I think that calls for a delicious danish pastry.
Or maybe some broccoli. Because I'm being healthy.
Ten whole months of being a missionary! I love this life.
I love it because I don't have to worry about impressing people or dressing cool or getting asked on dates.
I love it because I don't have to worry about paychecks or payments.
I don't have to worry about tests and research papers that my GPA (aka my life) depends on.
I love it because all those worldly worries are simply GONE.
But then again, there are plenty of other worries to fill their place....
All of those worldly worries are replaced with ETERNAL ones as soon as I put my name tag on.
Like how we're going to reactivate a returned missionary that fell off the path.
How we're going to help a smoker of 50 years give up cigarettes.
How we're going to help a woman who lost her leg find the hope to carry on.
And the thing I worry about most is how I'm supposed to help people find the faith that they've never had....
This week I've met SO many people who have said faith
means absolutely nothing to them. People who say that God simply does
not exist. I replied to one man with a simple but fervent testimony that
I know He does. The man seemed frustrated at my certainty and asked me how I could possibly think that I know.
I could have given him a thousand reasons!
God's reality is so apparent in everything around me.
The blue book that I carry every day is visible tangible evidence of God.
The fact that I can share this book with others by walking around
everyday with a body that lives and breathes and thinks and grows and
feels is evidence to me that God is my Creator.
The beautiful
family who sent me off to Denmark and who's love and encouragement
supports me everyday throughout my mission -and throughout my whole
life- is beautiful wonderful evidence that God loves and cares about me
and wants me to be happy.
"Even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it.. do witness that there is a supreme creator."
All things denote there is a God.
I can see so many evidences with my eyes... But even when they're closed, I know.
As I've been pondering a lot this week
about all the reasons why and how I know God exists, I've thought about
how the Book of Mormon and my family and the trees and the stars and all
the other wonderful beautiful things around me are evidence of God.
But I've also realized that even the bad things in life are evidence of God and how much He loves us.
Sounds a little crazy right? I'll let Lawrence E. Corbridge elaborate on this thought.....
"Every challenge you face, every hard thing you
confront, every bad thing that happens to you, every unfairness, every
conflict, every sadness, tragedy, every disappointment and heartache,
every temptation and every opposition happens for one purpose only: to give you the opportunity to respond by applying in your life the teachings of Jesus. As you do so you are changed to become more like Him.
The purpose and central blessing of life is change. It is to be
changed to become more like Jesus Christ. It is to incorporate into your
character the qualities of His character. It is to move from one degree
of intelligence and capacity to the next, and from there to the next,
until you see God face to face and know Him as He knows you."
The Lord gives us so many beautiful blessings in the
form of families and friends and scriptures and mountains and sunsets
and etc etc etc....
But He also gives us so many beautiful blessings in the form of hardships and challenges and trials.
God loves us so much that He gives us experiences that will help us learn and grow and change and become better.
He loves us so much that He gives us the opportunity to become like Him.
Well despite the unfortunate pattern of atheism that
seemed to follow me around in all my conversations on the Copenhagen
streets, its been a really good week.
EMMA CAME TO CHURCH YESTERDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Its like Christmas when your investigator shows up at church.
When your investigator shows up at church its more exciting than the prophet showing up at church.
When your investigator shows up at church every cloud immediately disappears from the dark danish sky.
Speaking of cheerful things such as Christmas and the prophet and cloudless skies...
I made another birthday cake for an investigator this week!
Except
for every time I try to make a cake something goes terribly wrong! This
time there was a giant gooey hole in the center of the cake when I
pulled it out of the oven. How does that even happen??! I ended
up cutting out the parts of the cake that were baked right and stacking
them into a 3 layer cake with a height that was 2x greater than its
width.... It still tasted delicious and our investigator loved it so I
guess it wasn't a complete failure!
I'd blame my cake issues on the difference in
altitude or on danish ovens or on my cake pan... but I'm still trying to
work on humility. So this is me being humble and admitting that my
cake-baking skills are depressingly weak.
So if anybody has any cake tips or advice, kindly send them my way! breanna.rogers@myldsmail.net
You'll be doing me a great service. I'm sure the next Dane to have a birthday will truly appreciate it :)
But on a more successful note....
I was walking down the street one day and I saw a FLYING SQUIRREL!!!
Ok maybe it wasn't a real actual flying squirrel because I don't think those magical creatures exist here in Denmark....
But I definitely saw a squirrel.
And the squirrel definitely flew.
It changed my life.
I
couldn't remember the Danish word for squirrel..... so we asked a Dane!
Not only did we tell this stranger about the life changing flying
squirrel, but we ended up having a great discussion about the life
changing message of the restored gospel.
Life is so fun.
Hey its valentines day this week! Eat lots of chocolate and tell your loved ones how much you love them.
JEG ELSKER JER.
infite Xs and Os,
Sister Rogers
