Hammocks are the source of all goodness. I love them.
Today was a wonderful Sabbath day. Church was so so good. It amazes me how EVERY Sunday without fail I leave feeling inspired, motivated to change, with an increased desire to BE better, a complete giddy love for the Gospel and for repentance, change, improvement and progression, and most of all, a stronger testimony that God loves me and knows me personally. I love Sundays. And I love having opportunities to bear my testimony and to hear others testify.
Today in Sacrament meeting they talked about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. It was reiterated to me how simple the gospel really is - when we covenant with Him, and do what He says, He promises to give us all that He has. That is it. That's why we're all here, right? When we strive to do that, we can trust that He will fulfill His promises and we will be happy. And I can trust Him completely.
We also had a high council speaker who spoke to returned missionaries and asked us some pretty thought-provoking questions (in my opinion).
Do you feel as happy now as you did on your mission?
Are you doing all that you did on your mission?
Are you reading your scriptures and praying daily with desire and feeling?
Do you know your purpose every day?
Granted, everyone in my Campus Plaza ward is a billion years younger than me - most of them only having returned from the mission a few months or something - but I thought I needed to think about those questions anyway...
These questions, as well as a lesson in Sunday School about finding the lost sheep and reaching out to those who feel lost reminded me of an aspect of my mission that affected me deeply. The reason why I loved serving on a mission so much is that I got to witness Heavenly Father find His sheep and to spend my time looking for them. I saw miracles daily in that work - and I've never felt so happy as when I felt I had helped someone realize personally and individually God's love for them. He never ever, ever, EVER gives up on ANYONE and is always waiting patiently, like the father in the story of "The Prodigal son." It was powerful to me to read that the Father runs to meet his son (who he has been watching for, by the way) who has sinned and who comes back in humility. THAT is the kind of love and patience we need to have and desire for other people. I love that. And I need to be better about praying for opportunities to find His lost sheep and to share my testimony. Goal #1.
My Goal #2 for the week was also prompted by the high council speaker's question: Do you know your purpose every day? On the mission, I knew my purpose EVERY DAY - It was to invite others to come unto Christ. And I repeated that purpose every morning. That is the core of the gospel and the purpose of my life on the mission and now. I decided to remind myself daily of this goal and ponder it daily so that I won't get caught up in other "purposes."
Goal #3 Desires. I read a talk from April General Conference called
Desire Here is one of my favorite quotes from it:
"Desires dictate our priorities, priorities shape our choices, and choices determine our actions. The desires we act on determine our changing, our achieving, and our becoming."
One of the main goals of our existence, I realized is to maintain and feed pure and righteous desires.
The Valley of Goblins Itself
Some of the groupies - Kev, Me, Jami, Jose, Ashley, Sarah, Sabra
Crawling through the slot canyon - we had to shimmy our way over the water for a while there - AWESOME
Oh hey, we're in goblin valleyyyy!
We found a strange creature in this hole, so we decided to take a picture under it. :)
Jami, Me, and Ashley (Jami's roommate, love her)
Playing admist the goblins...
Where we camped (BEAUTIFUL!)
Climbing up the walls of the slot canyon! Catherine, Aaron, Me, Michelle, Dusty
Token jumping pic, you know
Jami and I - friends for 10 years and counting!
Most of the group: Brett, Kevin, Sarah, Sabra, me, Jose, Aaron, Jami, Ashley, Dusty, Michelle
The Valley of Goblins
