Look Up!

So I'm sure you're all sick of me talking about DOGS, but I've never watched a dog eat a bird before!  Also, I had the chance to watch a dog eat a rat!  All in the same week!!  We were right in the middle of a lesson when the dog ran right out from under the table with a huge rat in its mouth.  My investigator sure got a good kick out of my REACTION!! I'll just leave it at that....:)  I also had blood sausage and I hope that will also be a ONE time experience! 

 Anyway, this Sunday, we had Francisca and Nestor at church who are both investigators that we are recently working with.  Norma also brought her son (non-member) to church as well as the girls who were the two that were recently baptized.  We are now working with quite a few investigators that are fantastic!  As of now, we have been working on the word of wisdom (smoking) with 90% of them.  But with the help of our loving Savior, and hope, everything will fall into place!

We had our mission conference this week.  We talked a lot about keeping commitments and being a great leader.  One thing that caught my most attention was an example of the process that a butterfly goes through.  First it starts out as a caterpillar, then it is fully developed into a butterfly.  It goes through a process step by step.  But if one step is taken before the other, it is very DANGEROUS!  Who knows what can happen?  A deformed butterfly, that's what@  It was applied to us missionaries and even investigators.  This is why I love the "your purpose".  Invite others to come unto Christ by helping the receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end!  The first thing we have to do is have faith and then repent - Not baptism then faith then repentance.  In order for us to start the process, we have to do the process in order as well, or it's not valuable.  It become deformed and useless.  I found a quote that I just became in love with by C.S. Lewis, "Imagine yourself as a living house.  God comes in to rebuild that house.  At first, perhaps you can understand what he is doing.  He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised.  But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominable and does not seem to make any sense.  What on earth is He up to?  The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards.  You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage, but He is building a palace.  He intends to come and live in it Himself."  God has such a BETTER vision than we do or ourselves.   Sometimes we "think" we have a great house, but really there are so many tweeks and leaks that need to be fixed along with all the ones that tend to break after ewe have fixed them, or some we don't even know that are leaking.   This is when I love that prayers is available in our lives.  I have learned to understand how important prayer really is.  It needs to become THE ANCHOR OF OUR SOULS.  Something we go to for a SOURCE OF STRENGTH.  Especially when God is "Knocking the house in a way that hurts abominably,"  Sometimes we may not understand why, but that's when we need to LOOK UP!  Watch the signs around us and understand why".  

"Our Heavenly Father, who gives us so much to delight in, also knows that we learn and grow and become stronger as we face and survive the trials through which we must pass.  We know that there are times when we will experience heartbreaking sorrow, when we will grieve, and when we may be tested to our limits.  However, such difficulties allow us to change fro the better, to rebuild our lives in the way our Heavenly Father teaches us, and to become something different from what we were--better than we were, more understanding than we were, more empathic than we were, with stronger testimonies than we had before."

(President Thomas S. Monson)

I know that with all my heath that as we strive to LOOK UP and move forward, we will one day live with our Father in Heaven with our eternal families.  I know as we follow God's plan, we will be stronger and as we have the anchor of hope - Ether 12:32 - Celestial Kingdom - our destiny will always be straight because God was the one who prepared it, not the natural man.