WHY?

Last night I laid in my bed and listened to a huge thunderstorm. There is something about the pouring raining, swaying palm tree leaves and flashes of lightening that I find so soothing. As I was laying there I began pondering about the words the Jeremey Guthrie shared with us at a fireside hours before. He shared experiences from his mission as well as his career as a professional baseball player. I was amazed at this mans dedication to the gospel and his outlook on life. He talked about how each of us at some point in our lives have to ask ourselves, "Why do I believe?"  and we need to be prepared with an answer. I sat there thinking, why do I believe. Don't get me wrong, I have a firm and strong testimony of the restored gospel. There is no way I'd be serving a mission if I didn't but I had never really thought about why I believed. I always just thought because well it's true, that's why I believe.  I laid in bed think about why. Why was I born into the gospel? Why did I grow up in a home where we weren't only taught the gospel but we lived it?  Why did I remain strong in my faith? Why do I continue to excerise faith? Why was it so deeply rooted in my that I wanted to serve a mission? Why do I get up every morning, put on my dorky sister missionary outfits, and go try to find someone who will listen to us? Why do I believe?

Let me tell you why I believe.

I believe in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ because I have felt the Holy Ghost confirm to me that it is true. I have experienced great joy in being obedient to Gods commandments. I have always been strengthened in my times of trial. But I think the overall reason of why I do what I do, why I live the way I live, why I believe is because of my personal relationship with the Savior. I have felt His love for me so strong and so real that I have no doubt that He did atone for me. He truly did "walk in my shoes" so to speak and He does know. He knows me. This reoccurring theme has been on my mind probably for about 22 years now. That is why I believe. I believe because of my experiences with the atonement.

Anyway enough preachy stuff, this week has been pretty good. Just same old same old. Little bit of this, little bit of that. I am going crazy for people to teach so one day I pulled out the area book and torn it apart. I went through every single sheet, read it, called the people etc... I discovered a new pet peeve. Horrible area books with even worse records. I found most of them quite entertaining as I read about previous missionaries experiences with people from like 5 years ago. I think my favorite was when the missionaries committed someone to watch TV. Granted it was BYU TV but still.

We had the fireside with Brother Guthrie and it was amazing!!

Of course none of our investigators showed up and not one non member was there but I think it was really helpful to everyone in the room. He was such an amazing speaker and has some pretty funny stories. After he signed baseball cards and took pictures. Another thing he said that really stood out to me was how in life we don't always get what we hoped for but if we try our best we will be satisfied with the results regardless. I applied that to my mission. I thought by this time in my mission I'd be super pro and all my little weaknesses and faults wouldn't even be a problem. I guess I thought I'd be perfect. Hate to break it to you but I'm not perfect. I wish i was but I'm not. He said we just need to do our best and the Lord will make up for the rest.

Oh also I cut my bangs randomly. I loved them for the first day and now I don't like them... oh well.

Well that's all folks.

Please keep Diane in your prayers. She could use the prayers. For those of you who don't know Diane, she was a really good friend of mine in Tampa. She was my angel the first couple months of my mission.

Take care

Love
Sister Grace Thomas