Be Where You Are

This week was pretty darn good! Nothing crazy happened... but I'm gonna share a funny story.

Once upon a time my companion (Hermana Foley) and I were doing weekly planning... when out of the blue we see a cockroach scuttling across the floor. I'm not gonna be dramatic, it wasn't too big, but neither of us had shoes on to get it. Hermana Foley ran to grab one of her shoes, and killed it then turned to me and said your turn. This half-dead trespasser was just lying in the middle of the floor, and I guess I got to throw it away. Anyway it was funnier than it sounds. But maybe when I get home I'll be less afraid of killing bugs haha...

But this week I studied Baptism and Confirmation, the commandment. And I spent a lot of time thinking about what are the reasons why Baptism and Confirmation are commandments. And honestly, I didn't come up with anything cool or new. The reason why we need to be Baptised is fairly easy to find and recognize; We need to be baptized and confirmed in order to be worthy to live in the celestial kingdom and receive the remission of our sins. 

When I was thinking about why else these are commandments, I thought of how we cannot be in God's presence as humans. Our bodies cannot bear his glory. So in the scriptures, people were translated to be able to be in the presense of God. Obviously Baptism and Confirmation isn't how we are being translated to be in the presence of God, because we have plenty of other promises to make with him, but I love to think about it in that way. In my mind, Baptism is kinda like a mental form of translation, showing to God, the father, and Jesus Christ that we are willing to do what it takes to live with him again.

A definition of Confirm is to strengthen or make firm. I thought of 2 scriptures. First was 1 Peter 1:23 which says "Being born again, not of corruptible seed." When we are baptized we are being reborn, when we are confirmed, we are being strengthened. This made me think of Galatians 3:27 , "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." I love that is says "have put on Christ." Christ can literally do everything, and endure everything. When I think of putting on Christ, I think of figuratively putting on armor. Nothing can break through the armor of Christ, as long as we keep it on. I just remembered a barbie movie that has a story kinda like this... but it'll take a while to explain soo if you guys want to look it up... it's barbie and the diamond castle. :)

Another thought that hit me hard this week was from another missionary in my district, Elder Curdy... whose actually from Cache Valley!! But he shared a story about when he was knocking in an apartment complex, and he'd been there a lot. And there was this woman, always sitting outside, and she was smoking. And that time he decided to talk to her. And what she said made me sad. She said that she had seen missionaries walking past her for such a long time, and she always thought, why don't they want to talk to me? Missionaries wouldn't want to talk to someone like me. Ouch. Anyway, Elder Curdy realized that he could've been one of those Missionaries, and he talked about being where you are in the moment. And not being in such a hurry. Yah... that was a learning moment for me. I guess just take the time to see those around you and be where you are. You are there for a reason.

Other than the cockroach story, this week I learned I can play volleyball in a skirt, but it isn't preferred. 

Also the guy in the orange shirt is an angel that helped us fix Hermana Foley's bike when we were headed go English Class! His name is Carlos!

We also got to help this homeless lady named Amber move all her stuff down the Street for about a half hour, and the more I'm in this World, the more I realized how blessed I am! 

Thanks Mom and Dad for everything you have done and still do for me!!

My question for the week is: Why is comparison so dangerous?

Look up Danger in Comparison (BYU devotionals)