CONGRATULATIONS to my perfect best friend and her perfect fiance!!!
My
heart breaks over the fact that I can't be there when my best friend
goes to the temple to get married, but I am SO thrilled. Matthew
Mitchell you are one lucky lucky lucky man and I hope you know you have
to share your woman with me when I get home!
You know, sometimes its hard to be so far away.
Sometimes its hard when the only communication you have with your family
and friends is through email once a week. Sometimes its just hard. You
all know how much I LOVE my mission. I love my mission more than
anything. And being here is worth every sacrifice. (Even the
painful sacrifices- like missing out on wedding dress shopping and
flower arranging and happily-every-after planning...)
I love love love my mission and I am SO happy to be here. But that
doesn't mean that it isn't hard... Its definitely not all sunshine and
butterflies. (Rain clouds and gross spiders are much more abundant!)
I'm going to say it again- I LOVE MY MISSION. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY.
But every once in a while I find myself gazing up at the peak of this mountain that I'm climbing.
I think that might be part of human nature. We sometimes
focus a little too much on the destination instead of enjoying the
journey. We sometimes get caught up in dreams of tomorrow instead of living in the moment.
The truth is that if we live our lives always waiting for tomorrow, tomorrow will never actually come.
And if we keep hiking with nothing but the peak in mind, we'll miss out on all the beautiful things decorating the path.
We have to remember to stop and smell the roses.
Well on Saturday I was blessed with not just a pretty rose or two to decorate my path, but a whole rose bush!
My
companion Sister Hadley and I woke up BRIGHT and early (Yes! It truly
was BRIGHT and early, not DARK and early! Spring is almost here and the
sun is coming up earlier and staying up longer and its the BEST thing that's ever happened to me! I didn't realize how depressing the winter
darkness was until I realized how HAPPY the spring sunlight is!) -sorry
for the long sunshine tangent- we woke up bright and early and hopped on
a train to my hometown of Slagelse. A
piece of my heart will forever belong to my beautiful Danish home.
Slagelse is so special. And it was especially special to be there on Saturday...
In Slagelse I have this GORgeous friend named Natascha. She started
investigating the church at the end of last summer, and the Elders were
sooo lucky to be able to teach her about the gospel because she was so
ready and so prepared for it! Natascha and I became good friends- I
always loved talking to her at church and seeing her around town. I'll
never forget the day before I moved to Copenhagen, when I said goodbye
to Natascha and she told me that I was such a light to her. That I
always made her happy and that she wanted to have that same light that I
had.
On Saturday Natascha came up out of the waters of baptism glowing and radiating with that light.
I'm
so happy I was able to be there! Natascha has already converted more
people to the church than I have as she's been sharing the gospel with
all of her friends. She's not just a light, she's a FIRE. In 20 years from now
she'll invite the cute missionaries over for dinner with her family and
they'll ask her about her conversion story and she'll tell them about
her baptism day. I'm so blessed to have been a part that special day
that she'll never forget.
Some missionaries around the world get to see dozens
of baptisms on their missions. Some missionaries get to see hundreds.
Even though I have only been to a few here in Denmark, I feel so very
blessed. Baptisms are so special and so sacred to me. Of course I would
love to fill up that font every single Saturday,
but even though it happens on a much more rare occasion I know that the
missionaries are making a difference here in Denmark! The gospel is
spreading and the church is growing.
If the day wasn't already wonderful enough, when we
got back to Copenhagen we got to do a session at the TEMPLE. Two best
things in the whole world: baptisms and temples. And we had both wrapped up in one wonderful day.
That's what you call a rose garden.
My
companion became really close friends with a recent convert who lives
in the last area she served in. Marie is a wonderful woman with an
incredible conversion story who loves missionaries and loves making
people happy. But Marie has been fighting and struggling and battling
cancer for a long time. And the doctors just gave her 6 months.
She showed up -for what was most likely her last temple trip- with no hair on her head but a big smile on her face.
