Is It Still Wonderful To You? 10/21/19

 Hello friends and family!

I hope you are all doing well and your weeks have been amazing. It has been quite the adventure this week in the best of ways! 

We had exchanges this week and I got to go into my area with Sister Farrer. This day was literally PACKED with miracles. From start to finish we were talking to people, sharing our testimonies, getting contact information to come back, and having so much fun throughout. Then, that night, we had a pass off lesson that was totally miscommunicated on time so we accidently showed up an hour early, but they let us in and we taught them for over an hour! It was way longer than we were supposed to but they kept asking questions, they were super engaged, and kept getting really excited about different truths of the gospel we were sharing. We are teaching them again this week and have plans to put them on date for baptism! Exchange miracles! 

I also had the opportunity to be in a musical number for our mission conference with Elder Pieper, Elder Rasband, and Bishop Causse. It was so nerve-wracking. But it turned out really pretty and was so cool to be so close to an apostle! I am convinced that because I am the only child in my family that never did choir i am paying for it on my mission. That was my 5th musical number of my mission! 

This week studies were amazing. I studied primarily the talks from Bishop Causse, Elder Pieper, and Elder Rasband. Bishop Causse gave an amazing talk titled, "Is it Still Wonderful to You?" He went through the talk essentially explaining the importance of our continued devotion to the gospel of Jesus Christ. He said, "is the gospel still wonderful to you? Can you yet see, hear, feel, and marvel? Or have your spiritual sensors gone into standby mode? Whatever your personal situation, I invite you to do three things."

One, he said to NEVER tire of discovering or rediscovering truths of the gospel. He quoted someone saying, "Don't seek new landscapes, seek new eyes". Two, anchor your faith in plain and simple truths. Do we have a firm anchor focused on fundamental principles of the gospel? Do we have testimonies of prayer, scripture study, church and temple attendance? Third, seek and CHERISH the companionship of the Holy Ghost. How important it is to have a testimony of the power of personal revelation. We need to understand the reality of the communication we have with our Heavenly Father and His desire to bless us with guidance through the gift of personal revelation. It was quoted many times through conference, but President Nelson has warned, it will NOT be possible to survive spiritually without our ability to receive personal revelation. 

I have loved every second of my mission thus far. I have grown substantially in my understanding of the reality of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and God's love for His children. I am so grateful to be serving in Ahwatukee and I know there are people here that are ready and anxiously waiting to hear the wonderful message of the Restoration. 

I love you all so much! have a great week!

PS. Transfers were this week but Sister Snelgrove and I are staying together so all is good. :) 

____________________

Hello family!! 

I am sending a long main letter so I will make this short!

Mission conference was AMAZING. Elder Rasband is absolutely incredible. We all got to go through and shake his hand and the spirit that was in that room in indescribable. He, Bishop Causse , and Elder Pieper were amazing. They are so funny but were so insightful. 

They talked a lot specifically about the Restoration being an individual process. When we teach truths of the gospel, we are restoring these truths in their life because these are things they already know. Sister Snelgrove started studying how restoration related to repentance and it started to all make sense to me. 

When we actively practice repentance, we are changing ourselves to become more like Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. We aren't fully able to achieve perfection in this life, but as we come closer and closer to becoming like them, we are understanding more and more the reality of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and our divine identity, thus we are restoring that truth into our lives. If we fully were able to become like them, the veil would not be able to restrict us, so when we continue to daily come closer to becoming perfected, we are individually restoring truths of ourselves in the premortal life and the life to come. 

It really was so amazing. Bishop Causse teased that Elder Rasband knew what was going to happen next conference but that he wouldn't tell us, then Elder Rasband got up and said, "Just think of all the other things that will be happening over the next 10 years. The Book of Mormon, the restoration of Priesthood Keys, the next decade is going to be FANTASTIC. And that is all I am going to say about it".... WHAT?! So cool!

Anyway, I love you all so much!