Hello friends and family!
I have felt all your love so strongly this week. Thank you so much for your prayers and emails!!
For those of you who have not yet heard, I have been flagged as "high risk" to be in the mission field and have been informed that I will be going home due to my asthma.
To explain in short the way that I feel right now, it would be completely devastated. I used to think that the hardest thing the Lord would ever ask me to do was to serve a mission. Now I know that the hardest thing that I might ever be asked to do is to come home.
My mission has not been easy. It hasn't always been fun, but it has been the most rewarding thing that I have ever done in my life. There is nothing that I would rather do than be in the service of my God, and the times when I realize all of this is real I simply can't breathe.
I have been thinking a lot about Alma 29:1-3 lately,
1 O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!
2 Yea, I would declare unto every soul, as with the voice of thunder, repentance and the plan of redemption, that they should repent and come unto our God, that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the earth.
3 But behold, I am a man, and do sin in my wish; for I ought to be content with the things which the Lord hath allotted unto me.
I would give anything to finish my mission. My one and only desire is to "declare unto every soul, as with the voice of thunder, repentance and the plan of redemption, that they should repent and come unto our God, that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the earth... But behold, I am [just a Sofie], and do sin in my wish; for I ought to be content with the things which the Lord hath allotted unto me."
The past 8 months have changed my life in the most profound, dramatic way possible. I will be forever grateful for every day, every hour, and every minute of my mission. It has been a refining experience that I could have never created on my own.
I am nowhere near the disciple that I hope to be, but I can confidently say that these past 8 months have given me the tools to use the Atonement of Jesus Christ to continue progressing toward that person.
I know that God is a real being - our loving Heavenly Father. He cares about you. He cares about the things you do and the way you feel every minute of every day. I know that there is nothing that can't be healed by trusting in Him.
I know that Jesus Christ is who He says He is. 3 Nephi 11:10-11,
10 Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world.
11 And behold, I am the light and the life of the world; and I have drunk out of that bitter cup which the Father hath given me, and have glorified the Father in taking upon me the sins of the world, in the which I have suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning.
He is a light that cannot be darkened. Where his light shines, darkness cannot prevail. Fam. Please embrace His light. The healing that He brings is infinite and eternal. He is bigger than all of this. He is bigger than Corona, He is bigger than loneliness, He is bigger than despair. All he asks of you is to come to Him and leave it all at his feet. I know it isn't easy, but it's the most rewarding thing I have ever done in my life.
Mosiah 14:5
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
I love you all so much, and I know these times are so difficult, but I know that if we put our trust in God, all will be made well. He heals broken hearts and feeds hungry souls. Every tear that has been shed will be compensated for. I know it.
Finally, I want to leave you all with this statement: Just because my full-time mission is over does not mean that I am not still a missionary or that I am not on a mission. We are all on a mission to invite others to come unto Christ!!! That mission never ends, and we better all be wearing his name on our hearts. So that is my invitation to you. Be the missionary He needs you to be. Be converted. Be helpful. Be valiant in your testimony of Jesus Christ. I know that as we make an effort to be His hands, we will be better able to see His hands in all that we do.
I love you all so much,
God loves you so much more,
Hermana Jimenez
Saying Good-bye to Hermana Fuller
Saying Hello to Charlee
Here's the 24-hour follow-up to Sofia's email...
We received an email from the Mission Monday afternoon telling us that the Missionary Department is swamped with all of the comings and goings of missionaries and that if we wanted to arrange for a flight on our own or go pick Sofia up from the mission, we could. Because they had no idea when she would be getting home (she's not as high on the priority list as overseas missions that have to be evacuated).
So we thought about flying her home, but then Nikki suggested that she could just drive up and get her. So, Nikki drove up Tuesday morning, met Sofia at the Mission Office, and drove her back to Corvallis. So, tonight Sofia will have a video conference with President Patterick to be released from her mission. Then she will self-quarantine for two weeks at Nikki's. Then... she'll come home to us. I think she's just trying to beat Nikki and Alex in their travel times home from the mission :)
We are proud of Sofia's service and know that she has served the Lord faithfully and completely. We cannot wait to see her in a couple of weeks!
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