Ensign State Of Mind

Aloha ko'u 'ohana a me ko'u hoaaloha! The moment my mission changed was the moment I understood confidence and how to be confident. There is a fine line that comes with confidence as it can easily lead to pride if you place your confidence and trust in yourself more than in the Lord.  When we have confidence in the Savior we not only know that He will make up the difference, we know that will do it because He wants to. He loves us.  We have written proof of the Savior's love as we study the Book of Mormon and Bible. "His arm of mercy is extended towards you in the light of the day" (Jacob 6:5), no matter how many mistakes we may have felt that we have made. Saturday morning during our personal study, Sister Eccles offered to fill up my water bottle. 40 minutes later, she is still "filling up my water". I hear some noises but just assume that she is cleaning up or something. She then walks in looking like the most bashful Sister ever and

Aloha family a me friends, Comp unity has been pretty strong these past couple of weeks over here in New Rochelle 2nd Ward. Even though we had three exchanges this past week (sad because less time with Sister Eccles but good because double the work in our area haha), we went vegetarian for a week (just cuz can), didnt eat sugar, worked our butts off on the TRX bands in our gym, and then somehow both ended up getting sick on Saturday. Comp unity. Still strong. Haha.  "I wish I knew then what I know now."  Probably the biggest themes of my entire week. Monday evening had a little call with President to discuss basically all the skills that he wants his missionaries to be proficient in to be effective and bring down our missions teaching effectiveness (new people: people being baptized ratio). It came down to four basic groupings: finding skills, teaching skills, follow up skills, and planning skills. As he was going through these skills, I had two thoughts  1. Wow I

Aloha family a me friends! In the past three days I got...Seaseme Chicken. Jamaican Jerk Chicken. Fried Chicken. Indian Chicken. Chicken, chicken, chicken. Almost like I'm with Sister Felix again haha. Due to all that meat, I think I'm going to eat lots of vegetables for the next couple of days lol. Too many different ways to eat chicken. Too many options and opportunities all around us. However, if life was simple, if there was only one way to eat chicken, there would be no room for growth, creativity, or  a way for us to exercise our agency for good. A common theme that I have noticed in my life, the sisters that I serve and those that I teach, is that there never seems to be "enough time" as we have items a, b, c, x, y, and z (essentially too many options of good things to do) that we want to accomplish. Give for example. On a normal personal study hour I want to study my Book of Mormon, do Come Follow Me, prepare questions and insights for each of

Aloha ko'u ohana a me hoaaloha! (Today is my pday because I got to go to the temple!! :))  There's a quote in our handy dandy Preach My Gospel that says: "If you lower your expectations, your effectiveness will decrease, your desire will weaken, and you will have greater difficulty following the Spirit". Woah. Pretty straight forward right? On the flip side, having high expectations has a direct correlation with having higher effectiveness (which is something President Teuscher is HUGE on). But having high expectations should not be confused with perfection. God, He's a smart and loving guy, He knows we wont be perfect...yet. All we are expected to do is try...try...try. Try to do the work assigned, try to do family history, try to be the best missionary I can be. It is then that His grace kicks in.  This is something I've kept in my mind my entire mission. I fall short of the glory every day. I am weak. I am inadequate. But yet, I try...even when it