I know that Heavenly Father and
Jesus Christ know me personally, inside and out, better than anyone -- better
that I do. I know that They love me a ridiculously infinite amount. I know that
They want me to be happy and I KNOW that they know the plan of happiness. There
is a plan for each of us -- our infinitely wise and all-knowing Heavenly Father
is the Master of this Plan. Jesus Christ made it possible for each of us to
live it. He marked the way and led the path for each of us to follow, with His
divine help (grace) and the guidance of the Holy Ghost.
Family, never leave this plan. Never
forget the goodness and mercy of our Heavenly Father. He has given us
commandments -- not as a restriction, as the grumpy old man last Saturday tried
to tell me -- but as one of the greatest tokens of His divine love outside of
the Atonement and our ability to choose. He wants us to succeed. He wants us to
have the same joy and happiness that He has -- happiness that He knows can only
be found through following His Son.
This is so important. This is something
that I KNOW to be true. This is something that I love :) :) :) It has brought
me so much happiness!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE Jesus Christ and my Heavenly Father. I
love the commandments they have given us because they truly bring me JOY. even
when I do not like or understand them.
this is a fact: sometimes the rules
to do not make sense. (whyyyyyyyyy 6:30am?????????????) This week I studied
John 9 every morning, and I realized that what Jesus was doing did not make
sense. "Here, blind man, I put some mud on your eyes! Now go wash it off
in this specific pool!" If I were the blind man I would've been like
"uhhhhh thanks a lot, Jesus........ I could've put mud on my OWN eyes,
thank you, and now my face is dirty....... nice." But he doesn't do that!
He has FAITH and he goes to the pool of Siloam and obeys with exactness
Christ's commandment...... and a MIRACLE happens.
Christ knows us better than we know
ourselves. Sometimes He asks us to do things that don't make sense. "How
will this ever bring me happiness??????? How will being 2309238409 miles away
from home and only emailing my family once a week and walking around in
23940398% humidity ever bring me JOY??????" FACT: it does. Because He
knows better.
............. okay, okay, i'll get
off the soapbox now hahaha. It's just SO TRUE!!!!!!! I know it is!! it's the
best news ever!!! the commandments are not restrictions.... they are
guidelines. and i heard that one million times growing up but i never knew how
true it was until i reached the ripe old age of 21 3/4 and looked back over my
long long life {:)} and could see how much He's blessed me. :) :) :)
IN OTHER NEWS......................
I. LOVE. BEING. A MISSIONARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it's the best best best best
BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) :) :) :) :) seriously, sometimes my face just HURTS
from smiling so big all day long oh boy that sounds so cheesy but
SERIOUSLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY. not that every day is like sunshine and roses and
skipping happy laughing....................... but sometimes it is haha and
even when it's like guhhhhhhhhhhhhhh it's still like yayyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!! :) :)
:) it's the best life ever. everybody should do this :) :) :)
earlier this week I was thinking
about how everyone's like "missions are so hard" and i was like
ehhhhhhh........ not really! like i mean they ARE hard, but so is LIFE haha and
i really don't think missions are that much harder than "regular"
life.... like at all. the ultimate challenge/struggle as a missionary is to
align my will with God's. and that goes for "regular" life as well.
that's the struggle! and missionary life is different, for sure, but it's also
like..... not. haha. bringing our will in line with God's -- choosing His will
-- is a central purpose of our lives no matter what.
i don't really know where to go from
here hahaha sorry about all the serious talk!!!
okay favorite conference quote of
the week:
It can be discouraging at times to know what it means to be a
son [or daughter] of God and yet come up short. The adversary likes to
take advantage of these feelings. Satan would rather that you define yourself
by your sins instead of your divine potential. Brethren [and Sisters], don’t
listen to him.
BOOM. love that. :) :) :)
seriously so perfect for me this
week. have i mentioned that i love church??? because i do :) :) :)
want to hear a cool story?? :) :)
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
ooooookay. OOOOOOOOOOOKAY. (everyone
please practice saying that in your best wisconsin accent.)
MY FRIEND S*******.
we go to her house for lesson time.
she is sitting out on her front porch playing with bear the dog. we chat. she
says "his brothers are jerks!" bear's brothers? NOPE, NEPHI'S
BROTHERS. did she read the Book of Mormon?? YES SHE DID. did she understand and
apply it? YES SHE DID.
