All Here. All Now.

Manhattan STLs! Sister Rios, Sister Jensen, Sister Haws

Aloha family a me friends!

"The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives" -Russell M. Nelson

Shoutout to Sister Sena
for the ice cream :)

More and more throughout my mission, I am learning that the joy that I feel is not from what is going around me but what I am focused on at the moment. As humans, we are constantly wandering and wondering which takes us away from the here and now. I've noticed that we always see the grass greener on the other side. We often are guilty of saying things such as "once I do this....then this will happen" or "I can't wait until this...". There is a fine line that we must live by as people and if played wrong, we could take away from our capabilities, capacities, and potential. If we allow ourselves to be pulled away to daydreaming in the future, we are missing out on SO many experiences right in front of our face. We may be so focused on what is ahead, that once we do get to that point, all we want is to go back. Time is precious and truly "wise time management is wise management of ourselves" (President Spencer W. Kimball).

But through the infinite grace of our Father, He gave us one of the greatest gifts that we could ever have: agency. We can choose. We can put "off the natural man and becometh a saint through the Atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father" (Mosiah 3:17). I will be all here in class. I will be all here in the lesson. I will be all here for this person that I am teaching. I will be all in for the Lord. The Savior was ALL in for us in as he suffered and bled from every pore to take upon the sins of the world and the least we can do is be ALL in for Him.

Every time a missionary puts a tag on, it is a very visible indication and expression of our willingness to serve. Not that we will be perfect but that we are willing to stand where He stood, serve as He did, and love as He did. I have loved and will continue to love every single day that I have to serve my Savior. It has brought me the greatest joy and satisfaction each and every day. Focus on what's most important and I promise that you will stand amazed.

Randoms:

1) Little rollercoaster this past week. A few days before our scheduled baptism, it got postponed for a few weeks. But no worries, the ward is SO awesome and when we told them they were sending us ideas and offering help in crazy amounts. Ward members are great :)

2) Met a recently widowed old woman last week. She invited us in and we began teaching her about Gods plan for her...her daughter then comes in and started to yell at us to get out of her business. We said a prayer and quietly left as we could see the tears swell up in her eyes.

3) Went on exchanges one day. Looked up a former who starts to hysterically laugh. We walk in and see her Book of Mormon open. We soon find out that Sister Reed and the companion she was on an exchange with...just looked up the same lady 15 minutes before. Haha well guess God wanted to really tell her something!

4) Fun fact: I love ube ice cream. I told the Relief Society President and she went to Queens last week and brought me back some ube ice cream! Shes the greatest!

5) Areabook is being weird and erasing lots of formers. So we are frantically trying to look up all our "golden list" people. Met a lady who said she was literally just thinking about the Sisters the day before and wanted to go back to church! Gods timing is honestly so so good. Never ceases to amaze me.

6) Finally got Korean BBQ and Bubble Tea. Life is swell.

7) Busy busy week of exchanges on Tuesday/Wednesday/Friday! Cool thing about exchanges is that we get double the work in our area which is honestly always so nice! Lessons fall through all the time but nonetheless we are always exactly where we need to be!

8) P-Day will be Wednesday next week as I get to go to the Manhattan Temple with the Teuschers one last time :)