Theres always a way

This was probably the first week in the whole semester where I felt as though I actually had enough time to accomplish everything that I needed to do. This semester seemed to be an endless list of things that I needed to do and not enough time to ever get it all done.

Then this week in Book of Mormon we talked about seeking the kingdom of god before riches (reference to Jacob 2: 18) and my professor talked about how "riches" can really be replaced with anything. He specifically talked about time.

I immediately felt like my professor was speaking right to me.

He said that we may feel like we have no time for service, for reading and praying meaningfully, for our church calling, for visiting teaching (the list goes on and on) and honestly thats exactly how I was feeling. But honestly I was done feeling like this and I had kept being promoted by the spirit that I needed to place more time for spiritual things.

So this week I decided to test it out. I wasn't trying to "test" God or anything but I have been feeling like I have NO TIME for anything and the scripture says that if I put the kingdom of God first all of these things will work out. I had faith in the what the Lord was promising. And this week was so good!! I felt so much peace and felt like I had all the time I needed to accomplish what this week had in store.

When we put the Lord first he will find a way. Even when we are absolutely positive that there is no way... WITH THE LORD THERE IS ALWAYS A WAY.

Remember.

Reading in the Book of Mormon has brought me so much happiness. When I read I feel as though God is personally talking to me. Reading from the Book of Mormon is like reading from personal journal entries of people that came before.

This week I particularly loved reading about Nephi sharing his personal experience and his feelings in 2 Nephi chapter 4. To me Nephi is one of the toughest, humblest, never ever complains type of person, but in this chapter he really opens up and lets us see the feelings of his heart. From this chapter I feel like I can relate to Nephi 100%. 

In my life I feel like I am constantly worried and feeling stressed out about the future and what is it come. When I read chapter 4 I feel like I am Nephi. I at times cry out like Nephi...

"19 And when I desire to rejoice, my heart groaneth because of my sins; nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted."

The problem though is that sometimes I am lacking in the "I know in whom I have trusted" part. When I am feeling so overwhelmed and stressed about life I at times will forget in whom I have trusted. But when I remember I suddenly feel so much more peace and happiness, I suddenly feel calm.

Because honestly if we trust in god then everything will work out- we just need to remember in whom we have trusted.

Rejoice.

I think that everyone in life just wants to be happy. At least thats what I want. And I hope that I can be. I was pondering this a lot this last week and while doing so I came across a scripture that I really enjoy.

Mosiah 4: 10-12:

10 And again, believe that ye must repent of your sins and forsake them, and humble yourselves before God; and ask in sincerity of heart that he would forgive you; and now, if you believe all these things see that ye do them.
 
11 And again I say unto you as I have said before, that as ye have come to the knowledge of the glory of God, or if ye have known of his goodness and have tasted of his love, and have received a remission of your sins, which causeth such exceedingly great joy in your souls, even so I would that ye should remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness, and his goodness and long-suffering towards you, unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility, calling on the name of the Lord daily, and standing steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come, which was spoken by the mouth of the angel.
 
12 And behold, I say unto you that if ye do this ye shall always rejoice, and be filled with the love of God, and always retain a remission of your sins; and ye shall grow in the knowledge of the glory of him that created you, or in the knowledge of that which is just and true.

Okay its pretty long but look at the underlined part. I was reading this and I thought it was great but then I got to the underlined part and was taken back. I read that and thought "WAIT, what can I do that will allow me to ALWAYS rejoice?!?" So I read back and read the things and compiled a list of things to do that will make us happy. I think that when we read the scriptures we all get different things out of it, so I don't want to share my list with you... but I encourage you to make your own! And continue to look for ways to be happy in the scriptures.

I know that the Book of Mormon really does bring true happiness into our lives. It will cause us to rejoice everyday!

Without Arms

This week as I read from the Book of Mormon I was thinking a lot about my relationship with others and how through my reading of the Book of Mormon I can improve them. I came across a scripture in Mosiah chapter 20 that I really liked. Its about this huge misunderstanding about the Lamainites going to attack the people of Limhi because they thought that they kidnapped their daughters (it was actually the priests of Noah). Anyways, they are trying to figure this huge problem out and when King Limhi heard about what was going on he requested that the people involved were brought to him immediately. He soon figures out that it wasn't any of his people at all. What is he supposed to do? His people are under attack. He has so many choices of action. And this is what he chooses... 

