Christmas was great, the members here took really great care of us and we even got to go caroling so that was fun :) we went with a less-active member named Sandi. we stopped by her house when i first got to Racine and she was pretty grumpy... but Sister Casdorph wanted to see her again before Christmas so we went back friday night when we were in the area. and she let us in! haha. and when we asked if we could share a message she said yes! and then i joked "maybe we should sing the message haha" since it was Christmas and i love Christmas hymns but Sister Casdorph was like "actually let's do that" so Sandi picked a hymn (silent night) and then SANG ALONG and she has a great voice so we invited her to come caroling and she said yes! which made me so happy because i really wanted to go caroling! and thennnnnnnn she showed up at church on Sunday for the first time in like 20 years and no one even had to ask her to come! so that was awesome :) and we got to have crepes on Christmas Eve morning with a family in the ward, so that was super fun. :)
also the people here go cRaZy with the lights haha it's awesome.
did i already tell you about the bottle of Squirt we got with the label that said "may your days be merry and Sprite!"? haha i thought that was the funniest thing ever.
Gramma and Grampa Proffit I wrote you a letter but I forgot to mention that Jellystone Park is in my area! haha :)
and I wrote Lindsay Pugmire a letter too but I can't send it cause I don't know her Snohomish address..... and the envelope the schwartz's letter came in got thrown away so I don't have their address either haha.
something i've been thinking about lately is how knowing that something will be hard, that it's supposed to be hard, knowing why it's hard and even being grateful that it's hard doesn't change the fact that it necessarily IS hard haha. i think i thought that if i understood WHY something was hard, that would make it go away? or be less hard? nope haha. but it's so much better to know that there is a purpose - to make us more like Christ! everything has a purpose - Jesus Christ doesn't do anything that's not for our benefit. He loved us so much that He laid down His life so that He could draw all men unto Him (2 Ne 26:24) :)
and I think there are two different kinds of "hard"... Jacob what you wrote made me think about how we have to be true to what we know, even if it is hard, and it definitely will be hard, but in a good way, a transforming way :) it's much more difficult and also pointless to "kick against the pricks." (Acts 9:5) When we know that what we're doing is right, we will still face trials, but we can know that they're shaping us and making us more. If we fight against God and His will, we're just making life difficult for ourselves and we're not even improving! haha hopefully that at least kind of makes sense... :)
something else I've been thinking a lot about on my mission so far is the character of Christ and what that means... because a mission is really so not about you, it's all about other people and their needs and helping them come closer to Christ. so I've just been thinking about Jesus Christ and how His mission probably wasn't all fun, and how He didn't things He probably didn't necessarily want to do, and lots of things were frustrating and hard but He did those things because He wanted more than anything for us to be able to have eternal life and live with Him and our Heavenly Father again. And I've also been wondering why He asked me to go on a mission. I know that He did, and I know that every commandment He gives us is for our benefit and ultimately to make me more like Him, and so I'm thinking about how Jesus Christ never made anything about Him, even when by all rights it should have been about Him! the Atonement, His birth, His life, His miracles - nothing more significant had ever happened or will ever happen ever. but He never brings the attention to Himself! after His cousin John dies He goes to have some alone time, but because it's never about Him, He feeds the people who have come to see him. Right after Gethsemene He is healing someone's ear, from the cross He is concerned about others... it's incredible. and that's how He wants all of us to be. and so He gives us opportunities to forget about ourselves and what we want and what makes us happy, and instead focus on others, and become more like Him in the process. :)
"where is the pavilion?" - great talk.
what have you all been reading and learning from God? :)
a scripture chain for you - I told you about the first two last night but the romans one is great too :)
mosiah 3:3, matt 1:24, romans 13:11
alma 33 - is this the great undiscovered chapter of my life? maybe so haha it comes right after Alma 32, which we all know is about what faith is, but Alma 33 answers the question - "okay how do we begin?" ! so awesome :) what do you think the answer is? :) (also look at the first part of alma 34)
more scriptural goodness -
isaiah 40:28-29 (28-31) (actually all of isaiah 40)
2 cor 12:7-10
we've been reading PMG Ch. 13 this week and it's pretty interesting, reading about how it's all supposed to work haha it's cool :) and you should definitely make a family mission plan! it's on PMG p. 220 :)
here's the thing....... Preach My Gospel is the best. it has everything. all you ever need is Preach My Gospel and the scriptures, amen. i can't believe all the stuff in there I never knew existed!! The little mini one would not be bad to have in addition to the big one because we take PMG with us everywhere and my big one's getting kind of beat up, plus it's just big. but i like having it to take notes in and mark up and stuff :)
