Transfer 12 Week 4

Dear Yall.

This week was pretty shnazzy. I enjoyed it. Some highlights would occur on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday all of our appointments cancelled but it turned out grand because we still had a grand day! Mainly my companion is amazing and makes my life super fantastic because she lets all of her awesome rub off on me. But all of the action on Saturday took place in the evening. Right before dinner we contacted a Less Active member of the church and we now will be working with her. She has a pitched beeping thing in her house that deters mice. It beeps every three seconds. She is really awesome. Then we went to have dinner at our apartment. We got out of the car. Then Sis. Adair got back in the car. Why? To fill out the millage log for the day. Then she got back out. Sis. Nealy locked the doors. Sis. Adairs door did not lock. Weird. So she locked it manually. Dumb. Then we walked upstairs to our apartment and discovered, no keys! Guess where they were? In the car, in the ignition. Was the car was off. So we had to call a guy to come and break into our car for us. Yeah, we know a guy. The guy in the mission office over cars! Sis. Nealy and I decided that after our missions we may be lost because we wont have a mission office to call providing things go wrong, someone is sick, or heaven forbid, we lock the keys in the car. So we ate dinner and waited for the guy. During waiting and eating I was thinking. At the beginning of the week I had been asked to give a talk on Sunday. All week I had thought and nothing came. The topic was "Living in the moment and making the most of our current situation." Nothing came. At all. After thinking for some time and being annoyed about not remembering the keys it finally came to me why I couldn't think of anything for my talk. (p.s we were able to be in our apartment because we had a spare.) I looked at my companion and said, "Sister! I can't write it because I don't know how to do it! Living in the moment and making the most of my current situation is not a strong suite!" It was wonderful! After dinner we drove out with a member to contact a referral given to us by the Zone Leaders. Turns out that he didn't live where he said he did, it was his parents house and we ended up talking with his mom for awhile and she wants to know more about the church. We are super excited to go back! Also that evening we played an epic game of Gospel Jepordy. Yeah. Oh and we almost hit a deer. But we didn't. Our member has lightning reflexes and God was watching out for us. Sunday. I gave the talk. It worked out pretty good. I used the story of locking the keys in the car. And all of our appointments fell through on Sunday also. But! It was a great day as well! Being a missionary is the greatest! So, I bet you are wanting to read my talk huh? Cause you just cant resist. Ok. I'll give you parts of it. I really like the subject matter and am working to implement it into my life also. Also funny story. The Bishop was announcing the program and said that Sis. Nealy would be talking to us first. (She was not speaking that day.) So I just sat there and looked at her and she looked at me in wide eyed panic. I was like "Go ahead. They called you." She was all, "Sister, get up there!" Anyway. Hilarious.

So. The talk: 

(I started off with telling the car-key-locked-in story so we will go with that.)

Because living in the moment and making the most of my current situation is not a strong suite, I decided to turn to the experts. The Scriptures, prophets and apostles.  

First lets talk about what it is that keeps us from enjoying the moment. In my case it was living in the past and focusing on the mistakes I'd made in the past and the fact that I couldn't think of anything for my talk. Another is living in the future, having the mentality of 'Everything will be better once this happens..." Of living in the moment Pres. Monson says : "This is our one and only chance at mortal life--here and now. The longer we live, the greater is our realization that it is brief. Opportunities come, and then they are gone. I believe that among the greatest lessons we are to learn in this short sojourn upon the earth are lessons that help us distinguish between what is important and what is not. I plead with you not to let those most important things pass you by as you plan for that illusive and nonexistent future when you will have time to do all that you want to do. Instead, find joy in the journey--now." 

The key word that sticks out to me from that is the word now. Don't live in what has happened or what will happen but live in what is currently happening. Make the most of where we are right now.  How can we do this? I know it is possible to overcome living in the past and the future.

Of living in the past Pres. Uchtdorf says, "It is my testimony that many of the deepest regrets of tomorrow can be prevented by following the Savior today. If we have sinned or made mistakes--if we have made choices that we now regret--there is the precious gift of Christ’s Atonement, through which we can be forgiven.

We cannot go back in time and change the past, but we can repent. The
Savior can wipe away our tears of regret and remove the burden of
our sins. His Atonement allows us to leave the past behind and move
forward with clean hands, a pure heart, and a determination to do
better and especially to become better." I testify that the Atonement is real. It works. We can be relieved of our burdens. Earlier on in my mission we were at a dinner appointment with a very active woman in the church and at the end of the dinner we were sharing a message with her. We chose to talk about the Atonement. She had experienced great loss throughout her life. Her husband passed away in his 50s and her son passed away unexpectedly in his 40's. We asked her how the atonement has helped her and how she had felt it. She had no idea. She couldn't tell us how the atonement worked. If you have not yet had an experience in your life with the atonement I ask you to do so now. To turn to your savior and welcome his healing embrace in. He is waiting for you. He wants to help. I know that as we turn to him he can help us to mover forward and live in the now by accepting his atonement. 

