Howdy, howdy my loved family and friends!
It was yet another great week out here in sweet, sweet Childress!! :) Lots of learning, laughter, and love! :D
We had lots of learning happen this week while we taught lessons, had zone training (just a gathering of missionaries in the Amarillo area) and went to stake conference and we were able to listen to Elder Neil L. Andersen speak to us! There was SOOO much goodness in each of the sessions of Stake Conference we were able to hear (the adult session, the youth and young adult session, and the general session) :D
There really was nothing that I didn’t love about Stake Conference this weekend, but what stood out to me most was said by Elder Andersen in his address to the youth at 8:30 Sunday morning. He was talking about how preparing to go to the temple is how you prepare to serve a mission, and gave 7 suggestions. The fourth was: “Pray and read your scriptures when no one is looking.” Then he continued, and asked us why it should be a secret. Everyone laughed and he further explained that as do these things on our own we really build up our personal testimonies, and that is what really carries us through hard times, not what we are forced or compelled to do. He further explained that as teenagers, you’re going to be forced to do some things and you can’t control all of your personal circumstances, but it is what you do on your own that shapes who you are. At the end of his address he said: “Be serious about your life, have fun, but be serious. No one will care about you quite as much as you can care about yourself. Our choice is what we become.”
The Spirit settled in really deep when I heard that. And then it settled in again at the end of conference when he said: “If we are not happy with ourselves, we need to learn to love ourselves; we will be ourselves for a very long time.”
I thought about how everyone in the world has circumstances they choose and those they do not choose, but it is really how we respond to our present and view the past that shape who we are and who we become… there really is a lot of struggle in the world, but we can prevail with the Lord on our side! We just need to be humble!
Moroni 10:32 “Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all unholiness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.”
As I was reading this this week, the thought came to me that Christ’s grace can NEVER be sufficient unless we choose Him, unless we desire his grace to be sufficient for us in our lives, and we use our energy to love God and do His will. He is there for us, but we really have to choose Him.
His plan is perfect, His love is real, and His church is true!
With all of my heart,
Sister Heather Ann Lagrosa
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