Sounds like life is good for everyone back home! That makes me super happy, I miss you, but as long as y'all are happy, then I'm happy :)

 

Another pretty good week here in Louisiana, or as we like to say the dirty south. I love it here, the more people I meet and the more spicier food I eat, I just fall more and more in love with it. Time is flying by!

 

Update on Gwen. I was out of town most of this week on exchange, but E. Jensen was able to go over the word of wisdom and law of tithing. She had already read the pamphlets and started living them even before they meet with her and had a lesson. She had a check made out to the church and everything! Which is incredible because she is a single mom with 3 daughters, working 2 jobs.  She doesn't even have enough money to pay her bills. But she has so much faith that she is going to pay her tithing anyways! She has way more faith than I have.  She is still on track to be baptized on the 13th of April. Oh, and at church, her 9 y.o said a prayer, her 7 y.o volunteered to give a talk next week in primary, and her 4 y.o stayed the night at a member's house last night because she made a new friend in primary a few weeks ago. The ward is so helpful, it makes our job a lot easier. I love it. I feel humbled to be the lucky missionary that is able to be here while Gwen goes through all this. It has truly been a testimony builder to me. I know that I promised her and her girls before this life that I would find them and bring them the Gospel, the spirit was able to teach me that over the past week or so. 

 

Well something that I learned this week in my personal studies, is that before we act on our faith, we need to have some type of understanding, whether its an "Ok that makes sense, so I will do it", or "I don't know what's gonna happen, but I know that the Lord will take care of me." Then once we act with faith, we see the blessings that come from it and that becomes a greater understanding of a principle, which then leads to testimony and conversion. So if we understand something, then act on it, then the understanding becomes greater.

 

But another cool thing that I found this morning was in 1 Nephi 16: 1, 2 and 14. Laman and Lemuel are complaining that both the Lord and Nephi are asking them to do hard things and are speaking harsh words. One of my favorite parts is when it says that the "guilty (wicked or proud) take the truth to be hard." So they are complaining about how they are in the wilderness and don't have food. But then in vs. 14, we can see that even though that Nephi and Lehi have faith to do what the Lord asks, they don't become lazy or expect something all the time. Instead of saying, "Oh the Lord made us go out into the wilderness, he is just gonna place cooked food right in front of us because he is already asking so much." NO! Lehi and Nephi take charge, and they go out and do what needs to be done. They man up and put their big boy pants on. I love it! They know that the Lord will provide, but they don't take advantage of it, or rely on him to do everything for them. Sometimes I find myself relying on him too much and not bettering myself. Anyways, hope that helps someone :) Cause I know it helped me!