The Atonement Changed Me

I am grateful for this week and the experiences I had. This week Elder Carper and I were preparing the Townsend family for baptism this Saturday. We are so happy for them and we can feel their excitement as the day gets closer. This week I was also able to get to know a lot more of the families in our ward because of the opportunities we had to have dinner in their homes. I am so grateful for them. They are all so amazing and I am beginning to love them the same way I did the people in the Del Campo ward. We are seeing many miracles as we become more unified with them.

So this week an interesting experience happened with facebook. I posted a short video on a few things I am grateful for. Shortly thereafter I received a facebook message from someone I used to know in highschool. This was certainly not the kind of message I wanted to receive. In that message that person explained to me how horrible I had made them feel in highschool. How the condescending and negative things I said to them caused them to be depressed for a few years. When I first read it I didn't know what to think. I was obviously hurt and the last thing I want is to cause anyone to feel that way. However, I do recognize the kind of person I was in highschool. I was definitely a bully at times. As I was reading it and pondering on how to respond to something like this the Holy Ghost prompted me "bear your testimony". I followed that prompting and I was able to apologize for the things that I had said and done. I was then able to share my conversion story with them and bear testimony of the changing power of the atonement of Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the opportunity I had to share with someone else the power of the atonement of Jesus Christ. Especially for someone who saw me at my worst before. I don't know if the message means anything at all, but I hope and pray it was able to help that person understand how much our Savior Jesus Christ loves us and the opportunity he gives us to change. I am eternally grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the opportunity it gives me to let go of my past, to be a different person than I was before and to be forgiven of my mistakes. "...My grace is sufficient for all those that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." I am so grateful for His grace.

Elder Hallmark