Even with no bike, My soul was filled with joy

And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!

Alma 36:20

Sister Roth and I woke up early.  The light was racing in, and as we ran it shined brilliantly in our eyes.  But we prevailed and ran two and a half miles.  What a great start to the day!  We got back to the house, and we put down our car bike rack that was sticking out.  It always bothers us when we leave it up.  Then we began to walk inside and Sister Roth stopped.  She turned to me and asked, "Where are our bikes?"  We had left our bikes on the rack the night before.  Without answering her question I suggested that we continue our run around the block.  After looking at every yard, we arrived home and I concluded that our bikes where missing.

We filed a police report and went on with our day.  We weren't even late to studies.  As we began our companionship study we stood and recited the Standard of Truth by Joseph Smith.  "The standard of truth has been erected. No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing.  Persecutions may rage, mobs my combine, armies may assemble, and calumny may defame, and our bikes may get stolen," we added. "But the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent..."  We giggled a little and then commented on the truth of that statement. We were not going to let this little thing stop us from doing the work of the Lord.

It was really cool to recognize how the Lord was blessing us.  Normally with a loss of something so expensive there is a nasty sinking feeling that tags along with it.  But I didn't get that, and I was able to move on with confidence that the Lord will provide.

The only notable thing to say about the rest of that day is that I am thankful for our companionship unity.  We both helped each other stay positive as we borrowed the bikes of the sister's who live with us.  The work continued. And I had a great day.  Sister Roth reminded me, whenever I began to morn the loss of my (less than three month old) bike that my Father had given me, that I am called of God, and if I needed my bike, God could bring it back to me.  I also knew that I have the means to buy a new bike.  I felt comforted that the Lord would take care of me.  "Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on... For your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." (3 Nephi 13:25, 32-33)  And seek we did.  

The next day at church we had so many people there!  So many people that we are teaching and helping to come back to church. There is a woman we are teaching who was sick, but came anyways because she knew that it was where God wanted her to be! She is a great example of faith to me, I know that God blesses us for the efforts we put into following Him, even when it is tough to!  By the end of the night, we had three people who had accepted the invitation to be baptized and had picked the days that they were going to do it. Three wonderful people who have made the choice to follow Jesus Christ.

The week was going great and it seemed that nothing to stop the work. Sister Roth's iPad screen broke, and the building was all booked so our baptisms coming us had to be moved, and plans weren't working out, and we were getting a little frustrated. But we turned toward the Lord, and prayed that everything would work out.  We went on with confidence, and continued to look for the miracles.  We found one the next day.  A 23 year old guy walked into a missionary meeting in Ahwatuki, which is forever away. After listening to the training given to the missionaries, he said that he wanted to learn.  Sister Roth and I met him on facebook, and then in person and were able to teach him.  He is so awesome and it was sweet to hear him share his faith in God, even in the rough times of his life.

"The light of the body is the eye; if, therefore, thine eye be single, they whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If, therefore, the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye can not serve God and Mammon." (3 Nephi 13:22-24)

There is no room in this life to give in to doubts or despair.  Or discouragement. "Faith, hope charity and love, with an eye single to the glory of God qualify him for the work." (Doctrine&Covenants 4:2) Doubt is the opposite of faith, and discouragement fills the soul, to where you can't feel the love of God.  I gave into those feelings, and lost that light which comes from faith in Christ. It was a bad day, and I just wanted to have a bad day!  Things were tough, I had lost my bike. My soul felt low.  I let myself get discouraged and I fell back into the fear of having darkness in my life.  I wanted to fight it, but I didn't know how. Sister Roth recognized that my spirit was low, and she tried to help, but I snapped at her, and put her in a bad mood too.  It was about six hours later that we decided to snap out of it.  We counseled together why we were feeling sad.  We realized that Satan had been trying to discourage us, because we were doing the work of the Lord.  We turned to the scriptures for what we could do to help us fight it.

Moroni is described as having such a firm faith in Christ that the devil can have no power over him. "Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men." (Alma 48:17)

We too can have that amount of faith. Sister Roth and I turned our hearts completely to the Lord and wouldn't even focus on the thoughts that were negative at all! And we were blessed with His spirit. We felt peaceful and were able to go deal with the challenges that we were facing. I know that the Lord blesses us, and as we put Him above the other things in our life, we will find that He helps us with everything. Sister Roth and I worked out all of the baptism dates and we even got our bikes back! It was a miracle, and it came from the faith and trust we put in the Lord.