the love he has for all of us! Everything and anything can be solved through Jesus Christ! He mends broken hearts, heals deep wounds, and he brings PEACE to all that call his name.

I LOVE HIM!!

Please Please Please, turn to HIM! This world can be a hard and lonely place, but at the end of the day we have each other and we have one perfect being who will never abandon us! I promise that when we keep Jesus Christ at the center of our lives we have true and lasting PEACE! I love you all dearly, even to the Moon and Back! Choose "Happiness"

With Love, your AnnaBell

P.S. Don't forget to smile

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAjx0d-fda4