1/20/2019

 It's been a good week--helped an old friend move yesterday on the way to fix your pin #.  I laughed as I sat there packing her wine in my BYU sweatshirt.  She's not super active right now, and going through a hard time.  As I was thinking of her this week, I remembered comments she's made about how she's just too rebellious for the Gospel.  Elder Uchtdorf spoke at a BYU devotional this week though, and it was like he was talking just to her, saying, "If you think you're too different, that you just don't believe like the rest of your family or have messed up too much, DON'T WORRY!!! We are ALL broken! We ALL need the help of the Savior!" I really do have a testimony that the Gospel IS for everyone! We all have different strengths and things that come more easily, but we ALL need a Savior, and His plan really is do-able for ALL of us, and designed to bring EVERYone maximum joy.  I hope her journey away from the church isn't long--her heart and loving others are so good, and I'm grateful we still have a good relationship.  When we talked in Sunday School of what a SLOW PROCESS conversion is (Elder Bednar's pickle parable), it reminds me how annoying progress is, but also how HOPEFUL it is that we can ALL change one bit at a time.  

We dropped some extra soup off to a couple of new baby families Monday night, and then Dad came with me on a Ward Council assignment to visit families in the ward.  We totally felt like missionaries--dropping by for no reason to just say hi.  I took some bread & missed one family, but actually had a good little visit with one family (of a YW) we haven't seen at church for a while.  The dentist office all asked about you with our semi-annual cleaning--we had a good sledding night for youth night Wed, and had a nice Ward Temple Night last night up in Logan.  Dad & I took a little adventure for our date night Friday--& ended up in Snowville haha!--eating at a cute local diner & chatting with the waitress who was from--no lie!-- a town of 100 people!! (Stone, Idaho).  

Okay, the other thing that stood out to me this week was from a Pres. Nelson talk a few years ago "Face the Future with Faith" and I was exercising as I heard these words about prayer, and I thought "Is that real?!--is he just referring Joseph Smith?--are our prayers THAT specifically noted?!" so I went back and read it later, and it has made me so much more focused on sincere prayer.  Sweet Cindy Parry said after temple night she is trying to be more sincere in HER prayers, and she even had to be grateful for how good the peas in her soup were one night!--ha!

Anyway, here's the quote from Pres. Nelson--it is powerful how he applies the promises in D&C to all of us:

If we pray with an eternal perspective, we need not wonder if our most tearful and heartfelt pleadings are heard. This promise from the Lord is recorded in section 98 of the Doctrine and Covenants:

“Your prayers have entered into the ears of the Lord … and are recorded with this seal and testament—the Lord hath sworn and decreed that they shall be granted.

“Therefore, he giveth this promise unto you, with an immutable covenant that they shall be fulfilled; and all things wherewith you have been afflicted shall work together for your good, and to my name’s glory, saith the Lord.”8

The Lord chose His strongest words to reassure us! Seal! Testament! Sworn!Decreed! Immutable covenant! Brothers and sisters, believe Him! God will heed your sincere and heartfelt prayers, and your faith will be strengthened.

Praying for all to go well with your travel plans this week!!--delays are SOOO hard--Elder Holland has such a great quote to help perspective though: "There is purpose in the time it takes"

("The Inconvenient Messiah" Feb 1984 Ensign)

Love you all and the great work you're doing!

Love, Mom