Super Bowl? More like the stupid bowl!

email 08 Feb 2016

Hello hello family and friends! What to say about this week...hmm....its been pretty slow honestly. It's been kind of a rough week. No one has been answering us on our phone. We don't know if it's because everyone hates us or if it's because our phone is messed up. Haha. We're gonna go with our phone being messed up. :) Even though it wasn't a super busy week, it was still chock-full of things we were able to experience and learn!

We go on 2 exchanges a week with sisters and it's EXHAUSTING. I feel like Sister Law and I are hardly companions some weeks!

On Tuesday, all the leadership in the mission was trained on how to use FaceBook and how to use Skype and FaceTime to teach people! It was a really good training and it opened our eyes BIG to all the possibilities using media can bring! I'm excited to be using it more and more! So if you're reading this and you aren't my friend on FaceBook, please add me! (link) I don't post very often. But I love being able to share my testimony with people EVERYWHERE, not just in Ogden. :)

Okay I'm going to say it, I HATE THE SUPER BOWL. It makes it nearly impossible to find anyone at home, and if they are home, they get upset with us knocking on their door. And everyone was making the excuse that they couldn't come to church because of the Super Bowl. Even though it started after all the blocks of church were done. I even promised this guy that if he went to church, his team would win. We were on exchanges so the guy I said that to is in another area. So I can't exactly follow up with him. But I'm sure he went, and they won. :)

In sacrament meeting yesterday, we heard this story about a little girl and a grandma. The girl was complaining to her grandma about her trials in life. But then her grandma took her into the kitchen and put three pots on the stove. The put carrots in one, eggs in one, and coffee beans in another.  She let them each boil for 20 minutes and then they observed each one of these items. The carrots, once hard, were now mushy and soft. The eggs, once liquid on the inside, was now a hard boiled egg. The the beans had produced coffee around it. I loved the moral of this story. Which one are we in times of hardship and trial? Are we the carrots? We seem strong but then once adversity comes our way and the heat is turned up, we get mushy and loose our strength. Are we the eggs? We have a humble and malleable heart until hardship comes our way. Then our heart hardens to where it can't be changed or moved. Or are we the beans? Where we turn the water, the thing that gives us the trial, into something sweet. We use it for our good and our growth. It was a thought provoking story and it caused me to look inward to myself and see which one I was. I know that Heavenly Father has situations for each of us to go through that aren't easy. But as we follow His path for us and trust in Him, we can turn our weaknesses into strengths. It's hard to keep that mindset in the middle of a trial. But I know it's true and it blesses us. :)

I was reading in Alma 12 in the Book of Mormon this week. (Of course, because it's my favorite book.) This specific verse really stuck out to me and showed me how much Heavenly Father loves us.

"10 And therefore, he that will harden his heart, the same receiveth the lesser portion of the word; and he that will not harden his heart, to him is given the greater portion of the word, until it is given unto him to know the mysteries of God until he know them in full." (link)

Of course we want to be the people who's hearts are soft. But when our hearts are hard, it doesn't say "the same receiveth NO word!" No. Heavenly Father still wants to give us a chance to draw near to Him. Even when sometimes we probably are acting prideful and hopeless, He doesn't see us that way. He sees all the potential in us, and He wants to give us everything that He can to make sure we're on His path.

I had a really neat experience yesterday while taking the sacrament. We were in one of our YSA wards so it was really quiet. And I was thinking of all the things I had messed up this last week. It really started getting to me and my self esteem. But as I drank the water and put the cup in the tray, I heard the clink it made. I don't know why this stood out to me. But I started hearing every clink in the chapel. With each clink I imagined it being one of my worries, one of my sins, or one of my mistakes, falling away from me. Burying it. Leaving it with Christ. Imagine all the empty cups piled under the tray. Everyone's mistakes are under there. And they place it under the cloth, with Christ. We can give it to Him. He wants it. I love the sacrament and the ability to partake of it every week. I can't describe what I felt exactly. But I could feel light coming out from my heart. Jesus Christ is here to heal us. Even in the little things. As long as we give it to Him.

I love it out here! I never want to leave. (Sorry family). :)

Love,

Sister Sarlls