Jesus sought me when a stranger

"Come thou fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing thy grace
Streams of mercy never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above
I'll praise the mount I'm fixed upon it
Mount of thy redeeming love

Here I raise my Ebenezer
Hither by thy help I come
And I hope by thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home

Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wondering from the fold of God
He, to rescue me from danger
Interposed His precious blood

O to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee
Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above"

  We all come to earth, we all experience moments of a wondering soul. We all experience joy. We however, were not just plopped here like it's a game. We are here to make our place in the kingdom of heaven. To be Christs hands on earth.

  There was a time I found myself wondering from the truth, I had not yet found it fully for myself. I had been borrowing my testimony from others. My parents believed it so why shouldn't I? my brothers and sisters lived it... so shouldn't I do the same? Then I moved from Utah to New Jersey. A place I had never been, a place where I wasn't sure where I fit in, where I didn't know anyone. The nearest church was 25 minutes from home, I was used to having a street with in 2 minutes in each direction of my home. My testimony was already wavering my mind was distancing from what was important. Week by week I missed church. My light was dimming.

  July 2011 my life was forever changed. I had made one friend there in New Jersey, she told me about a road trip she'd be taking with others from our YSA stake would be going to the Hill Cumorah pageant. I was shy and had no desires, plus I didn't want to spend my long weekend off going to that and spend my hard earned money driving 6 hours. She texted my boss and my boss told her I would go. So there I was in a situation I couldn't get myself out of. Heavenly Father knew I needed to be here and he'd do all he could to get me there.

  On the car ride there I was tired and wanted to sleep, I didn't want to be there and I wanted to be at home. I found myself praying, asking heavenly father what I was doing with my life. I asked him to help me find truth as we were going to be walking through the sacred grove later on. I prayed and asked him if he heard me and what his plan for me was.

  We finally arrived. Muggy, New York summer, I wasn't thrilled. We began our walk through the sacred grove, my first thoughts were "I am sure it's just like any other forest, these things happened so long ago how could you still feel it?" I found my self frozen on the path some distance in. I was overwhelmed with this sense of warmth that washed through my entire body, I felt peace, I felt comfort, and I felt like Heavenly Father was aware of me. We then met at a small gathering place within the grove, we sat and waited to hear from the mission President of the New York Rochester mission. He started speaking, and I felt like he was speaking to me as he shared the story of a tree.

  This tree in the grove had planted it's self in a place that wasn't fit to grow. This tree had grown large in size, but not in health. It was planted on marshy land and never sunk it's roots in deeply, the winds came and the tree gave in, it fell. On it's fall it didn't just go down by it's self it took down with it the surrounding trees. Through it's life this tree had been living on the water but not becoming nourished from it. I saw that I was this tree, I attended church at my convenience but never did I fully immerse myself into the gospel. I did what it took to get by. I realized that the winds in my life were coming and I was near my falling point and who knew who I would take down with me. I realized then and there that my life was in need of drastic changes. I knew I needed to start going back to church and that I was to serve a mission. I was only 20 so I had a whole year to work towards it and I felt the fire coming back.

  The savior is aware of us. He places certain people in our lives at certain times. He knows where we need to be to hear what he is trying to tell us. He knows the way we can be changed. I was lost from the fold and Jesus found me through President Christianson who is now my mission President.

  Oh how important it is that we plant ourselves deeply that we become converted to this gospel at some point in our lives. We must put our beliefs and our testimony to action to become converted into that belief. We must exercise the faith we have so that it can grow. Faith only stays the same and weakens when it is not put to work. I never want to be lost from the fold again. The happiness this gospel and Jesus Christ provide to my life is beyond anything the world could provide. I am so thankful that he doesn't give up on us when we are lost. We have our agency to come back, but he does all that he can to find us. How important it is that we listen closely to the holy ghost so we wont miss what Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are trying to teach us. 

  It is my prayer daily to become more like Him to strive each day to never wander away again, to live with my Father in Heaven for eternity. To over come my natural woman and to be repulsed by sin. How important I have found it to be to repent each day and to change, to take my weaknesses to God and ask for his divine hand. It is only through he that we can reach eternal life, it is only through he that we can over come temptation. feast upon the words of Christ and deepen the roots of your testimony so deeply into your hearts so that you might not fall when changes, and trials come. Be so converted that you will never move. The Lord needs us as his hands to bring together his fold so that we all can end at his feet some day. We are human and we will wander to and fro at points in our lives, but it is so crucial to find out way back, to do our best to stay on the path to eternal life. To live in our saviors example.

  All he wants is for us to be happy and to show we love him. If we love him we MUST keep the commandments. So simple yet so hard at times. We are forever in debt to him, I feel that it is the least i can do to show my love to him. I am so thankful for this gospel and how much it has changed my very existence. I desire to give him my heart more and more each day so that it can be perfected in him. I desire to have him teach me the ways I should go, how I can teach others, love others and be his hands to guide them home.