Its The Little Things That Count!

This week there were so many small miracles that just made me happy! But as always I'll start with what I studied! This week is a mix of a couple things, but I studied about the apostasy! Specifically personal apostasy! 

I was reading in Matthew 7 where it talks about the wise man and the foolish man, and I really liked verse 27. "And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it." In the story, the wise man build his house on a rock- which makes sense, when building a house you need a sturdy foundation- one that the weather won't effect. Imagine yourself as the house, feet spread sholder-width apart and knees slightly bent, ready for something, anything. That is how it needs to be, so when your friend or sibling comes behind you, you don't topple over. 

Now, Imagine it in a slightly different way, you are standing on a rock in the middle of a big body of water where you can't see the land and you see a storm coming fast. Do you jump in and try to out swim the storm? No! You would stay on the rock and wait out the storm, and probably wait on the rock until someone finds you. At least thats what I hope I would do.

In this world, we are in the middle of a Big body of water, and we don't know when the end is, all we know is that if we place our foundation on the rock of christ, we will be able to wait out the storms of life, and experience joy. And someday he will come for us, and help us get safely to our father in heaven. "He that buildeth upon this rock shall never fall. (D&C 50:44). 

Build on the rock of christ by choosing to do those small and simple things- that build up your house so that you able to endure all of the storms and trials that pass through your life.

Also this is a fun thought that came to my head this week: in 2 Nephi 27:1 it says "drunken with iniquity and all manner of abominations." My thought when I read this was: drunk goggles. Every once in a while when in school, they would bring in a pair of drunk goggles for us to put on and try to do certain things, like walk in a straight line, or throw a beanbag to someone. You couldn't do it. When we are wearing goggles like this in life, we wouldn't be able to see things clearly. Also you wouldn't just choose to put on drunk goggles before you walk out the door to experience the day- that's crazy scary! So why do we have these favorite sins? I don't know what your favorite sin is, but I invite you to take off the goggles for a minute, and see things how they are: a loving Heavenly father with a beautiful plan for us to follow so we can have a life full of joy. It's that simple.

This is a total switch of gears, but next time you read the book of Mormon, keep this in mind. "That they may know to come onto him and be saved" (1 Nephi 15:14). The book of Mormons purpose is to help us know how we can be saved! Appreciate it!

This last week I put up a Christmas tree... 

We also did a lot of service at salvation army, organizing angel tree gifts, and it's so amazing how much they have to give to people!

The ward Christmas party was so fun! We had spent some time practicing some Spanish Christmas songs to sing there with some of our ward members, and it was really fun! We also had a night where our back of activity was helping the sisters in our ward make tomales for the party the next day, and all but one of the lessons fell through or didn't answer- so we helped make tamales! And I have to say that it was a lot harder that one would think! And it takes a ton of time! The morning of the Christmas party, we were all dressed to go do service at trusted world, when we got a call from our bishop's wife, and she needed help! So we went and help her prepare at the church for the Christmas party for a couple hours. One of the things she wanted help with, was wrapping presents for the kids in our ward! So I got to wrap Christmas presents like I do every year for my family! It was a little Christmas miracle! But the bishop's wife was at the church all day, cooking tomales, and preparing- so when we got to the church for the party, we had only just pulled into the parking lot when we both got an impression that we needed to go and buy her something as a thank you, so we went to the store really fast and bought her some flowers and chocolates! When we gave it to her she cried! She had worked so hard!

The party was a blast, we had so many friends there that we are teaching!

This is just a favor, but if you guys could send me some of your favorite memories with me, that would be great! Thanks:) I love you all tons! Have an amazing week!!

My question for the week is: How can you avoid personal apostasy?