Hope in Times of Hardship.

As I have been out here, I have heard a lot of people ask why hard
things happen. I think that question has a lot of answers, but one
thing that I have learned is that sometimes things need to happen in
order for something else to take place that maybe wouldn't have
otherwise.  There are always good things and blessing that come from
trials and difficult times. I saw a lot of that over these last 7
days. I have seen a lot of miracles and a lot of tender mercies from
the Lord.

One of these miracles happened on Friday night when we went to visit a
recent convert, who has gone inactive since being baptized. She only
lets missionaries into her house and other than that, she has no
contact with the church. Nobody else has been able to get in with her
for a long time. Well we went to her house to visit them and she
invited us to eat with her family. We were just laughing and having a
good time with a few of her kids when all of the sudden, her son ran
from her bedroom screaming and blood was running down his face. He had
jumped off of the bed and smacked his face on the TV. This Hermana
panicked, clearly worried for her son. She knew he needed to go to the
hospital, but didn't feel like she would be able to drive because she
was pretty shaken. She ended up asking if we could call someone from
the church to help her out! Two sisters came and were able to get into
her house to help her as a result of everything. Her son ended up
being fine and needed a few stitches, but nothing too serious. It was
such a blessing that people finally had a little bit of contact with
her because it has been a huge struggle for months now!

Saturday, we went and visited the family who's daughter recently was
killed. They have been super inactive for over 20 years now. When I
met this family 5 months ago, they didn't even really want to talk
about the gospel with us. A lot has changed since the death of their
daughter though. They love to sing hymns with us, read in the
scriptures, and they always want us to pray with them now. This day in
particular was really cool because the Hermano suddenly told us that
he wants to be able to go to the temple again!  The next day, they
both showed up at church! It was the happiest that I have seen them
ever since I had met them! They plan on doing all that they can now,
to prepare to enter the temple again one day!


Hard times will always come and stuff does happen, but that is one of
the reasons that we have the gospel; to give us hope in times of
hardships. Heavenly Father has a plan and it is perfect! He is in
charge and because we know that, we don't need to worry. Everything
will work out if we trust in Him.

Love,
Hermana Rupp