 26 And when the Lamanites saw the people of Limhi, that they were without arms, they had compassion on them and were pacified towards them, and returned with their king in peace to their own land.

He decided to go to them WITHOUT ARMS, he had no weapons on him, nothing, at all. And look what happens, the hearts of the Lamanites is softened! They had compassion on them and then returned peacefully to their own land. What a man. 

How many times do we, as humans, go into "talks" or "discussions" (or more like arguments) with a million "weapons" just ready to fire? I have been guilty many times. Usually these weapons manifest in the way we use our words and what we say to the other party. They normally end really bad, and both sides are hurt, sad and nothing is resolved. 

Sooo what if we did as King Limhi did and just went into these situations with out "arms"?? I think that things would end up a lot differently and we would walk away, just like them, PEACEFULLY. and who doesn't want a little more peace in their life? 

Just something to think about I guess. 

FEAR

FEAR.

This has been something that has been on my mind almost everyday this last week and ironically I attended a club meeting the other night where the speaker focused a lot of the topic of fear.

We are all scared of things. We all have fears. I think especially as a college student its easy to be really afraid. We are afraid of classes, of tests, of what we want to do/become/create/major in. Who is our future spouse? Will I ever find them? The list could go on foreverrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
We honestly have no idea what the future holds.

How many times have we been so afraid of something, so worried, so terrified that we just simply shut down? It happens to me almost every week. I get so scared, so worked up, so overwhelmed that I just can't do anything but do nothing.

I hate it. I hate it so much. I know that I will be fine. and I know that everything will work out, I mean it always does. Literally always. But its still really hard to not be afraid.

One night this last week I was feeling particularly "fearful." So I opened up the scriptures, and I turned right to the scripture in Alma where it talks about the stripping warriors. Its in Alma 56...

45 And now I say unto you, my beloved brother Moroni, that never had I seen so great courage, nay, not amongst all the Nephites.
 47 Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them.

They didn't fear because they trusted in the Lord! They knew that if they were obedient and acted they would be alright. They had so much faith. Also note that they didn't doubt what their mothers had taught them, which is also kind of ironic because if I always believed what my mom says than I would have no reason to fear either.

Lastly, when I attended the meeting where the lady discussed fear I like the quote that she shared with us. She said she has this posted on her bathroom mirror...
"What would I do if I were no longer afraid?"

When I honestly ask myself this question, I realize that there are so many opportunities that pass by based solely on my fear of failure. With that being said I hope to be less fearful of the future, and I plan on accomplishing that by trusting in the Lord. Its definitely easier said than done but it just takes one day at a time.

Nevertheless

Today I woke up and my laptop was not turning on. I drove a friend who just had surgery to campus and looked for a handicap parking spot for 40 min. My classes were hard. It was freezing rain outside. It was only DAY THREE and things weren't looking as great as I hoped.

Fast forward a few hours and I'm in my Book of Mormon class. We are ready 1 Nephi chapter 1 verse 1...

"1 I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents, therefore I was taught somewhat in all the learning of my father; and having seen many afflictions in the course of my days, nevertheless, having been highly favored of the Lord in all my days; yea, having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God, therefore I make a record of my proceedings in my days."

We placed emphasis on the 'nevertheless' and Nephi's purpose in using it. He is basically saying "all these bad things have happened, nevertheless, god is real, and he loves me and thats more important than the bad things that happened to me." Nephi had a lot of bad stuff happen to him but he chose to see the good things, he chose to see the blessings.
In class we used the 'greater than sign' to represent nevertheless. Like this...

Its raining today < I have an umbrella and a car to drive in and appropriate warm clothing.

This was really exactly what i needed to hear. I started to list off all the "bad things" that were happening today and changed them into 'nevertheless' statements.

My laptop wont turn on, nevertheless, I have a car and can drive to an Apple store thats not too far
School is so hard, nevertheless, I have been blessed to go to an amazing university where I can grow and learn and be stretched to become someone better.
Parking on campus is a pain, nevertheless, YOU HAVE A CAR. be happy.
Everything seems to never go my way, nevertheless, god has a better plan for you.

You get the idea... After I did it though I really was so much happier. I saw all the blessings that I had in my life and all the things in front of my 'neverthelesses' became so small and insignificant. Being positive and really looking, searching for gods hand in your life will make you so much happier.

So next time everything seems to fall apart, just take a look at all the 'neverthelesses' you have.

