Thoughts on Suffering and Sacrifice

Dear Family and Friends,

Please pray for Karen. She is struggling to get her bearings in this new area. Three transfers in three months has taken a toll on her spirit.

In her words,
"I am so tired of getting comfortable and then leaving....I'm so homesick! I miss my bed and my MTC bed and my Mena bed and now my Claremore bed."
She also misses her family and the three companions she has learned to love and then had to leave.

Missions are hard--both for the missionaries and for the families they leave behind. As Karen's mother, I also miss her terribly and it breaks my heart to know she is suffering, but I also know that we have the potential to learn the most in times of suffering. During my prayers the other day I was prompted to ask Heavenly Father to please let my mother, Karen's grandmother, come and comfort her. I asked that Karen be able to feel her presence and be comforted in knowing that her grandmother and other family members on the other side are there to buoy her up and help her continue on. I am grateful for Karen's faithful obedience to the call to serve. She has a testimony of God's love and of the power of the atonement of the Savior. Not long ago she shared with me the BYU devotional talk, "Believing Christ: A Practical Approach to the Atonement" by Stephen E. Robinson (May 29, 1990). She says she loves reading this talk and has been studying one section at a time each day during personal study. I offer a link to this talk for any who would like to read it.

http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=489

The message of the Gospel is true. It has been restored is its completeness to the earth. I know it and I love it and I am grateful for my missionary daughter who is sacrificing to share it with all who will hear and seek to understand.

Love,

Karen's Mom

Related Items