Sent: Monday, July 22, 2013
Transfer 9, week 6: A parade, trumpets, yo hablo espanol un poquito, gave a talk etc.
It was my
last week in Burlington before I head back to Temple Square!
We taught a
lot of people and prepared a float for the community pioneer day parade on
Saturday-pictures to come...
(we were
missionaries with trumpets [well they were actually made of a funnel and
some toilet paper roles all taped together with yellow paper on top]
proclaiming the gospel) because the parade was missionary themed.
We had some
awesome member-present lessons (which always make me happy) with some members
from the ward in the lessons speaking spanish with us. I said my first prayer
in Spanish at a lesson and we sang I am a Child of God and Families can be
Together Forever in Espanol as well.
Pretty neat!
It's been a great experience here. Hard to say some goodbyes to people, kids
and their animals (some of their dogs I'm good friends with haha) but the work
goes forward! Part of my heart will remain in Burlington, MT though!
I'm excited
for Sister A because her new companion is a visa waiter, waiting to go to
Peru. And she speaks spanish! (well at least more than I do... haha) And Sister
A is assigned to only speak spanish to her so that she'll learn faster.
She'll be a great asset to Burlington/Otto area.
The Bishop of
the Otto ward called it a "miracle" that we got one of the less
actives to church two weeks in a row. The secret? We just love them. We help
them. We lift their spirits. And they want to change. So we can help them.
Dad wrote me
a letter this week, and it was exactly what I needed to hear. One of the quotes
that is now a book mark I look at each day, and what he wrote was this: "The
deepest and greatest memories of your mission are still ahead of you." I
know that to be true and commit myself, even when it's hard to, to move forward
in faith expecting those miracles.
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So why are
there so many children of God that aren't happy?
There's three
major categories that God has promised us if we focus on, we will find joy in
this life and joy in the next as well: Attitude, Priorities and
Obedience.
1. Attitude
Nephi
describes it as this in 2 Nephi chapter 2 "For it must needs be, that
there is an aopposition in
all things. If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteousness could not
be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither
good nor bad...Therefore they would have remained in a state of innocence,
having no bjoy, for they
knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no csin. But
behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him whoaknoweth all
things."
So to
teach us what happiness feels like and what true joy is, sadness and hardship
and adversity was a necessary part of our education, because we needed the
opposition to understand what joy is.
We also know that
"the Lord God gave unto man that he should aact for
himself. Wherefore, man could not bact for
himself save it should be that he was centiced by
the one or the other."
Happiness
is therefore a choice as well. Once we recognize this, we understand that
when disappointments, challenges, opposition, frustrations and
hardships come, they are just in disguise the opportunity to choose to either
be happy or sad.
It was
essential in God's plan of happiness, for us to come to earth and to learn and
to grow and to make decisions.
"...there is a God, and he hath bcreated all things, both the heavens and
the earth, and all things that in them are, both things to act and things to
be cacted upon."
If we don't learn how to choose happiness despite trials
here on earth, we've missed out on a huge opportunity to learn it. You're only
as happy as you decide you are. Attitude equals your altitude.
The
older we get, the more we look back and realize that external circumstances
don’t really matter or determine our happiness. We do
matter. We determine our happiness. You and I are
ultimately in charge of our own happiness." (http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/of-regrets-and-resolutions?lang=eng)
"Never stop striving for the best that is within you. Never
stop hoping for all of the righteous desires of your heart. But don’t close
your eyes and hearts to the simple and elegant beauties of each day’s ordinary
moments that make up a rich, well-lived life.
The
happiest people I know are not those who find their golden ticket; they are
those who, while in pursuit of worthy goals, discover and treasure the beauty
and sweetness of the everyday moments. They are the ones who, thread by daily
thread, weave a tapestry of gratitude and wonder throughout their
lives. These are they who are truly happy." (http://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/general-relief-society-meeting/2011/09/forget-me-not?lang=eng)
2. Priorities
2 Nephi again
teaches us:
"Wherefore,
do not spend money for that which is of no worth, nor your labor for that which
cannot satisfy..." (2 Ne 9:51)
Let us not
become so busy that we miss out on the opportunity to be happy. We are all
busy. But we are not all happy. So what is the difference?
President Uchtdorf has said, "Isn’t it true that we
often get so busy? And, sad to say, we even wear our busyness as a badge of
honor, as though being busy, by itself, was an accomplishment or sign of a
superior life."
Giving up a little sleep to help a child who is having a
nightmare is a good sacrifice. We all know this. Staying up all night,
jeopardizing our own health, to make the perfect accessory for a daughter’s
Sunday outfit may not be such a good sacrifice. Dedicating some of our
time to studying the scriptures or preparing to teach a lesson is a good
sacrifice. Spending many hours stitching the title of the lesson into homemade
pot holders for each member of your class perhaps may not be. Every person
and situation is different, and a good sacrifice in one instance might be a
foolish sacrifice in another. How can we tell the difference for our own
situation? We can ask ourselves, “Am I committing my time and energies to the
things that matter most?” There are so many good things to do, but we can’t do
all of them. Our Heavenly Father is most pleased when we sacrifice something
good for something far greater with an eternal perspective. Sometimes, that may
even mean nurturing small but beautiful forget-me-not flowers instead of a
large garden of exotic blooms."
Are our priorities in line? If they are not, we could find
ourselves laboring for that which cannot satisfy, and we will constantly be
unsatisfied. Not happy, no matter how much we achieve, accomplish or produce.
Just as eating one oreo cannot satisfy, we must make sure that
we fill our lives with the things that matter most first, and then add the
other things around that. The world tells us that the reason why we're not
happy is because we need more oreos to feel satisfied- more money, more
clothes, more hours at work, more extracurricular, more cars, more facebook
friends, more vacations, more movies music and video games, more more and more.
And once you eat the entire box of oreos you finally do feel sort of satisfied.
But it then takes more and more to feel satisfied again.
Unless we are eating of the bread of life that fulfills us and
brings us the joy that we were seeking for in the oreos. Let us make sure those
eternally significant things are always at the top of our list: Personal
prayer, personal scripture study, church attendance, time to spend on our
callings, temple attendance, time with our spouse and family, family scripture
study, family prayer, family home evening, family history and temple service,
home teaching and visit teaching, missionary work, fellow shipping those who
struggle or are lonely in the ward. Those are the things that bring us the joy
we lack and then try and look for in other places.
One of the happiest scriptures I've found describes those things
that we must do to have "great joy"--
"Nevertheless,
the people of the church did have great joy because of the conversion of the
Lamanites, yea, because of the church of God, which had been established among
them. And they didafellowship one
with another, and did rejoice one with another, and did have great joy."
Helaman 6:3
I promise
that we will have greater joy as we do an inventory of our lives and place the
most eternally significant priorities first. We will then realize that we don't
have much time or concern for much of the things that clutter and clog our
time.
I love you all,
Sister Fisher
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