AAAAAAAAND THENNNNNNNNNN.
we were teaching about the plan of
salvation using these ghetto little pictures i made hahaha. and we ask her
"what do you think happens when we die?" and she goes "I don't
know........... but I feel like there should be levels."
what.
LEVELS????????????????????? WHO EVEN
BELIEVES IN LEVELS?????????? oh, that's right, WE DO BECAUSE IT'S THE TRUTH.
but like...........
what??????????????? hahahaha sister butler and i were like.......... well,
let's put it this way... we wish we were on the district 3 so that we could
pause the dvd and be like "LOOK AT OUR FACES" because we were
ridiculously excited hahaha. but yes, s**** believes there should be one level
for like "murderers and stuff", one for "people who were like
good but not very faithful" and then regular heaven.
like, what??????
so that was amazing. we were
grinning like idiots allllllllllllll the way home.
we're going to make team t-shirts
that say "get the glow!" because in her prayer she was like
"thank you for these two girls..... and you can actually tell that they
believe what they're saying!" and afterwards she was like "you both
just GLOW!" and we were like girrrrrrrrrrrrrrl {sister....} you are
glowing too!!!!!!!! because seriously she looks so different from when we first
met her a few weeks ago :) :) :) :) :) I. LOVE. MISSIONARY. WORK!!!!!!!!!! :)
:) :) :) :)
so that was exciting times :) :) but
then she didn't come to church........... lame. guess who did come to church
though?? Z & C & W, which is AWESOME because last week W(Brother L) was
like "this is your first and last time coming here" to his wife, but
THEN the ward was awesome and they all became best friends, and now they've
been to church TWICE! boom baby! even though we've neeeeeeeever actually had a
sit-down lesson with the dad haha members are all like inviting them over to
dinner and then telling us so that we can come too haha it is awesome land :)
:) :)
in other news, i love being a
missionary.
in OTHER other news, i am not very
good at it.... but i can feel myself getting better!!! bit by bit the Lord is
helping me!!! He is magnifying my efforts and just helping me
sooooooooooooooooo much and family I can feel your prayers!!! we have had
MIRACLES this week personally and as a companionship and i KNOW your prayers
made the difference.......... like seriously, i know that's true. God told
me.
other favorite conference quote: In
His mercy, He allows for improvement over time rather than demanding immediate
perfection. Even with the multitude of sins occasioned by the weakness of
mortality, as often as we repent and seek His forgiveness, He forgives again
and again.
yes,
yes, yes. <3 <3 love Him <3
so
that's pretty much the update this week......... OH, and LAST WEEK i met a
LEGIT donny osmond convert, so THAT was obviously awesome........... haha i
loved it so so much <3 <3 <3 "how'd you find the church?"
"donny osmond." "whaaa...?" "I was obsessed so i wrote
him and he sent me a Book of Mormon and then I got baptized." haha
awesome!! and she actually has like the world's strongest testimony too so it's
legit hahaha. :) :) :)
zone
conference was bomb.com, i love
elders, they are hilarious and always make me laugh, i love missionary life, it
is crazy and confusing and i'm not very good at it and i make approximately one
billion mistakes every single day............ but I'm working on it. and the
Lord is with me and He's helping me, I know He is :) :)
I
love you family!!!!!!!!!!!!! you are the bestest :) :) :) :) :)
OH AND ALSO
(how could i forget, family, HOW COULD I FORGET??????) remember my best friend
n****??? whose little sisters got baptized and i love her?????? well something
i did NOT tell you (because it wasn't really relevant...) was that she had a
loser boyfriend. well he wasn't reeeeally a loser he just wasn't like GREAT. he
was just like a average boyfriend, whatever, stupid, dumb. WELL i talked to
sister erickson last week (missionary-related phone call with only a LITTLE BIT
of chatting.....) and SHE told me that Narnia**** X*** my best friend ever
BROKE UP WITH loser boyfriend and isn't even that sad about it because HEAVENLY
FATHER IS HELPING HER, yes He is <3 <3 <3 AAAAAAAAAAAAND she was like
".......... do you think that I could go on a mission??????"
OHHHHHHHHH MYYYYYYYYYYYY YES YOU COULD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Music I’ve been listening to lately: Nashville tribute band ‘work’
hilarious. So great. I love it. amen JJ
Also—Mormonchannel.org district videos…..8 episodes!! So great
JJ
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