love...what it's all about

Picture: The Dacula Force. Elder Thacker to the left (who reminds me a lot of my brother Matt, though not as hilarious as Matt is) and Elder Hill to the right (who actually reminds me of KC Whitworth a lot, though probably not as cool as KC :) Then, of course, me, Sister Warner, and Sister Smith. I love these missionaries.

Birthday Shout-outs:
Happy birthday David Tanner! And Marcus! And Aubrey! (Am I forgetting any cousins?)
Michelle, my love--YOU ARE GETTING MARRIED!!! Crazy. I am thrilled for you. I cannot wait to meet Kevin. What an incredible proposal. Tell me more about him, his personality, his likes, dislikes, everything! The only thing crazier than the fact that you are engaged is that you are turning 23! Wow. What an incredible friend you have been to me. Thank you for these 22 years of friendship and love and service. I cannot wait to be reunited with my best friend.

Happy Valentine's Day (late)! Life is great. One blessing this week was that the 5 of us who are serving in the Dacula Ward took some time (dinner) to talk together about their/our vision for this area. Since Elders Thacker and Hill and Sister Smith have been serving here longer they wanted to share with Sister Warner and me the vision that they have had for this area, particularly that there is a congregation here that will accept the gospel. Because of that vision, we have been attending the services and Bible studies of different churches in the area and building unity and ties with them, and that has been a wonderful experience. This week we attended a Bible study at an Episcopal church (and there is a young woman there whose number we got, Amy, who seems SO ready for the fullness of the gospel) and a testimony meeting at the Community of Christ (formerly known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). [The other missionaries also attended another church (Antioch Baptist Church) last night but Sis. Warner and I did not. Sister Smith went on a split with Sister Manuel (our ward mission leader's wife) and we helped a few families to create family mission plans.] We talked about how we must be as faithful as possible in order for our vision to come to pass in this area, so we all made goals to become more completely Preach My Gospel missionaries. We are still working to find investigators.

We got to deliver singing gram valentines to some members/investigators/friends of members on Valentine's Day and that was really fun. Of course it was all love-themed and so we would sing the first verse of, "Our Savior's Love," read Moroni 7:45,47, testify of God and Christ's love for us, and end by singing "Love One Another." (We went with the elders and I LOVE serving with elders who can sing and like to sing! AH! And for the last song we, the sisters, would sing it and sign the words, too.) It was beautiful.

Chris Frank continues to progress, although some illness and a busy schedule prevented us from being able to have a sit-down lesson with her and invite her to be baptized. However, we did give her a singing valentine and she did come to church (and love it, of course) on Sunday. She is amazing. She continues to study the D&C and…she's doing really well.

Being in a threesome is fun. When we went on splits and Sis. Smith was gone we (Sis. Warner and I) felt really weird and incomplete. It was good, though, for Sis. Warner to have more opportunities to practice teaching. We got to teach Relief Society on Sunday and we were so blessed. The Spirit was strong. (The lesson was Lesson 28 from the Joseph Smith manual about missionary work.)

I've had some powerful insights during my study lately. Today Heavenly Father blessed me with a more clear understanding of the plan of salvation. It is difficult to describe in words, as it came to me as more of a feeling, but I realized more fully that we are God's literal children, His family, and that, just as a loving father always wants His children to have everything that he has, that is exactly what His greatest desire is for us. The world's notion of the Supreme Being, God, being some entirely different substance and on an unreachably high plane is incorrect. We are family. Through Christ condescension we can all be lifted up to that celestial plane where our Heavenly Parents abide.

My heart overflows with gratitude for the gift of being born to such compassionate earthly parents so that I can much more easily grasp my relationship to (and the nature of) my Heavenly Parents.

P.S. Mara is putting in her papers?! CRAZY! And Mary Ann had a baby? I didn't even know she was pregnant. Wahoo!