week 40 (1/11/2016)

Hi everyone! I hope everyone had a great week this week! :) With less sun and heat than us. Wow this week I got a free sauna and tanning pass.

Well, this week was a pretty good week! There is always something new to learn and this week was not an exception! 

I had the opportunity to give a talk in sacrament meeting yesterday, I say opportunity now but at the moment it didn't feel like an opportunity haha. But as I prayed for help and guidance, I was able to learn something new and hopefully others as well. I focused on the commandments, especially on the first commandment and fourth. To not have other Gods in front of Him, and to keep the sabbath day holy.

As we have been visiting members, less active members and investigators, almost all of them have told us how all they want is to be happy. They want to be happy, and they want blessings from the Lord. I feel that the following quote from President Monson answers this plea: 

"My message to you tonight is straightforward. It is this: keep the commandments.

God’s commandments are not given to frustrate us or to become obstacles to our happiness. Just the opposite is true. He who created us and who loves us perfectly knows just how we need to live our lives in order to obtain the greatest happiness possible. He has provided us with guidelines which, if we follow them, will see us safely through this often treacherous mortal journey. We remember the words of the familiar hymn: “Keep the commandments! In this there is safety; in this there is peace.”^1"

<sup>This week we spoke with a sister in the ward who told us of the blessings she was waiting for, but she wasn't keeping the commandments. We shared with her this message that the Lord, loves every single one of us and its true He wants to bless us, and He wants us to return to live with Him again, but he is a Just God, and cannot change His word. He tells us what we must do and helps us to be able to do so. After talking with her about the commandments and how to receive the blessings she is searching for we invited her to attend church Sunday, to make the sacrifice required to show the Lord her will and her desire. Saturday she told us she had spoken with a brother in the ward and that he was going to pick her up to take her because she is 9 months pregnant and has two little daughters. Then Sunday morning she called and told us that she had cancelled with the brother and told him it wasn't necessary that he pick her up because her daughter is sick and she couldn't go; but that now, 2 hours later, her daughter was better and wanted to know if we could tell him and ask him to go get her. We didn't get back to her for about 20 minutes because we were in class, but afterwards we asked a sister to go with us to pick her up in her car, as we were arriving to her house we saw a woman pregnant due to give birth any day with her two little daughters walking towards the church, showing the Lord she was willing to make the sacrifice. I have to say it was one of the most heart warming things to see, because she was able to understand that with the Lord nothing is impossible and she put Him first, showing her love, and her dedication and her example to all of us. 

I know that the Lord loves us, and I know He saw the sacrifice of this young sister and her daughters and I can only imagine the joy He felt to see her devotion and love, and the joy He feels to see the sacrifice and Love of every single one of us, its the little things that make all the difference.</sup> 

^{I hope you all have a great week! Thank you for your examples to me, for your love and support! Have a great week!!}

^{With lots of love,}

^{Hermana Speakman}