to all my people!
From the mighty Melbourne mission...just an update on 7 miraculous days, we got to go on exchanges Tues w/ our lovely sisters and my eyes were opened to so many things (typical for exchanges). 1 being consistency. How important and impactful it is being simply consistent w/ small things. Whether it be in the gospel or just normal daily life. Waking up on time every day or smiling @ strangers when you see them, consistently going for a walk/jog daily. These seemingly small things that don't make a big difference in each day will make ALL the difference in the long run. If you go for a 10 min run every day for a month you will see results, although the effort and time daily was small it has the ability to have great results. Opposite is true...if you go for an hour jog once a month it will just wear you out so much in that one hour you will need a whole month to recover and the results will probably be unnoticed or nonexistent.
Same w/ missionary work or the gospel in general. We can't go on "holiday" and eat junk food and watch TV/movies all day every day for 29 days and then try to go out and run for an hour on the 30th and feel great. It makes things a lot harder to do nothing and then go run a marathon, so why not train? Why not do a little every day so when the marathon is here your body is ready?
Reading our scriptures daily (whether it be 1 verse or one chapter) is the spiritual training that doesn't normally make a HUGE impact on each day..but after a month or even a week, the results...although seemingly small, are there. Just like building a muscle and for me, when I lift weights (uh...the baby ones) and start seeing a bit of a change I get more motivated and excited. Same w/ spiritual exercise! I promise if you are doing what you can God will let you see the change, even if its just a short glimmer of who you'll be, but he'll show you. And that, if nothing else, will build your motivation every day! Consistently reading the words of the prophets or saying prayers or just building someone up w/ a sincere compliment every day, every day, every day will allow God to give you a boost and propel you forward to reach the spiritual and physical capacity that only He can help you achieve. Nothing and no one can make of us what He can.
However, just as I talked about before, the opposite is true. If we consistently don't do these seemingly small things every day our spiritual muscles begin to weaken and just like the muscle in our arm, if they're not being used they are going away. If we are not moving forward we are moving backward. The adversary knows our weaknesses and although he isn't good, consistency is one thing we can learn from him. he does seemingly small things every day to pull us down...things that lead us to make choices that don't seem to make a difference in the day...but over time can place us in a deep hole of despair and darkness.
For example he might say "just have this one cookie" (which isn't ALL that bad) or "just skip exercise today you're tired" or "just go home early from church, this team is your favorite". These are all small and I feel we are all guilty of one or something similar, but guys...the moment you give in to one of those, the easier it is to give in to the next "harmless thought" satan puts in your your mind. Like I said, he is consistent, always doing some thing day after day and that is why so many have fallen because there are 2 sides working and if one side is being consistent and the other isn't (us working against adversary) one is going to win. If we don't exercise our muscles daily satan is going to wait until we are at our weakest and then throw us into a vicious battle and we will have no weapons, no strength to fight, and he will win. We can't let him win!
We are in the last stretch of our marathon, we have come this far and we can't let him win. The greatness of the gospel is when we are consistent w/God He is consistent w/ us. The more we do the more He gives. D&C 50:24
I know we need now more than ever to put on our armor daily, to strengthen our spiritual muses by consistently doing the small things. The world is only getting worse but the miracle of the gospel is, although we are in the midst of so much darkness and digression, we can still move forward! We can still be happy and every day become stronger. All w/ the help of our Savior Jesus Christ. How lucky are we to know Him.
Man it sounds like a talk or something but I felt impressed to write it. I know it is true! I'm still trying to get in shape myself.
I went to the dentist this week, AUS is dodgy. They stuffed my teeth up! The numbness (word?) made the day a bit more exciting though. No updates on Robert, he is MIA. He went to the Gold Coast and we think he got lost in the wilderness.
We met 2 girs Mahdia & Samar from Iran. I taught w/ Jhinny and Mason (cutest couple, we were on splits) and they are so excited to learn more. Although their English is imperfect they understand when we taught of Jesus Christ. They are Muslim and still understand. Their faces were bright w/ light when we left. They'll be reading the BofM this week in Persian and Urdu. Mohsen speaks both, he'll come next time!
That's all for now!! All my love to you.
xxx
Sister Hatch- BACK!
And..we're going to Melbourne zoo today. I am STOKED.
 |
| this is me and sister enoka |
 |
| and us with our less active who went back to the temple on saturday! |
 |
| beautiful Australia at dusk |
 |
| sisters pday and sister wairpo |
Good morning, how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because through them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately, it is impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are very small countries with very few population, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this, I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Australia? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Australia in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28902 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally, I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez