August 11, 2014
Mi Familia and Friends!! (I don't
know why I keep addressing you in Spanish)
Dearest Mother, do not worry about
grad school for the present. Things will all work out the way they will. I wish
I could go on the website, but I can't. Only mormon.org and lds.org. If you could email me some of the
stuff about the grad programs offered, that'd be great...but if not, don't
worry about it. I was talking to Sis. Shroeder (who is so knowledgeable about
everything she reminds me so much of Chelsey it's not even funny!) and she said
that the smart thing to do is to go to a cheapo school (like BYU-I) and get
your Associates (make sure you get REALLY good grades) so you can go to a more
uppity school like Notre-Dam or Yale (which would be cheaper because you would
be there for only 2 years) to get your Bachelor's. The more diversity of
colleges on your transcripts the more likely people will hire you. I wish I had
known that. Let Allison know that before she heads off, if she wants to make
money :)
Thank you for offering to send stuff.
If you could do me a humungo favor and please send me the Gross Income total
from my last two income checks from work that would be stupendous, for I do not
think I have yet paid tithing on them. I will have to send the payment back
home for the Bishop of my home ward though. As for my b-day...is there any way
you could send me a DVD with all of the Bible videos/some Mormon messages on
it? Or if you could get your hands on a Doctrine and Covenants: Church History
DVD 3-disc combo pack that would be epic! But if not, we can just keep
borrowing from the library :) Also, Sister Trent and I want to know if there is
any Book of Mormon ones.
This week was jam-packed full of
service! We helped a couple members along with a couple of re-contacted former
investigators weed and do yard work. It has been a miracle to see how helping
out others softens the hearts of those we teach and I hope it will continue :)
When we met with the Stoll's this week, we talked a lot about trials and why
children and the innocent go through them, particularly the people over in the
Middle East right now. I related a little of President Faust's talk about how
we do not know why, only God knows, but what they go through will stand as a
testimony against those who do it to them in the day of judgment and that when
the innocent die, there is no doubt that they are received into the arms of the
Lord.
I'm finally beginning to break some
of the ice with the Elders in our clan, it's just so weird how shut off they
are compared to the cookoo district of Waukesha-land. But like I said
before...things are extra normal here, so I am still getting used to not being
on edge/my guard all the time.
I finally met Sister Reimer (a less
active). I cannot understand what she says some of the time, because of her
slow speech, but I feel the great power of her testimony! We also met another
less active Sister Johnson yesterday who, surprisingly, welcomed us in such a
friendly way! She asked how the ward was doing and the people in it. I guess
that missionaries haven't been to see her in at least 7 months, I have no idea WHY
she has not been visited in so long a time because she is such a wonderful
person.
This week we have a Mission tour with
someone from the Seventy coming. It is my first mission tour so I am
nervous/excited. We have to prepare a 3-minute talk on "diligence," and
I've been working on it so I hope that it will come together :)
Mother, thank you for the talk and
for always serving me...what way can I better serve YOU? And Da? And Sis? And
Cathy? And Nani? And anyone else I can help??
I was watching a talk from President
Faust the other day and he said something so profound, I have used it
throughout the week since "trials" seem to be the common concern
lately:
Dr. Arthur Wentworth Hewitt
suggested some reasons why the good suffer as well as the wicked: “First: I
don’t know. Second: We may not be as innocent as we think. Third: … I believe
it is because He loves us so much more than He loves our happiness.
How so? Well, if on a basis of strict personal return here and now, all the
good were always happy and all the bad suffered disaster (instead of often
quite the reverse), this would be the most subtle damnation of character
imaginable.” 1
President Kimball gave this
insightful explanation:
“If pain and sorrow and
total punishment immediately followed the doing of evil, no soul would repeat a
misdeed. If joy and peace and rewards were instantaneously given the doer of
good, there could be no evil—all would do good and not because of the rightness
of doing good. There would be no test of strength, no development of character,
no growth of powers, no free agency. … There would also be an absence of joy,
success, resurrection, eternal life, and godhood.” 2
The talk is just too good, so I
encourage you all to watch/read the rest of it yourselves:
I am so thankful for this gospel and
the opportunity that we have to know the eternal perspective and that, in the
words of Elder Wirthlin, we can reap the blessing of the glorious law of
compensation; where every tear of sorrow we shed in this life will be replaced
with tears of joy in the next life 100-fold.
I love you all! Keep the faith,
endure to the end, and keep having fun! The pics are great!!
-Sister Weaver-
P.S. We decided to have a park our dart tournament. Don't
worry, nobody died. And you can refrain from posting this pic if you so choose.
Just saying.
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