For starters, Caleb, my younger brother spoke for the last time in his ward before going on a mission. He is leaving in a week to the Jacksonville, Fl mission. There he will serve the Lord, and learn so much about life, the gospel, and himself. He is going to be one LEGIT missionary! His talk was amazing. My other little brother Jacob spoke too that day and it was SO good! It was his first time speaking. So you see one of the first, and lasts we went through.
The other speaker that day was Ben Mitchell. He is marrying my friend Meri in a few months, and his talk was so inspiring.
He shared a story about a woman he used to work with at a retail/grocery store. She wanted to put up crosses around the store to decorate for Easter. They said that it wasn't a good idea since the predominant religion was LDS, and as we all know, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints doesn't encourage the use of crosses in worship, decoration, or other rituals. This lady was curious as to why and asked "Do you think that crosses are evil or something?" hmmm. let me think. You want to know if a tool used to inflict the ultimate pain, humiliation, and suffering and individual can endure is evil? need I say more?
He went on to share another reason why we don't include crosses in our worship, or daily life. Because we focus on a LIVING CHRIST. Yes we realize He died for us, paid the ultimate sacrifice, (his life for ours) and ultimately redeemed the world from sin, but that is only part of it. If he did that and only that, we would still be held captive of the grave. He rose on the third day to break the bands of death, and ensure our return to our loving Father in Heaven. We don't try to minimize any of the pain he went through, but the fact that He LIVES is greater than any suffering that he went through. Because He lives, so can we. Because He lives, we can make it back to our eternal Father and Mother in Heaven. Our souls literally are saved BECAUSE HE LIVES.
So there's another first I experienced this weekend. I have never thought about this for so long. But it totally makes sense. I felt so inspired to do better and focus on the LIFE of Christ.
I drove down from Logan to Roosevelt with my Cousin and it was a blast! We are probably the closest of any of the grandkids/cousins in our family. We are the same age, well, she's about 8 months younger than me, but we were in the same grade in school.We are also both at Utah State University now. We both played the clarinet in band, and the piano. But she's so much better at both of those than I am. We have gone through a lot of similar things in our lives. It's crazy because we never talk about it while we are going through it. We always have the same kind of story later though. Sadly she's had to go through things about 10 times more/worse than I had to, but we share a lot of similarities. It's crazy. She asked me if I think that any of the other cousins will be as close as we are... I realized that we are tight. That was cool.
I LOVE this life that I live. Sure it's hard, and sure I make mistakes, quite often actually. But He doesn't expect me to be perfect in this life. Just as long as I am constantly trying to do MY best and follow his footsteps. I know that true happiness comes from obedience to the commandments He gives us. I know that when He promises blessings from our obedience, He gives them freely. If I have faith in Him, He will bless me.
Sorry this is so long, I just have so much to write about.
last few things.
I turned my medical papers into my Bishop tonight. He said he's going to finish his part/probably already finished it tonight. Then tomorrow the Stake Offices will have them, and make sure that everything is in order. If all is good, then they will call me this week to set up an interview. Then they will be sent off to the first presidency of the Church. I could possibly have a call in a matter of a few more weeks!!! (SO INTIMIDATING!!!) I'm way excited though to serve a mission and change my life forever. I need something new, and a kick start to the rest of my life. I hope this is it!
Okay, definitely the last thing... I lost 3 more pounds this week, so that's a total of 17 pounds in 8 weeks! I feel awesome. :) The Lord truly is blessing me with the good health promised me in blessings. I love the Lord!
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