Shout Out to Moms

Hello Family Friends and Moms, 

This week was GREAT! Seriously so good. Missions are the bomb and i absolutely love Taiwan. Everything about this place is perfect for me. The Lord wasn't messing around when he called me to serve here. In DTM a few weeks ago we made an "I love Taiwan" list and it was crazy how many things there ware to love here. I am going to be so sad to leave this country in about a year... yes thats right, a year from now i will be preparing to go home.. but that's still like a century away so we will save that conversation for a year from now haha! 

Update on Li JM! She is still going strong. Not drinking any tea at all :) She has her baptismal interview set for this Wednesday! We went over the baptismal interview questions this last week and it all went really well, she just still doesn't have a very personal testimony of Joseph Smith. She doesn't not believe in him, just having a hard time personally connecting with his story. We invited her to really pray about it and we are seeing her again tonight so we will see how it went! I love her so much! 

So anyways after she left that lesson me and Sister Slater were in the church talking about how it all went and what we can do to help her more and such. We feel like she is ready for a Baptismal Interview but we worry that the man interviewing her wont see it, maybe or i don't know, we were just getting sorta worried. Sister Slater said something along the lines of "If only we good go in the interview with her, plead her cause, cause we know she is ready" It suddenly got really spiritual though and a light bulb went off it my head. We are acting as Jesus Christ would. He is our advocate, he will plead for all of our causes. He will stand and say "I know she isn't perfect, i know she can still improve, but look at her testimony, look at all the good she has done."

And then another light bulb went off and i immediately thought of my mom... Isn't that exactly what moms are like?! They plead our cause all the time. They want whats best for us. They see the good in us despite our imperfections. They love us so much, we cant even imagine it. But for just a moment there when my heart was turned completely towards Li JM i felt a little bit of what it would feel like to be a mom. I mean i just think back to the many times in my life when i was worried i wouldn't make it, or wouldn't get a good grade, and get into the school i wanted. I was so focused on myself and how worried i was that it never even crossed my mind (until this last week) how my MOM must have felt. I mean if she could i know she would have loved to go and talk to everyone and say how great i was and that if they just gave me a chance they would see it. Thats how much i love Li JM. It was quite the spiritual experience for me and i felt like i learned two things: 1. Moms and Jesus Christ are pretty darn similar 2. My mom is the best and i love her so much (and even more now) <3 (this explains the subject of this email haha)

Okay something fun that happened this week. We were at FHE last night and we were playing sardines i the church (which is awesome cause our church is HUGE, 3 stories tall, tons of class rooms). It was blast and then Sister Slater and I volunteered to go hide. We hid under these chairs in a room and NO ONE FOUND US. We literally laid flat like a board under them and multiple people came in and still no one saw us. We were dying haha it was so funny! We eventually had to call it at like 8:50 so that we could get home. All of the Elders were so surprised that no one found us. Anyways we are now worshiped in the YSA as the Sardine Queens so thats great haha i love our YSA!! 

We had Zone Conference this week. It was so great to see president :) Hes the best and i can just feel the love that he has for all of his missionaries. We talked a lot about teaching and how we can sometimes overfill our investigators minds to the point where they have no ideaaa whats happening. He had missionaries pour huge jugs of water into little cups sitting on other missionaries heads haha it was so funny, some of them got wet. He was just trying to show how we may have a lot to share but sometimes we can only share what an investigator has the capacity to take in. Always trying to improve my teaching skills, its hard stuff. 

Well today we are going to Lotus Pond! There are like these cool temples there and stuff so that should be fun, look it up if you are really curious LOL Pics are yet to come in next weeks email.. 

Cockroach update in our house: THEY ARE EVERYWHERE we even bought these things that we put all around the house but they are still there ahhh every night we just go into kill mode right when we get back into the house and put shoes on our hands so we can kill them. Its pretty funny actually. Sister Slater will be like "Ive got the kitchen, you get the bathroom" haha adds some spice to our mission life. PS i just killed like 3 cockroaches on this computer desk.. they are EVERYWHERE ahh

Oh also we went to La Salsa this week - YES a Mexican place in Taiwan. Its soooo yummy. Pics included of us indulging our burritos.

Well thats all for this week folks, hope that you have a fab week! 

Sister Hardy 

ps: i don't really proof read these.. so if there are grammar errors i am so sorry haha but can you blame me? Chinese is the exact opposite of english

PICS: burritos and me just roaming the streets of taiwan (s/o to sister slater for that one)