Hey Family!
You are very welcome for the birthday card Mom! It was definitely hard coming up with 29 memories I could write down in a sentence for you. I'm glad you thought they were funny too because while I was writing it I didn't think you'd think any were funny! Thank you for all the memories Mom, I think you're wonderful! Also thank you for accepting the challenge I gave to y'all last week...I didn't think anyone actually did anything I asked! Mom always listens. :)
Sarah, aw man I love you! Thank you for always emailing me and sending those pictures. Man you got to see Sister LaPorte, Sister Andrade, and Sister Olden! I love those three so stinkin much. Goodness I can't believe all three of them are going home this week. I don't know where all the time keeps flying by to. I've already hit the halfway mark of my mission and it keeps going by faster and faster, I hate it! How was Nik's homecoming? Haha mom didn't say much about it because she said you would, but then you didn't say much about it either. Are you going down to California with the fam for thanksgiving as well? Have I mentioned lately that you're amazing? Because you are!! Hmm and I'm gonna say just leave the box for now, if you feel inspired to take it over then do it, but otherwise don't.
Congrats on being accepted to Utah State, Em! Mom says you feel like you won't be accepted to BYU which I just have to say is completely wrong. I believe you'll totally get in! (after all you're a genius..:)) And hey don't forget to apply to BYU-I, you can always come party up there with me and Sarah. My best advice is to just pray about it and do what you feel is right, don't just follow everyone else because it's the easy thing. In high school BYU-I was the last school I wanted to go to and honestly I wanted to go to any school but there, but when we were up there after that road trip I just knew immediately that it was where I needed to be. I loved it there because of the standards everyone has and the small town feel in the middle of nowhere, and lots of other reasons... You'll do great wherever you decide to go. :)
So are y'all gonna have thanksgiving dinner on the beach like we did last year? You'll have to send me some pictures and tell me how your trip turns out to be. :) We're gonna be going up to Bush and eating with the Conlins. I'm super excited for thanksgiving, there's going to be tons of people and we're gonna be out in the middle of nowhere. I wonder if thanksgiving dinner will be a lot different down here than the traditional ones. I hear lots of people fry their turkey! I'll tell y'all next week how our thanksgiving feast turns out!
Since it's thanksgiving this week we've just been sharing lots of thanksgiving messages with everyone and a question I love asking everyone is, if I ask what you're grateful for what's the first thing that comes to mind? I was thinking about that a lot throughout the week and focusing on gratitude in my prayers and honestly one of the first things that comes to mind lately is the Book of Mormon (don't worry, I'm super grateful for y'all too ;)) I'm grateful for the Book of Mormon because of the power that it contains and the peace that comes from reading everyday. Of course there's days when I just don't want to read at all and I'm tired of reading all the war chapters, but somehow it relates to life. If we just keep pressing on and keep going everything gets better. The greatest blessing from reading is how all my problems seems to just vanish. My trials and troubles disappear and I'm just happy. I don't even know how to explain it, but the Book of Mormon is amazing. The messages it contains are inspired and truly we can come closer to Christ by reading from it daily.
We got to go on exchanges this week as well so I went up to Amite with Sister Maxfield and I learned so much from her. She came out the same time I did and she's been serving in the same area the whole time she's been here. It's just a small little town too. We learned how to cut a hole in the wall to put windows in and just got to see tons of little miracles. On exchanges we always come up with goals to work on during the exchange and her goal was to make it happen! And that's kinda just become my goal lately...make it happen...and if I lead others will follow. I feel like I've got to step up to my plate more and become more diligent.
I love everyone here in Covington, especially the single sisters we get to visit weekly. Seriously they are all the absolute sweetest and I think I'm learning more from them everyday then I'm teaching them. I love being able to learn to love others and step in Christ's footsteps even if only for a little bit, to see things from his eyes.
Here's a quick scripture y'all can think about this week. It's just a little part of Alma 7:15 "show unto your God that ye are willing to repent of your sins and enter into a covenant with him." It reminded me of a relief society lesson we had back in BR. Somehow we were talking about all the different love languages (touch, words of affirmation, quality time, etc.) I can't remember all of them. But someone mentioned how Heavenly Father has a love language as well. And the scritpure shows it perfectly. He doesn't want us to tell him that we love him, he wants us to SHOW him we love Him. And we show hime we love him by our actions. So in other words, keeping the commandments, going to church, reading the scriptures, all the physical things we need to do. So here's the real question to think about...how are you showing God you love him?
My dear family, I think y'all are amazing! Be safe in you holiday travels and don't forget to thank the Lord. Oh hey and before I forget, the word thanksgiving is defined as thanks go God. I thought that was pretty cool. So here's a challenge for y'all, to live in thanksgiving daily!
well, I LOVE y'all!
Love Always, Sister Schmutz
No comments:
Post a Comment