Howdy howdy my lovely family and friends!!
I hope this little e-mail today finds you well! I don't even know WHERE to begin becasue there was just SO much that happened this week!
We had monday night miracles, Tuesday we got to see the new Meet the Mormons movie that will be coming out this weekend! Wednesday night we had the most peaceful drive out in the country EVER, and when it was dark and we were returning home, it looked like it was snowing grasshoppers because of all the bugs that were out. We saved our neighbor's goat on Thursday (just let her back in to their fence :P) Also, we BIKED 22 milesss! Friday we had a miracle lesson with a new investigator. And then Saturday and Sunday we got to attend 8 hours of amazing instruction from the prophet, and the apostles! It was amazing, and the entire theme and Spirit of General Conference was an answer to prayers. :)
First I want to talk about Meet the Mormons! Wow, oh wow, was it a blessing to be able to see it! They talked about how it is coming out in church last week, and they siad that missionaries would not be in or around the theatres it'd be playing in. Then, we get news that we have a surprise Zone Conference and we get to watch the movie! I LOVED IT!! There were 6 touching stories about a Bishop, a Coach, a Fighter, a Pilot, a Humanitarian, and a Missionary Mom. :) I'm pretty sure there wasn't a dry eye in the chapel when that last segment came on.... it was just really inspiring. My favorite story was the fighter and her family, it was pretty nifty, becasue you don't see a lot of LDS women strapping on gloves and getting into a ring. :D I just can't wait for EVERYONE to see it! Seriously, go see it, and then go see it again, it is amazing. Plus, all the proceeds are going to the American Red Cross, who I literally give my blood to, so you should see it, and maybe then go give blood too. :P
Second, I wanted to talk about something I studied this week, that I've kind of been learning a little bit at a time over the past year or so... but I've been pondering a lot on the Spirit, and how the Spirit is what really does all the testifying of truth. As I was reading in Preach My Gospel (to help guide and focus some of my studies in teh scriptures) it caught my eye that there are 2 fundamental parts of being converted: there is the doctrine of conversion, and the experience of conversion. The doctrine is knowledge, we know things are ture that we read, that we hear, and that we pray about. We get peace. But the expereince of conversion is actually applying that doctrine to my life! What a novel thought huh? Well, this week, I had a little bit of an Enos moment where "the things which I had often heard sank deep into my heart", and it was pretty enlightening. We learn a LOT of docrinal conversion through the Holy Spirit out here as missionaries, and that is also what we teach in lessons, but it is completely our choice to actually expereince and choose to let this amazing truth and knowledge not only lighten our minds, but also our path. We have to choose to carry it with us, and to continually replenish the fuel source from which this amazing light comes!
And the last thing I wanted to talk about was General Conference! It was so, so, so truly amazing, and I loved how there was a very distinct theme of finding your own spiritual witness of truth, with a lot of talks about following the prophet- taking time to emphasize that what they teach are not the things of the world, but they are of God... and we need to ask Him to know the truthfulness of their words. It was amzing. I also had a thought about laws during conference, with all this talk about truth, and the importance of following God's commandments, or His laws... two lines stood out to me, one was about truth, I'll paraphrase it, but someone said: "We believe in absolute truth in world that disdains absolutes." The second about finding answers: "Where should I turn for answers?"
This made me think... in our miracle lesson on Friday, with a wonderful man named Jeremy, we were sitting out in the back yard, and about 20 minutes into his lesson she literally throws open the door, cussing up a storm, yelling at us, and viciously demanding: "YOU KNOW YOURE A CULT RIGHT? THEY DON'T EVEN BELIEVE IN JESUS! THEY ARE A CULT! ASK MY PREACHER!"
[the miracle of this lesson, was that Jeremy did feel the Spirit and recognized the difference between the hate in his mother's voice and the comfort and peace from his Heavenly Father.]
Also, one of the young women in our congregation went to a youth activity at a local church this weekend where the preacher yelled at the kids, I guess they do that eveyr week in church, but he told them: "You have to have faith, if you don't, then you're just a Mormon, or a Muslim."
I was really grateful that the Spirit was present in both of these occassions to give some peace and comfort to Jeremy, and our wonderful young woman, as their faith was tested. I am also glad to know that they don't go to a preacher for answers, but they are both seeking direction from the Lord. It was reaffirmed to me in Conference, that to fully recieve guidance from our leaders, so are called of God, we need to go to the source of all truth, we need to go to God in prayer to gain the knowledge we seek, and not lean unto our own understanding.
Don't worry, this all comes back to my thought on laws -- something I realized way back when I was a teenager was that people are mean. The gospel, however, brought light into my life enough to see, and then experience the good. It boggeled my mind, how a man, claiming to be a man of God, could try and enstil so much hate towards a very specific group of people while preaching to his congregation, I kind of went back to high school and asked myself why can't people just be nice to eachother? And then I thought of the Savior, He led by example, He led with love, and He never said anything that was unkind, and always testified that what He did was of His Heavenly Father. Would a loving Father want any of His children, wayward or not, to ever be discriminated against?
I thought of God's laws. Yes, the two great commandments, to love God, and to love your neighbor. Like gravity, and faith, God's laws are not anything we can physically see, but we are all subject to the effects of them. Even if I didn't believe in gravity, I'm still stuck to the ground without a considerable amount of effort and energy, and if I ever made it to space, I'd be stuck in orbit... the effects of God's laws on us are sometimes like being in orbit (we don't really notice where we are in relation to the sun during the year right?) but sometimes God's laws are more apparent, like the gravity. I just thought that was pretty cool!
People often put science and religion in contrast with one another, but faith really is like gravity, you can't see or measure them, but you CAN see and measure their effects, both compel to motion, and keep you grounded, though sometimes you've got to break through the atmosphere before being able to fully feel the grounding effects.
I love this gospel, and I love that we have not just some absolute truth on the earth today, but we have the fullness of the gospel on the earth. The fullness of Jesus Christ's good news and His and our Heavenly Father's love for us.
We are blessed.
With all my heart,
Sister Heather Ann Lagrosa
p.s. go see Meet the Mormons!
p.s.s. Elder David A. Bednar's talk was directed specifically towards those who are not members of the church! Check it out at:
Sunday Afternoon Session (almost to the bottom) it's David A. Bednar (right before President Monson) in a couple days it'll be up :D
Pictures:
1- I love the fun billboards on these TX highways! :D :D :D
1- I love the fun billboards on these TX highways! :D :D :D
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