The Great Walk With God

FAMILY AND FRIENDS.

I don't want summer to ever end Hahahaha HOLY COW I swear it just started. Time is FLYING right now!!

This week was awesome. Full with lessons w our fav friends and members. 

It was also Sister Hingano's 21st bdayyyyy, so we partied hard for her hahaha. We set up some fun surprises && had the best time!! Hingano is truly a QUEEN. 

The trio is the best & I am so grateful!! 

It's so fun to have Sister Hingano with us and get to see her fall in love with Indiana and the people here! I'm tellin ya,  this place is so underrated. ahhh,  

I loveeeee it so much! PLUS the corn is high risin right now so all is right in the world again haha. 

We had another stellar lesson with Josh at the members home && I'm SO excited for him! I'm so grateful we get to meet with him, and he is making so much progress. You can already see how much more joy and happiness he has since we first met him. Such a blessing! 

JIMMY IS DOING SO GOOD HAHA. Literally we've worked on family history a lot this week and yesterday I was helping him and we finally found the jackpot I could cry real tears hahahaha. It really is so exciting to do family history work- especially seeing Jimmy do it! He is SO excited to go to the Temple here soon! 

We had such good lessons as well with the boys from Kenya and they were able to come to soccer again! We also found out the missionaries were able to contact Morgan's brother in Kenya and took him to church with them this week! It is really remarkable how the gospel can connect a family from here in Indiana all the way to a village in Kenya. SO BEAUTIFUL! 

We also had the cutest little family move in to our ward for just a short time, and they leave at the end of this month. We love them SO MUCH. It is crazy how heavenly father connects paths in almost the most "random" way, but of course isn't so random after all. We will be friends with them forever! We made their daughter Lily a little matching tag with us!! She is the cutest thing ever. 

Needless to say I just LOVE the people here so much. I am trying to soak up each day. 

I was able to muster the courage to bare my testimony is church yesterday- yes, no matter how many times I do it never gets easier for me, ahhaha. But I will never forget sitting up there, looking out on the congregation, and having so much love fill my heart. 

Memories and experiences and things I've learned came flooding my mind as I looked around at the people who have come to mean so much to me. 

I have been put in only 2 areas my whole mission so far. Each for 5 transfers. Everyone thinks it's crazy. But I've felt so much appreciation for Heavenly Father allowing me the TIME in each place to really come to know the people. I wouldn't have it any other way. 

When Paul is preaching in Athens on Mars Hill in Acts 17, he comes across an altar that says, "To the unknown God." He begins preaching to these people about the God that He knows.

It has caused me to ponder about my own thoughts and feelings of the God that I have come to know. There is a lot I don't know- but this is what I do know. 

I know that God is the literal Father of our spirits. He knows my name and he knows yours. He knows my hopes and dreams and fears and insecurities, and he knows yours. He knows the pain and trial I'm facing and he knows yours. He knows my story- my past, my present, my future and he knows yours.

The God I know loves me without condition and without limitation. His love isn't contingent upon anything other than I am His daughter and that's enough.

The God I know loves me enough to allow me to struggle and to make mistakes, so I can gain experience and learn and become. The God I know is sometimes quiet when I desperately want Him to be loud, but I know and trust He is always listening.

The God that I know loved me enough to allow His son, Jesus Christ, to be my advocate and plead my case as imperfect and flawed as I am.

The God that I know has given us a simple and perfect gospel so that every single one of us can come home because the worth of every soul is great in His eyes.

The God that I know meets us exactly where we are and as we are, but if we let Him, He won't let us stay there. 

And the God I have come to know invites me, like He did Enoch, to walk with Him.

I bare my witness that it is the greatest walk of my life. I love My God and I glory in Him and His great plan. I know that Jesus is the Christ. I Know that the book of Mormon is true. I know that the boy Joseph saw what he said he saw. I know God called Joseph to be a prophet and do a great work, and I know that President Nelson is the Lord's chosen prophet on the earth today.

I testify that this is the God I have come to know and love. I have felt Him and seen him in my life. I know He is real and He is GOOD and that He cares. And though sometimes He feels distant or we wonder where He is, I promise He is not far from any one if us, but that He is always with us.

I love each of you and am so grateful everyday to be with you on this great walk WITH our God. 

ALL MY LOVE, 

ox sister rich