Finding the Light

FAMILY AND FRIENDS. 

This week I just about died each WARM night sitting on our porch watching the fireflies and the end of the sunset. It was always just what I needed to slow down and admire the beauty of this world and of life, no matter what we may be going through. 

We had exchanges this week & I went to Columbia City with Sister Martin! We had a great time and it was good to help work in their area! 

Quick funny story.....(only if you read my previous email.) So this week we shared in our district meeting with all the missionaries our miracle about the swing, pondering, and groceries. HAHA. So we commit everyone to try out pondering every day too, && Sister Nicol and I promise them groceries, even though we were kinda kidding..... well after the meeting is over, we head out the room and youth conf is happening at the church! Long story short, every missionary left with a BOX of fresh groceries they had leftover and begged us to take. 

HAHA. God always pulls through. 

Woahhhhh, we started meeting with James again! He got a new job so he is on a normal schedule again! Woo hoo! 

Also, Jimmy is doing so good! He is so eager to learn and attentive and consistent! It's so good to see him so happy. In one of our lessons this week, we were reading in the Book of Mormon about how Christ works with us one on one. We asked Jimmy how he has felt like he's come to know Christ and he said so simply, "before if someone said 'Christ', honestly nothing would come to mind." "But now if someone talks about Him, I see him & I feel him." 

He bore a sweet testimony of the Book of Mormon and how he has come to know it is true because he feels a special connection to it when he reads it, and because it leads him closer to Jesus Christ. 

His testimony has definitely strengthened mine. There is nothing like eyewitnessing people change and learn and grow. That's something you see with your own eye that you cannot deny! 

We had our last conference call with President and they have officially finished their mission! I will never forget their influence on my life and will love them forever. 

This Friday we are roadtripping to Plymoth to meet President and Sister Page! We are so excited to get to know them! Stay tuned :) 

This week I was studying a talk by Neal A. Maxwell and this impressed me. 

"These realities are that God loves us and, loving us, has placed us here to cope with challenges which he will place before us. I’m not sure we can always understand the implications of his love, because his love will call us at times to do things we may wonder about, and we may be confronted with circumstances we would rather not face. I believe with all my heart that because God loves us there are some particularized challenges that he will deliver to each of us. He will customize the curriculum for each of us in order to teach us the things we most need to know. He will set before us in life what we need, not always what we like. And this will require us to accept with all our hearts the truth that there is divine design in each of our lives and that you have rendezvous to keep, individually and collectively.

If we at times wonder if our own agendum for life deliver to us challenges that seem unique, it would be worth our remembering that, when we feel rejected, we are members of the church of him who was most rejected by his very own with no cause for rejection. If at times we feel manipulated, we are disciples of him whom the establishment of his day sought to manipulate. If we at times feel unappreciated, we are worshipers of him who gave to us the Atonement—that marvelous, selfless act, the central act of all human history—unappreciated, at least fully, even among those who gathered about his feet while the very process of the Atonement was underway. If we sometimes feel misunderstood by those about us, even those we minister to, so did he, much more deeply and pervasively than we. And if we love and there is no reciprocity for our love, we worship him who taught us and showed us love that is unconditional, for we must love even when there is no reciprocity." 

I am full of gratitude for this time I get to stand extra close to Christ. To love as He loves, to give as He gives, and to suffer as He suffers. 

It can often feel like my pain is too big for me. But I remind myself that I have a God that's even bigger.

There are a LOT of things in this world I don't know...... But this I do know. 

God is our loving Father. 

Jesus is the Christ.

The Book of Mormon is true and it brings the spirit back into our life each time we choose to read it.

&& the Gospel of Jesus Christ is for everyone. 

I come back to those simple truths that I have come to know, but more importantly come to FEEL are true, every time I feel like I'm sitting in the dark. 

&& every time light comes seeping back because the feelings of those truths cause my heart and my mind to remember. And even if it's the tiniest of light at first, it is enough for me. 

If you also feel like sometimes you're sitting in the dark, reach out to God. He will help you find the light again. He will help you remember. 

I promise. 

ALL MY LOVE, 

ox sister rich