Words Of Wisdom

So my amazing sister is serving a mission in Taiwan right now and I just read her email to us this a.m. I just am amazed at the wisdom of missionaries and as I read this it really struck me as true. I am not particularly thrilled for trials, but am so grateful for the growth. I really hope Cydne knows how much these letters mean to me. Thanks Cyd, Here is the letter.

dear family,
i had such a good study yesterday in personal study, but i don't have my scriptures or my study journal with me... so i will just have to paraphrase and you can find it (p.s. i hope you all have study journals!! preach my gospel is pretty clear about them, and if you receive inspiration and don't write it down or can't access it, do you think God is going to give you more??) anywho.. my study was on worthiness. our mission president teaches us missionaries to be worthy, obedient and diligent missionaries. we learn it the minute we get on island. so i decided to do a study on worthiness. and this is my conclusion. that worthiness means suffering. there are tons of scriptures (in these also in matt 10:38..also in doctrine and covenants.. you can look in the topical guide under worthiness. i don't remember all of them) that relate worthiness with suffering. and then i started thinking.. it's like the knight in shining armor. when he begins, he isn't a knight, he's usually a stable boy or something.. haha I'm not really sure. but he does something in order to become a knight. usually something like slaying a dragon, right? well, do you think that he had to suffer a bit? of course he did. he killed a stinkin dragon!! the point is, the no one is worthy without sufferings. it's through our suffering, through our sacrifice, our weaknesses, that God can make us strong. make us worthy. if we came down to this earth with no trials or weaknesses, we would not ever find ourselves worthy to receive eternal life. so remember, as you suffer this week, (i hope not too much!) that as you use the Atonement to overcome and assist you in your temptations, afflictions, trials. (alma 7:11) aka sufferings... you are becoming worthy to be counted His.
i love you all,
jiayou
sister baird