I can't imagine what that would be like. To know your time is almost out. To never even know what 30 feels like...
Seeing Marie's smile and hearing her laugh despite the tragedy she is facing was really inspiring to me.
In reality, none of us know how long we have left to walk on this earth.
I want to live every single day like its my last. With a smile on my
face and laughter on my lips, with joy in my heart and a testimony that
shines like a light in my eyes.
I want to live every single day admiring the beautiful things that decorate my path.
Smelling roses, gathering roses, and sharing roses.
So today is a special little day! (St Patrick's Day- Yes. I hope you are all wearing green.)
Its also the birthday of the Relief Society. 172 years and still going strong!
I am so thankful for Relief Society! Since being on my mission I've
gained such a strong testimony and appreciation for Relief Society. And
Since being on my mission I've also encountered a lot of feminist
opinions and womens rights activists. One of the inactive members that
we've been working with has about a dozen arguments about how she feels
diminished for being a woman in the church.
But I whole heartedly disagree.
I'd echo what Elder
Russell M. Nelson once said, that "perhaps the church does more to
enlighten understanding about and to lift the cause of women than any
other institution on earth. It provides the path to her eternal destiny."
I'm so proud to be a woman in this world! And to be a sister in the Relief Society- the largest womens association on earth!
The gospel has taught me so much about my divine potential as a woman, and has truly shown me the path to my eternal destiny.
While my dreams include graduating from an Ivy league school,
saving Africa, becoming a best-selling author or joining the CIA, my
biggest dream, ultimate goal and highest priority is to become a loving
wife and nurturing mother. Because I know that's what Elder D. Todd
Christofferson said is TRUE-
"There is no superior career, and no amount of money, authority,
or public acclaim can exceed the ultimate rewards of family. Whatever
else a woman may accomplish, her moral influence is no more optimally
employed than here."
One more quote about women because birthdays happen only once a year:
"To
help another human being reach ones celestial potential is part of the
divine mission of woman. As mother, teacher, or nurturing saing, she
molds living clay to the shape of her hopes. In partnership with God her
divine mission is to help spirits live and souls be lifted. This is the
measure of her creation. It is ennobling, edifying, and exalting."
Its wonderful to be a woman.
Someday I'll
be like my best friend Amanda and my best friend Sarah and my best
friend Dally and marry the man of my dreams. (Crap... All my friends are
married.) And someday I'll be like my beautiful wonderful mother and
raise children of my own.
But right now, I'm a missionary!!
I love where I'm at. I love what I'm doing. I love what I'm learning and who I'm becoming.
I hope you do too. I hope that where ever you are you love where you're at.
Remember that there will always be another tomorrow, but there will never be another today.
Live in the moment.
Enjoy the journey.
Live like you're dying.
And don't forget to stop and smell the roses.
Have a beautiful week!
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
Sister Breanna Michele Rogers
"So many of us are always waiting to be happy. “If only I could
graduate, if only I could afford a car, if only I could get married …”
For too many, happiness is just over the horizon, never reachable. Every
time we climb one hill, happiness beckons just beyond the next.
It is a terrible thing always to be waiting for tomorrow, always depending on tomorrow, always excusing our todays because we are sure that only in the future will we possess the things that will fulfill us.
Don’t wait for tomorrow. Don’t wait for the right job, the right house, the right salary, the right dress size. Be happy today. Be happy now."
-Joseph B. Wirthlin
It is a terrible thing always to be waiting for tomorrow, always depending on tomorrow, always excusing our todays because we are sure that only in the future will we possess the things that will fulfill us.
Don’t wait for tomorrow. Don’t wait for the right job, the right house, the right salary, the right dress size. Be happy today. Be happy now."
-Joseph B. Wirthlin
I'm obsessed with quotes. #sorrynotsorry
or when you find a crazy awesome swing set outside your investigator's apartment building.
or when the sky looks like this.
