"Life's an open book test but sometimes we close the book and make it way harder than it needs to be."

This week has been a super long week. Especially since P day wasn't until Wednesday this week so it seemed extra long but it was a great week. A lot of good things have happened lately, especially the last couple of days. On Saturday, we got to go temple square again with the S Family. 

I have been teaching this family forever. I taught Dallas, their 9 year old son, my very first day in the mission field and it has been awesome just to see how far he has come the past six months. He is getting baptized this Saturday and he asked me to be the one to baptize him which is really cool. I'm super excited to be able to do that. On Sunday, I got to speak in one of the wards (or congregations) we cover. They asked me to speak on fasting and so it was really cool to prepare a talk on that. In our church, the first Sunday of every month we go 24 hours, or two meals, without eating or drinking anything. I never really got the concept until my mission. In the Bible, it talks about how Jesus fasted for 40 days before he started his ministry so that he could get closer to God. So if Jesus fasted to get closer to God, think about how much more we need to fast to get closer to God. It really put it in perspective for me and I was able to talk about that and I thought it went really well. More About Fasting   And then I got sick on Sunday and had to spend most of the day sleeping. I felt awful but luckily I woke up on Monday feeling way better. 

     Another thing that I kind of learned this week was about how important it is to read the scriptures. We teach a lesson that is called CPR and just like regular CPR brings you back to life physically, the CPR we teach is what brings you back to live spiritually. CPR stands for church, prayer, and read as in the scriptures. And what I realized is that just like signing up for a class in school, we signed for this class of Life on Earth. And just like any other class God has given us a textbook with all the answers to help us pass the class but sometimes I feel like I am waiting for Him to give me all the answers to my problems and He already has. All we have to do is turn to the scriptures and trust in His word. Life's an open book test but sometimes we close the book and make it way harder than it needs to be. It doesn't mean our problems will go away when we read the scriptures but that we can learn how to either deal with them or overcome them. I love the scriptures so much. The more I read them the more I learn about God and his plan for me and the more peace it brings into my life. 

     But the reason I had P day today is because we got to go to the temple. I love getting to go inside the temple and feel of the Spirit of the Lord. I'm super excited to go! I'll include pictures of it later. What are Temples?

The scripture of the week this week is from James chapter 2 verse 17-18. It says, 

"17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works."

The most important part of faith that is sometimes left out is action. Anyone can claim to believe in something but that doesn't really show God you believe in Him. Until we put our faith into action it doesn't mean a thing. So that's something I'm going to work on is having perfect faith. Acting on my faith no matter the consequences. I'd much rather be judged by the world and be accepted by God then judged by God and be accepted by the World. Just some food for thought. I hope everyone has a good week this week! Thanks for all your prayers!