We had such a great time talking to Melissa yesterday evening. She sat outside under a big beautiful tree with her friend's laptop and we talked and talked! It made Mother's Day even more wonderful than it already was!
Hello to you. Thank you for Skyping with me yesterday! That was just lovely to see and hear you. Although I was rather nervous beforehand to talk to you, because I thought it may make me homesick, so far I just feel happy about it. I'm so glad to have you back home (and in Russia) and, like I mentioned yesterday, so glad that you are all so great at writing - I don't feel like I'm being shorted by not getting to skype you every week! So thank you for that. I am still disappointed that the cats were not dressed up in MJ garb as requested, but it was delightful to get to see them. Except for Cleo - she was just annoying to see.
I feel like I won't have much to say because I said so much yesterday and last week was not a particularly eventful. BUT I shall begin by sharing some of what I have learned and recorded:
*The topic of LP2 Sacrament Meeting yesterday was Gratitude. One of the speakers highlighted the fact that it's sortof a tough topic to speak about, because it's a somewhat nebulous concept. He posited that virtues like love, charity, faith, gratitude, etc. all have 3 elements/aspects to them: action, emotion, and character trait. He suggested that doing the actions and feeling the emotions lead to having/developing the character trait. I thought that was an interested way of looking at it, especially in the context of gratitude. It's easy to do the gratitude action like saying thank you, or writing a thank you note, but it requires more effort to truly feel the gratitude emotion. Hardest of all is actually being a grateful person.
*Revelation is all about access. As Christ's whole, restored church on the Earth, we have authorized access to Christ's literal direction.
Some gems from Sister Evans' talk in Zone Conference on Thursday:
*Heavenly Father did not put us on the earth to fail - He gave us guides - the scriptures - which are referred to by many difference names. A compass, a rod of iron, lamp/light, Book of Remembrance. She said, "There is not a scenario we go through in life that isn't addressed in the scriptures."
*The Savior saves us from our sins, not in our sins.
*She said something about how the gathering of Israel is something that has been fortold since the beginning - even before Adam and Eve! So God held in reserve some valiant servants for THIS TIME to be at the front lines in the battle against the Adversary. It made me SO thankful for my brothers! So thankful that, in His perfect wisdom and love, God allowed for 3 of those choice, valiant servants, to be born into my family so that I could learn from them! I saw a vision of who they are and what they will become and it was just amazing. I feel so blessed.
And now one from the BoM. I finished Alma this morning, which is sad. Thank goodness I have a book as great as Helaman to read next.
*In Alma 62:41 I love the juxtaposition it lays out. The people have all been going through the same thing (war) for the same amount of time (long). But their reactions are so different! Some are hardened and some had their hearts softened because of affliction. I love the reminder that I can choose to be either hardened or humbled by my circumstances. It's all up to me!
Well, that's about it! I am looking forward to this next week. Hopefully I can talk to a ton of people and give a lot of referrals and if I'm REALLY lucky, one of the people I talk to will be a single woman who is within the ages of 25 to 30. ha. Even if I don't I will be happy. Isn't that nice that I can say that? Because I get to choose. :)
Love you all,
Sister "Bring on the Summer sans the humidity" Broekhuijsen
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