The next thing to over come is living in the future. Often times we live in the future because our now does not look so hot. It may be because we have struggles or whatever is around the bend looks like it will be better. Of this mind set President Uchtdorf said, "We shouldn't wait to be happy until we reach some future point, only to discover that happiness was already available--all the time! Life

is not meant to be appreciated only in retrospect. “This is the day which the Lord hath made … ,” the Psalmist wrote. “Rejoice and be glad in it." Brothers and sisters, no matter our circumstances, no matter our challenges or trials, there is something in each day to embrace and cherish. There is something in each day that can bring gratitude and joy if only we will see and appreciate it." He speaks of daily joy. We can find joy daily in our lives as we live in the now. I'd like to submit three ways that can help us to find this daily joy.

The first is to focus on what matters most. Pres Monson said, "Despite the changes which come into our lives and with gratitude in our hearts, may we fill our days--as much as we can--with those things which matter most. May we cherish those we hold dear and express our love to them in word and in deed. .... Let us relish life as we live it, find joy in the journey, and share our love with friends and family. One day each of us will run out of tomorrows..... Stresses in our lives come regardless of our circumstances. We must deal with them the best we can. But we should not let them get in the way of what is most important--and what is most important almost always involves the people around us. Often we assume that they must know how much we love them. But we should never assume; we should let them know. Wrote William Shakespeare, “They do not love that do not show their love.”3 We will never regret the kind words spoken or the affection shown. Rather, our regrets will come if such things are omitted from our relationships with those who mean the most to us...... Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved." 

What matters most truly are those who are around us. As we remember to cherish these relationships we will be blessed with joy.

The second is that Happiness is a choice. A well known author once said "Both abundance and lack [of abundance] exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend … when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that’s present--love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature, and personal pursuits that bring us [happiness]--the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience heaven on earth.” 

As we remember the bigger picture and focus on the good in our lives and make that conscious choice we can have that daily joy. As we think of a picture let us remember that it is made up of thousands of brush strokes and we need all of them to have the bigger picture, the dark and the light. Elder Wirthlin teaches us a valuable lesson in his talk, "Come What may and Love it." That was advice that his mother gave him. He says "How can we love days that are filled with sorrow? We can’t--at least not in the moment. I don’t think my mother was suggesting that we suppress discouragement or deny the reality of pain. I don’t think she was suggesting that we smother unpleasant truths beneath a cloak of pretended happiness. But I do believe that the way we react to adversity can be a major factor in how happy and successful we can be in life. If we approach adversities wisely, our hardest times can be times of greatest growth, which in turn can lead toward times of greatest happiness."  As we remember that it is how we choose to handle each situation that dictates the outcomes. We can choose to face life with a good attitude.

The third is to live in the attitude of Gratitude. President Uchtdorf says "We can choose to be grateful, no matter what.

This type of gratitude transcends whatever is happening around us. It surpasses disappointment, discouragement, and despair. It blooms just as beautifully in the icy landscape of winter as it does in the pleasant warmth of summer.
When we are grateful to God in our circumstances, we can experience gentle peace in the midst of tribulation. In grief, we can still lift up our hearts in praise. In pain, we can glory in Christ’s Atonement. In the cold of bitter sorrow, we can experience the closeness and warmth of heaven’s embrace.
We sometimes think that being grateful is what we do after our problems are solved, but how terribly shortsighted that is. How much of life do we miss by waiting to see the rainbow before thanking God that there is rain?
Being grateful in times of distress does not mean that we are pleased with our circumstances. It does mean that through the eyes of faith we look beyond our present-day challenges.
This is not a gratitude of the lips but of the soul. It is a gratitude that heals the heart and expands the mind.
Being grateful in our circumstances is an act of faith in God. It requires that we trust God and hope for things we may not see but which are true.8 By being grateful, we follow the example of our beloved Savior, who said, “Not my will, but thine, be done.”

I know that as we learn to live in the moment and make the most of our current situation by focusing on what matters most, choosing to be happy and choosing to be grateful in all things we will come closer to the Savior. It is only through him that we can do this. Through his grace and atoning sacrifice we can change our lives to be in closer harmony with his. As we follow the message of the gospel and deepen our conversions we can have joy in this life and eternal life in the world to come. As we share our testimonies with others we will gain a deeper appreciation for the gospel and for what we have been given. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

That's my talk. Hope you enjoyed it. I love you all.

Sis. Adair