[23] Acrostic poem of Awesome, Scripture Power, and Live in Thanksgiving Daily:)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!

This is going to be a great week! I am excited for the many blessings of Thanksgiving:)  And I'm also look forward to eating turkey, corn, rolls, and my personal favorite, mountains of mashed potatoes :) Oh and pie of course! My companion and I will be making Chocolate Cream Pies with graham cracker crusts (one of my families traditions!) So far we have two Thanksgiving dinners set up, so I hope my stomach is ready for it!

Zone Conference

We had another wonderful zone conference on Tuesday. It was great to see our dear President and Sister Felix and to be uplifted by their positive and spiritual words. They started off right at the beginning by telling us that we are awesome! Is there anything better than to start off feeling good and appreciated? :) We then used the word 'awesome' and did an acrostic poem about it and came up with words that describe missionaries:)

A   accountable, amazing, an answer
W  worthy wonderful
E   excited eager
S    spiritual, shining, set apart
O   obedient
M  meek, miracles
E   example

It was great to know that we are trying to become many of those things, and that striving to do our best we can be described as the words in Awesome!   It was also nice that they reminded us not to compare ourselves to others.  That comparing and jealousies of others for their talents, goods, personalities or even circumstances, takes away the ability to be the happy, loving and serving missionaries that we can be.  It was nice to hear that they thought we each had something to give on our mission and to be called amazing.  I will continue to try and live up to our Mission Presidents expectations.  

Scripture Power

This week continued to be full of ups and downs for us. We had a lesson with (J) on Wednesday which went well. We brought a member with us and she has been friends with (J) for about 10 years, so it helped him to be even more comfortable and to be able to speak openly. She was great and a loving help and was able to answer a lot of (J)'s questions. You can tell that she is also trying to live a Christ like life and loves others. We talked a lot of about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith together and afterwards he said he felt better again about many things. 

We then had another lesson with him on Saturday. He told us there is no question about IF he will be baptized but he said it's mostly about WHEN. We then asked him what is holding him back from being baptized and he said friends and family have started to talk discouragingly about our Church. And so he has been getting a lot of pressure from them to avoid us. 

We then had an amazingly cool experience with (J) as we read a chapter in the Book of Mormon. Whenever (J) prays with us at the end of the lesson he says "show me the way the right way" and as we read 2 Nephi 31 he got an answer this time.  In verses 17-18 of chapter 31, it says  "Wherefore, do the things which I have told you I have seen that your Lord and your Redeemer should do; for, this cause have they been shown unto me, that ye might know the gate by which ye should enter. For the gate by which ye should enter is repentance and baptism by water; and then cometh a remission of your sins by fire and by the Holy Ghost. And then are ye in this strait and narrow path which leads to eternal life" It was a perfect answer to his prayer. The path and direction he needs to follow is the example of our Savior. The feeling we all felt after reading together was a wonderful feeling I will always remember.  There is no other way to describe it, but to say it was so powerful.The Lord cares about us and answers our heartfelt prayers.

Live in Thanksgiving Daily!

This morning in my studies I was reading 2 Nephi 2. I never realized how much was packed into that one chapter! I learned a lot and I made sure to try and take good notes:)   One of my favorite verses ever is in that chapter reads "Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy." It is so amazing to think that the reason we are here is because our Heavenly Father wants us to experience the same joy He has.  That life is not just set up for us to suffer, but to feel joy, which means that we are meant to be lifted up and feel peace and happiness.  

In the same chapter it talks about how there is opposition in all things. Even though we have difficulties and trials there is always something to be grateful for. We can try and choose to be happy, even if sometimes that takes much more effort.  Sometimes it is more difficult than other times, though it always feels better when we succeed in seeing the positive view. That is another reason why I love this Thanksgiving season. We can all take time to appreciate what we have and thank God for our blessings. One thing I want to mention that I am most thankful for at this time is getting letters from my family and friends <3 And as it says in Alma 34:38 "live in Thanksgiving daily". We can be grateful everyday and experience joy by living the Gospel and trying to follow the example of our Savior.

 

Love you all!

Keep me posted!

Sister Karissa <3