Before you go on a mission you should definitely get real familiar with the 10 "how to begin teaching" points on pp 176-77 of chapter 10, learn the principles behind them and use them often! and chapter 1 is so good & important. and definitely know chapter 3 super well before you get to the MTC. you could spend a whole day's study on each of the principles in the lessons, so good. and then learn to teach each principle in 60 seconds or less. try that! haha it's kind of hard. you could try what Sister Casdorph and I do, teach a principle (God is our loving Heavenly Father) in 60 seconds, then the next person testifies, maybe asks an inspired question, then teaches the next principle (the gospel blesses families) in 60 seconds, than the next person testifies/asks/teaches in 60 seconds, until you've finished the lesson. it's kind of fun haha but maybe it's only missionary fun.... anyways it's good practice! i joked this morning that i spent 60 minutes studying a principle and then i have to teach it in 60 seconds haha but it's good, and it helps you to really understand it :) also! Nathan (but also other future missionaries) - learn the doctrine of Christ. i wish I'd known before I entered the MTC that the doctrine of Christ (see 2 ne 31, 3 ne 11, 3 ne 27) aka THE GOSPEL aka HOW TO ACCESS THE ATONEMENT aka THE MISSIONARY PURPOSE is everywhere! it's the 4th article of faith haha but i never even noticed it... the 3rd article of faith is WHY we teach, the 4th is WHAT, and the 5th is HOW :) so that's cool. anyways go through the Book of Mormon and mark all the times faith, repentance, baptism, the holy ghost, and enduring to the end are mentioned. it's everywhere! because the Book of Mormon, along with the Bible, contains the fulness of the GOSPEL :) it's how we take advantage of the Atonement every day! it's how we live our lives :) everything comes back to increasing faith, repenting, making & keeping covenants, living with the spirit, and continuing on faithfully for the rest of our lives :) the gospel is what allows us to be saved FROM our sins, not IN our sins (hel. 5:10-11). that'd be like sitting in a dirty diaper for all of eternity. disgusting. instead of being like "oh that's okay, i love you anyways dirty diaper baby!" the grace of Jesus Christ allows us and helps us to CHANGE, through faith and repetance, and be clean! and become better! hallelujah! :)
a cool story about recognizing spiritual promptings that i heard in the MTC - "the 20 mark note" http://www.lds.org/
also i've been eating like a hobbit lately (how was that movie? did you see it?) haha i just get so hungry!!! i found my yummy granola here though haha so i usually eat that with some greek yogurt at about 7:30 and then i'm starving by the time studies end at 11:30 so i work in "second breakfast" and "elevensies" and all that haha.
also i had custard for the first time, delicious and weird haha. they have a restaurant out here called "culvers" that i guess is pretty classic wisconsin? or something. i still need to try their wisconsin cheese curds hah
We taught a lesson to a part-member family in an assisted living community and when Brother U******** came around the corner I almost fell out of my chair because he has a long like punk-rocker ponytail and earrings hahaha no one warned me!! they gave us cookies and aprons :) so sweet.
QUESTION for you all - and i'm still learning about this so I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas - WHY Nephi? in d&c 33:8.
another question - why does God have us set goals we don't achieve? sometimes Sister Casdorph and I prayerfully set goals and we feel good about them, we feel it's what God wants us to work towards, but then we don't achieve the numbers we set our goal for. how come?
some thoughts (but i'd love yours as well)
p.146 of PMG has some goodness on the topic of goals and what they're for.
also I was thinking about Nephi and how he probably had a goal to help Laman and Lemuel stop being stupid and get their act together. and Nephi worked consistantly towards that goal and did everything he was supposed to and never gave up even though they weren't very nice and told him to leave them alone and even tried to kill him (i would've given up after the first murder attempt, i think. they were probably marked "do not contact" in the area book ;) ) but Laman and Lemuel never came around! Nephi never reached his "goal" where they were concerned. Does that mean it was a bad goal?
let me know what you think :)
other things i've been thinking... the church puts out so much good media for us to share :) i loved the "o come o come emmanuel" christmas video this year :) mormon messages, "i'm a mormon" videos, all so great :)
how is maddy doing? is she still meeting with the missionaries?
also i'm almost out of that great shampoo.... :) and music would be good. we listen to cds in the car and we only have two haha. we could listen to my efy cd or my lower lights cd or anything mo tab or anything church really :) we listen to ipods in the house.
there are TONS of geese here, i'm not sure why... and EVERYONE has at least one cat or dog, usually more. EVERYONE haha.
also, the lady who we help out at the thrift store where we volunteer is named "Siri" and everytime we ask her something I feel like I'm using an iphone haha. Sister Casdorph doesn't know what Siri is so that's weird haha. she also doesn't know what one direction is!!! also Lyndy sent me the most hilarious letter about moving a cardboard cut-out of Harry Styles around the house and scaring people hahaha i was dying.
this is kind of Christmas-y but still good - i was thinking about the wise men in matthew 2:2, 9-10 (verse 10 is especially interesting... why did the rejoice when they saw the star?) and wondering if they could see the star the whole time or if it came & went, and why did they have to stop and ask Herod for directions, and sister casdorph pointed out that usually you can only see stars at night, so I wondered if you could apply following the star to following the Spirit and how we can't always see clearly where we're going or feel the Spirit super strongly, we just act in faith and as we go, we get to see the "star" and that makes us rejoice and leads us to Christ :) just interesting!
well sorry this letter is kind of scattered and repetitive haha, i feel like they're always that way so oh well :) i love you all so so much!! it was so so good to see you and i miss you all a lot. but i'm glad i'm doing what i know i'm supposed to be :) write me letters!
i love you :)
sister cece :)
ps NATHAN i want to hear all about the temple & your first semester of COLLEGE! how did it go? how were finals? nice job on your mission prep final :) what did they teach you in that class? what did you learn? what stuck beyond the final? haha love you lots
xxoxo
also ammon's pose in the morrill family christmas letter cracked me up hahaha
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