Week #5 - Dep/Mar Project

Okay, so here we are again. We begin week #5 this week with a great set of articles and another beautiful principle. So exciting!

I hope this last week was one of miracles for all of you. I was able to pick a specific miracle and begin making it happen. I did realize, as I hope you did, that making a miracle happen usually takes more than a week's worth of prayer and work. I believe that because of our project, I am so much more prepared to seek the Lord's will in helping to cause a miracle in the person's life I have chosen. I realized that though the miracle may be big, it starts out small. I chose to help bring someone to church. This person is wonderful and someone I really admire and enjoy, but for some reason can't quite make it to church. As we all know, going to church is how we are able to grow and learn in the gospel. We need that extra something that can only be gained by worshipping together. So that's my chosen miracle and this week. I began not only by praying for this person, but by also thinking about the person and planning some specific things I could do to encourage the choice to attend our meetings together. I was able to keep my word, finally, on something related I had promised and I noticed other things that were happening in my life to feel closer to the Lord.

An example of those "things" is the little miracles one of our articles discussed. My life is so full of those right now. Every time I can find a babysitter at the last minute, I have experienced a miracle. It's not big to anyone else, but that is one of the hardest things for me to do while Chris has been away. Every time an activity goes really well, even when the kids are tired, like this last Friday, I feel a miracle has taken place. Things don't HAVE TO go well, but they do because I need the help and the Lord loves me and wants me to know that. Take a minute, those of you who will read this, and think of the "little miracles" or maybe a big one that occurred in your life this week. I'll bet there are more of them than you might think!

So that was our last week's study. Good luck with this week and remember: write down your experiences; it is important to be able to remember so that you can learn and be grateful.

Letter:

Good evening my cutie!

I know it’s probably not night or who knows, maybe it is! Anyway, I got tired of just saying hello.

So how’s it going? I know by now you’ve had some remarkable experiences and if not, why not? You’re the one person I know who can make the ordinary extraordinary. So if you haven’t had something great happen, make it happen! Every topic we’ve had requires effort on our part to make it the amazing principal that it is. Follow through and bring those principals to bear in secular life.

Endurance

“My son, peace be unto they soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; and then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes.” – D&C 121:7-8

Okay, let’s get to it right? This week is week 5 – we will be studying “enduring to the end.” I know, how cliché right? No, it’s not for a matter of fact. Enduring is something we do well sometimes, but not all the time. If we understand the need for endurance it’s often easier to do it, but it’s the most important to apply when we are in the darkness, when we don’t know where to go or why we need to endure our circumstances. It is especially difficult to do when we are far from God or unsure of the outcome of the situation.

This week our study will focus on the actual enduring part, but more the need for endurance and obviously, according to our scripture, the blessings of enduring in the right way. Don’t forget, enduring is done with grace, while doing something without that effort is merely surviving the situation.

Well that’s it. I know, short. They can’t all be long discourses can they? Before I say goodbye for another week, I just wanted you to know how this one came about. I realized that after all we’ve done the previous weeks we most likely have been on a relative spiritual high culminating in the miracle topic last week. After that though, comes the hard part: enduring after the miracle. Once the blind man had received his sight the Lord then said he was to continue in faith. He had work to do, though his life had been changed. We’ve been working up to so much and now here we are in the end time of your deployment, but not at the end. I think this is going to be the hardest week. You’re almost done, but not quite. I’ll have too many projects still undone and be stressed as to which should wait for another time and you’ll have work to prepare to hand over and some to finish yourself. Knowing which work is whose might prove tricky. You like to finish what you start, but six weeks is a short time to do a lot of things. With all this in mind, I found myself thinking that this is where this principal might really be needed.

I noticed that this week is rather like the month before you went home in the mission. You recognized your time was limited, but you still had so much to accomplish. You also began thinking of home more and the thoughts of future plans began to creep in. This is a difficult time to remain focused and applying the effort you have been making. It is highly possible though, knowing you as I do, that you’re not feeling any of this and this topic will just be a nice reminder for you. You do that sometimes you know. I think you’re doing one thing and really you’re doing another and my thoughts don’t apply. Either way, this week’s study will be beneficial somehow or other as long as you study with the Spirit. He will help you learn and gain what you need.

And that concludes this week. Well, off with you now. Get going on your duties and especially remember to pray and do your studying. Also, don’t forget to write everything down. I’ll want to talk about all that you’ve learned when you get home.

I hope you are doing well and learning so much. I love you bunches and miss you as always. Kids are doing great, belly is big, Lizzy is too, and they can’t wait to see you again. I don’t know if it will happen before you come home, but maybe Lizzy will be able to walk to you when you get off the plane! I’m so excited to see you, but I will try to endure with grace as I’m sure you will.

Love you!