Currently writing my weekly letter balancing on an inversion table lol. Sister Norton said I couldn't *ok yeah I didn't make it through the whole email...
This week's highlights:
> It snowed!! Not sure if that's a highlight but we drank hot cocoa to "celebrate" so that's a highlight!
> Lots of lessons!
> We had a meeting for missionary work in our ward and our ward mission leader had a rat in his sleeve haha! We thought he was joking but nope!
> We had the cutest lesson with this family of all sisters and they were all helping the youngest learn how to pray! So cute! At one point as we were teaching her about prayer, the little girl asked, "How many days until Christmas?", like it was totally on topic haha... so cute and me too girlfriend, me too!
> Okay this is gonna be a doozy but hopefully it makes sense! Our Relief Society President gave an AMAZING talk yesterday at church! I was translating and let me tell ya it was tricky to translate but it was SO good! She talked all about love and how in the ancient text of the Bible there were different words for the one word we have in English. She explained the word "agape" being the kind of love that Christ asks us to show when He asks us to love our neighbor and love our enemies.
She gave scenarios from back in Christ's time where the Roman soldiers were in charge and widely considered "enemies" and how they could, by law, force people to carry their things and threaten to kill them if they didn't! She then talked about how Christ's teachings of agape and loving our enemies was so hard to swallow for a lot of people who had been persecuted!
Using those examples, she showed how agape would be like if a Roman soldier smacked you in the face for not carrying his bags and through Christ you find room for compassion and love in your heart to say, "Oh you must be angry, here's my other cheek to let some more anger out" or "Oh you must be tired, let me not only carry your bags for one mile, but let me carry them for two all the way to your house." That is crazy and incredible! But that is so Christlike! That kind of love could and would change the world if everyone loved like that! She also talked about that quote by Martin Luther King Jr.:
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that."
These days, "enemies" are everywhere. Darkness is everywhere. Hate is everywhere. But we cannot drive those out by adding hateful comments on social media or by gossiping about how awful a political candidate or party is. We can only "overcome the world with love" and that is exactly what Christ has asked us as His disciples to do!
Wow it was a really good talk and I don't think I even explained it nearly as well as she did but it was a really good reminder of our need to love and how we really can change the world with that love!
> Last night we got to go to a Zoom devotional with the coach of the Highland rugby team featured in the movie "Forever Strong." It was so good! He gave 5 tips for seeing success that work for all aspects of life and then gave us the foundation for it all that makes it all work! The 5 tips were:
1. We not me
2. Don't play with snakes
3. Attitude & effort are everything
4. Expect to W. I. N. (what's important now)
5. Keep the focus on the final score
And the foundation for it all he said is the teachings of Jesus Christ! He said, "The gospel is the perfect game plan" for EVERYTHING we do!
He then gave a 6th tip that he said is the glue that holds the other 5 together and that was:
6. Know your identity
And that's what he focused on the rest of the talk! It is so important to remember who we are and why we are here and to help others who have forgotten that (he talked a lot about the premortal life). Once again my words do not do it justice but it just really stood out to me how important it is to constantly remember who we are and where we are really going and to make sure we are on track and constantly course correct!
I love you all and hope you are on track to be "Forever Strong" and will find room in your heart to love a little more or a little differently than before and follow the example of Christ to love like agape!
Have a wonderful week!
Love, Sister Freeman ဖီပြံဝါ
Pictures:
1-3. We got to go by the temple!! :)))
4. I like this picture.
5. Lesson with our friend Paw Rah Kay
6-7. The day it snowed.
8. Our friend is gonna shave her head so we did too to support her (just kidding no we didn't but this is what we would look like bald haha).
9. We got some YUMMY barbeque from a street pop up tent and this guy was so fun! 10/10 would recommend!
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