Today's title comes from an experience I had on Tuesday. My bike has been having some issues and we went to a member that fixes bikes. Unfortunately he tightened my front brakes too much. We also didn't have a car for 10 days because of being in a car share with the elders. (side note: after getting the car back we cleaned it out because it was gross and we found toenail clippings in the back seat.) Anyway, on our way back from service we have to bike uphill the whole way. With the brake perpetually on. It was great. I did find a spiritual principle in this though. We have challenges in life (the hills). Everyone has them and sometimes it takes everything we have to get to the top. Sometimes we make things harder for ourselves by "having the brake on." This can take the form of anything; complaining, blaming others, or trying to avoid going up the hill all together. The hills are hard to go up but ultimately help prepare us to go up the next hill. I learned a lesson from my bike this week, but I can guarantee you I wasn't thinking about it as I was biking up Happy Hollow hill. I was thinking, "I AM GOING TO DIE!"
In comparison to the last couple of weeks, this one was pretty boring. Two exciting things happened though. The first is that Johana was confirmed on Sunday. Then she got up and bore her testimony again. It was just as powerful as when she bore her testimony a couple of months ago. There is a power in saying that you believe in what you believe in.
The second exciting thing is that Elder Ochoa from the 70 came and visited our mission. My last zone conference was conducted by a general authority. At zone conference President Strong talked about how knowing something is true doesn't do much for us unless we allow it to change our lives. He used the example that we can know the Book of Mormon is true just as much as we can know that our lawn mower manual is true. The difference is the power that the Book of Mormon has to change us. When we allow it to change us that's when our testimony of knowing is powerful. I think that is why Johana's testimony (both times) were so powerful. Not only does she know the gospel is true, but she has changed because of it and has accepted the change.
God is good!
Sister Slade
Pictures
1-5. some really creepy half heads that we found at service at a thrift store
6. When we were in Bentonville for zone conference I got to see some of my favorite people from Central Park. I only got the picture with Jerry though :(
7. she was supposed to be backing me but found a cat to play with instead
No comments:
Post a Comment