Sister Young : The One With 50% Off Easter Candy

"God did not create our spirits to be independent of Him. Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, through the incalculable gift of His Atonement, not only saves us from death and offers us, through repentance, forgiveness for our sins, but He also stands ready to save us from the sorrows and pains of our wounded souls."

-Elder Neil A. Anderson

This is from a talk that we discussed in Relief Society. Our lesson was just incredible in RS so last night, I listened to the talk and the talk is just as stellar. It's from the October 2018 conference and the talk is called "Wounded. READ IT! It will change your life.

Not really, but hopefully! That'd be cool. :)

This week was a good one! Lot's of tender mercies and growing. On Tuesday, we got permission to travel outside our area to go see a new doctor. #roadtrip! It was only 45 minutes away but we felt like it was a little fun, scenic drive. Met with the doctor, he was nice. I gave my stamp of approval to the mission nurse.

Side note, Sister Wright, the mission nurse, is an angel on Earth and we are very lucky to have her here with us. I'm so very very grateful for her!

Wednesday, we had District Council! The first one since we added in new areas and it was huge! We have 22 missionaries in our district now! That's nuts. We had to sit in the High Council room so that we could all fit. But it was good! Some of my good friends from my last area are now in my district and it's been so fun to see them again! We had a great meeting and talked about how we can use our studies to come closer to our purpose as missionaries and then talked about different ways we can better our personal studies. I really needed to hear it because I've been lacking in mine so it was definitely a blessing.

I changed up some things and dropped off some guilt for not studying others and my studies have turned into a very treasured time to me. I found myself before kind of taking advantage of my study time and I'm sad that I did that because the words of the scriptures have a definite power in them. I feel my spirit lighten and become less anxious and more alive when I dive into the scriptures. I used to think that it should happen immediately, but I have now realized that it takes a good amount of time for the power to come. You have to really invest and apply for the power to set in. I love the Book of Mormon! I love that Heavenly Father gave us ways to directly feel His love for us through words of the prophets, old and latter-day.

On Thursday, we woke up and attempted to weekly plan. We started it and the beginning is always great! But then we get distracted and find ourselves pulling our hair out trying to stay focused. So we decided to go to the Library to help us focus a little more. It helped! We were there for a bit and then Sister Kepler decided that 50% off Easter candy from Walmart needed to be had. We also needed quality conversations for the day so we headed that direction.

So, for those of you who don't already know, I LOVE Walmart. I'm not sure why! But I do! And I have the place down to a science.. Or so I thought! I thought I knew where the seasonal candy was but both places we checked, it wasn't there! So we walked around for a little bit longer and Sister Kepler, being the sweetheart that she is, wanted to go so that I could rest from crutching around the store for 30 minutes. But I felt like we should keep going; just a little further, i kept thinking. So we kept walking and not even 3 minutes later, we found it! The glorious candy. So Sister Kepler stashed up and we were headed to the register and I saw a lady and complimented her on her necklace and ended up having a conversation about Jesus Christ and Family and found out that she was looking for a church. I was so excited! She took our number and we got hers and told her that we would love to stop by sometime. She seemed a little hesitant, but agreed. :)

As I reflected on that experience, I love that Heavenly Father gave me the opportunity to experience on a small scale, how blessings will come when we go just a little further.

One of the best moments in movie history, in my opinion, is from the movie Rocky Balboa when he's talking to his son and telling him how he needs to own up to what he wants; stop blaming what he doesn't have on anyone else. I wish so badly I could quote it, but I've forgotten a lot about the outside world so just go look it up and watch it. :)

BUT! Sometimes, we have got to push through pain; that's the only way to become what or who we want to become. Heavenly Father knows our worth and our potential and the only way to grow is through adversity. Trials a necessary and struggling is a consequence of that, but "Life ain't about how hard you get hit, it's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward." - Rocky (Nailed it!)

Friday was awesome. We had bingo with our ladies scheduled so we headed over but then we were informed that there was a biker group coming to show off their bikes and visit the people there! So they asked us to stay and help them walk around and visit.

When the group showed up, there were like 12 of them and they were SO kind! They talked to us and were asking questions about missionary work and the church. 3 of them knew about temples and talked about how much they loved traveling and seeing the temples! It was SO COOL! We talked to a couple who seemed to know a lot about the church already and we told them about the temple open house for the Oklahoma City temple and told them that they should go! they seemed genuinely interested and said they would look into it. It was such a neat experience!

Had a sick day on Saturday because the pollen here is legit AWFUL. It looks like an air-raid of green power. Allergies are going to be the death of everyone here in Bella Vista.

Sunday was great! Sacrament meeting was wonderful and such a rockin' powerhouse. I love church. I feel so uplifted afterward. :)

Well, I love you all. So very much. Thank you for your prayers and love and support. It means so much to this missionaries heart. ❤

Read the Book Of Mormon.

Feel God's love.

Push through, just a little farther.

Be kind to one another.

-Sister Young