Growing Pains: Nutty Bars and the Power of God

This was such a good week and we had so much success. It's weeks like this where you want to be on a mission forever.

We had so many lessons with members and wow did they bring the spirit. As missionaries our calling is to teach and when a member is there to share their testimony it makes the lesson all the more powerful! We had this really good family home evening about a modern day Prophet and how those called of God in our day can bless the family. I have never had the spirit lead me so much in a lesson then that one. In this family the mom is a member (Vanina) and the dad is not (Michael pronounce mich-aye-el). She is on the verge of inactivity and he has been taught by missionaries and had a bad experience. They have 3 kids and the youngest is 6 months old. The mom is so tired all the time and the dad works a lot just to make ends meet. They let me hold the baby and it made me miss Lilly so much :((. Vanina said the baby was so calm with me she might just let me take her home hahaha. I miss Lilly... :( anyways the less went so good and we focused on how conference teaches us how to be better people. We applied it to him as the head of the house and with the priesthood session it is aimed at brothers, fathers and men of the world. It was really good! And he came to church! He has never come to church! The Elders were a bit jealous and could never get him to go to church when they were teaching him! It's moments like that when you know you were called to your mission for a reason!

So I have a funny story for those who know me well. Saturday during comp study we kinda got off track.. A lot and Hermana Alegrìa started to share some scary mission stories and at the time I didn't think they were bad or were scary. When night time came for some awesome reason those stories came into my mind right before I went to sleep. Well I had really bad dreams and hallucinated that these stories were happening to me. I woke up so scared and I guess I was talking in my sleep so Hermana was already awake. Needless to say we slept with the light on and I cried because I wished that I was home so I could crawl into bed with dad and Kendra lol. Hermana was like "Hermana do you want to watch some happy videos?" And we watched Mormon messages in her bed till like 1:30. We were so tired yesterday hahaha.

Why do I tell this story? Well Doc&Cov 121:45 states:
45 Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven.

Our thoughts have so much power and when we learn to control them we have obtained ultimate self-mastery. Although I didn't mean to think those things, I chose to listen to those stories and I remembered them when it wasn't appropriate. This is the reason why the leaders of the church say to be careful about what you watch, read and listen to. At the end of the verse it says, "then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven." Our thoughts give us confidence and we enjoy the blessings of the priesthood when we control them. When I was able to finally control my thoughts and think of the power that the Savior has in my life I slept like a rock! I testify that if we garnish our lives, actions and thoughts with virtue our Heavenly Father will bless us! I love you all and hope you have a good week! The church is true and God lives!

Hermana Ritter