Everything Changed When The Fire Nation Attacked

Yooooo!!! My friends!! I'm alive!! Lololol. This week has been CrAzY. Definitely the least productive week of my entire mission. It's fine. But yes, Oregon is on fire. Its great. We are safe here in Forest Grove so no worries! It just sometimes rains ash and we're not aloud to go outside. Quarantine pt 2! The best. No it's actually been such a PARTY though cuz the Vernonia sisters (sis Jorgensen & sis Hulse) got evacuated to FG so they've been crashing our place since last monday so we've just had a week long sleepover that's still going 

We've eaten all the junk food you can imagine and played every card game in the book. Our favorite is Coup "blocked by my contessa" = most used phrase this week 

Its been a good week. Lots of fun. Anyway. 

Spiritual thought time! Cuz it's been a while oops. 

So I found my new fav talk, "The Atonement: All for All" by Bruce C. Hafen. It completely changed my perspective on the Atonement. I'll just share a quote from it that really touched my heart. 

"Adam and Eve learned constantly from their often harsh experience. Yet because of the Atonement, they could learn from their experience without being condemned by it. Christ’s sacrifice didn’t just erase their choices and return them to an Eden of innocence. That would be a story with no plot and no character growth. His plan is developmental—line upon line, step by step, grace for grace.

So if you have problems in your life, don’t assume there is something wrong with you. Struggling with those problems is at the very core of life’s purpose. As we draw close to God, He will show us our weaknesses and through them make us wiser, stronger. If you’re seeing more of your weaknesses, that just might mean you’re moving nearer to God, not farther away."

I LOVE THAT. I love that we can learn from our sins. I love that we cant mess up Gods plan for us even when we mess up. I love that trials, and even sins, are essential to Gods plan. I always thought trials were supposed to be the only way we learn, and we just sin along the way, cuz we're human. But paradoxically, there are some lessons we can only learn through 

sinning. When we sin, it doesn't mess up Gods plan for us. Quite the opposite, actually. Yes, God doesn't want us to sin, but He knows that its inevitable, and neccessary, for each of us to do so. That's why He provided us a Savior, a safe place for us to learn and grow from our sins. A place of second chances and clean slates. We can literally start over again and again and again. GOD IS SO GOOD. 

We're told time and time again how when we come unto Christ, He shows our weakness. But maybe its through our weaknesses that we can come unto Christ. 

Mind blown. 

ANYWAY I LOVE YOU ALL,  MWA 

Some Rando things: 

◇ I ate alfredo sauce like soup 

◇ I dyed my hair brown 

◇ West coast has the worst air quality in the world 

◇ I HIT MY 13 MONTHS TODAY 

That's all. 

Syd