Hi everyone!
So, Andrew, I first want to say that I am NOT jealous of you at the moment, because it's probably a very good thing that I'm not around a bunch of German chocolate that's on sale. That could be disastrous to my health and my bank account.
Anyway, big news of the week: We got to go to the TEMPLE!!!!!! I'm always so happy when I'm there! There is so much peace from being in the temple. SO YOU ALL NEED TO GO THERE AS OFTEN AS YOU CAN!!! Because I wish I could go a lot more than I'm able to at the moment. I had a really cool experience in the temple this week. I'd just walked into the Celestial Room and I saw a Sister that I hadn't seen in 8 months!
Sister Carambelas and I were in the MTC together and when we got to the mission, she was assigned to the Valley and I was assigned to the Mountains. So when I saw her in the temple, I wanted to jump up and down and sing and dance around the room: which I refrained from doing. Aren't you all proud? haha But that spurred a thought in my head. As I was walking towards her to give her a hug I thought, "This is what the Celestial Kingdom is going to be like." When you think about it that way, it's completely true! When we walk into the Celestial Kingdom, we're going to see people that we haven't seen in a very long time! We may even see people that we didn't expect to see; and that will make our joy that much greater! Greater because they made it! Greater because you knew all of the junk that they had to put up with in their life, and they overcame it! Then
I had another thought. "The only thing that would diminish my joy for them would be the regret that I didn't share the Gospel with them." Imagine that person, the person that you didn't expect to choose to be in the Celestial Kingdom, coming up to you and asking "Why? Why didn't you tell me about this?" Thinking about that makes me cry because there are so many people that I could have shared the Gospel with, but didn't because I didn't think that they would accept the message. So, that being said, it doesn't matter how you share the Gospel as long as you make the effort! You could post links to conference talks or inspirational quotes from apostles on Facebook, you could use a Mormon.org card, you can give someone the Family a Proclamation to the World, you could even just talk about your weekend and include the fact that you really enjoyed one of the talks in church and mention what the topic was.
There are so many things!!! So, I INVITE you to all pray for a missionary experience this week and report your labors to Heavenly Father. One of our baptismal covenants is to stand as a witness at all times and in all things and in all places. Are we keeping our baptismal covenants?
Wow. Now that I've channeled Elder Holland, on to the kooky stuff that happened this week.
We went on exchanges and I got to go back to my old area! It was really weird to be back, at first, but I felt a huge confidence boost just being there. Also, we were planning for the next week and all of the sudden, Sister Christensen jumped out of her chair yelling "OH NO!!" and ran toward the kitchen. When we looked over towards the kitchen, there was smoke everywhere! So she and I ran to the kitchen, me to wave the smoke away from the smoke-alarm and she to turn the microwave off. Sister Harrast ran around in circles screaming about fire and finally ran out of the house with a cup of water. I've included a picture of what she looked like, standing outside the house while we battled smoke. Just so you know, there wasn't a major fire.
Sister Christensen had decided to melt some chocolate in the microwave and it got a bit... singed. But we were able to clear the smoke away really quickly and we had the house cleared of the "smoky" odor within 30 minutes or so. Also, Sister Christensen started laughing so hard at Sister Harrast that she started choking on her granola bar and Sister H's reaction was very similar to the "fire" reaction. Except this time she brought me the cup and squeaked "take it take it!" and ran back outside to Sister C. It was absolutely hilarious! I love my companions! Anyway, I hope you're all having a great week! And just so you're aware, I put all of your names in the temple when we went! Just shows you how much I love you all!
Love,
Steph
1) the most brilliant rainbow I've ever seen
2,3 and 4) Temple pics
5) Sister H waiting while we cleared the house of smoke
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