Drink It Up! (Week 43)

"It was so fun for all of us to watch Elder Choi speak at conference! Even though I never met him or served with many of the missionaries who were under him, I feel like his mission culture is still alive in some ways. I can't count how many times I've heard "Look up, and Live" while I've been here in Seattle, and it's really changed the way that I see things! The eternal perspective that that phrase offers is irreplaceable and brings so much hope and peace into life...when we focus our concerns and questions on Christ rather than ourselves, or those around us, we can lay all our cares upon Him because He cares about us!

Conference was incredible. Probably the missionaries' favorite thing ever. I don't even know what I would call my "favorite" talk or anything...it was all so applicable. I did feel like a theme of the conference was God's plan and the spirit. There was some pretty doctrinal stuff said that I had actually had questions about. Like what to say when someone tells you that the Bible says that God and Christ are the same person and whatnot...because a lot of people do believe that! And, it is believable upon reading certain verses. So, I loved the talk that was about the Godhead.

Some of my favorite (paraphrased) quotes were "Light comes from the devotion to keeping ourselves unspotted from the world" -Elder Cook and "Keeping our covenants is always independent of our situation" -Joy Jones

Clearly, keeping covenants is a really important part of the gospel. Sometimes I feel like my life is too easy...that I'm pretty comfortable where I am and it's not even that hard to keep my covenants. Then that leads me to feeling frustrated because I don't feel like I'm growing or stretching a lot. So, I have been praying for God to send me a trial or something harder that I would have to overcome...because we know that those who overcome will be with God in the last day. The answer I got was that maybe I need to do it myself. I need to challenge myself more and expect more of myself. What's bold today, won't be bold tomorrow. We all get comfortable if we aren't in a changing environment.

Something that we do every night, is compliment our companion 3 times before saying a prayer at night. Right before bed. When we do compliments, I noticed that my understanding of and appreciation for my companion grows in a way that it otherwise never would. Sometimes it seems hard to think of 3 specific things that you loved about that person that day. As I take the time to ponder the day and remember moments that I felt their love, I feel like I am "beholding" them and being able to feel that love. (Read Elder Palmer's talk from conference)

This week, we did a lot of driving! There was a day when our daily mileage was 113 miles. I've only had more than that once or twice in my whole mission. We had some awesome miracles. First, we were in a parking lot and a lady rolled down her window to tell us that someone wasn't home. She didn't look Russian. We went over to talk to her and she told us that she's from Ethiopia, and then she consequently started speaking Russian. It was a shock. But, it was a miracle! We never would have found her if we hadn't felt prompted to go into that parking lot. There were countless other miracles, but I am running out of time!

I love you all! Have a wonderful week,

Cectpa Jenne"