The hot and the cold of it- new perspectives

It is hot here.  May I just say that when we arrived it was in the non-rainy season.  It was hot.  It was in the mid to upper 90's every day.  That made our tap water, sort of, kind of warm.  Not really "warm" as in US warm, but warm for here.  With the heat, it was a bit refreshing actually.

Now it's "cooler".  It runs between the upper 80's and low 90's.  It actually feels "cooler" to me and sometimes I'll ask Mark what the temperature is and he will say, "It's 84".  I think that's so funny.  When the temperature doesn't vary that much you really notice the difference even in a few degrees.  I will say though, with the days being "cooler" the water is freezing to me. I just grit my teeth when I shower and yelp a bit.  There are no long showers for me right now.

I have a friend from Arizona who moved to Illinois.  She's always cold.  I think I'm going to be freezing right with her when we get home.  I really notice when it's cold, and I don't like it. My perspective on what is hot or cold is very different these days.

Perspective is an interesting thing.  They say that Eskimos have tons of words for snow.  They have so much they distinguish between different types.  It's all in what you are used to.

As I think about perspective and what we're doing here, I think of the whispering of the Holy Spirit.  Before I really knew how to pray, my prayers were more a one way conversation with God.  I had been taught to pray as a child.  I loved Heavenly Father and I would pray to him.  As I grew and came to know the Lord more, I started recognizing the whispering of His Spirit.  They were probably there before, but I wasn't used to them, I didn't hear them. I have found that the more I listen to the sweet promptings of the Spirit, the easier it is to recognize them the next time.  I have learned to trust those promptings more here as a missionary.  Too often I second guess a prompting, "Is that really the spirit or just an idea I had?"  I have promised myself that when I get a thought to do something, I won't cast it off but will stop, listen, and try to act on the prompting.  I have been so blessed as I've been able to do this.

I think that people can limit what the Lord does in their lives because they're only used to one thing.  They don't really know what the alternative is.  I include myself in this too.  How often do I limit the Lord in my life by not being comfortable with something, when he puts me in different situations.  I'm trying to see that the Lord is trying to "stretch me".  He wants me to reach for more.  He wants to show me new perspectives.  I need more faith to do so.

As a missionary, I am sharing a very incredible message!  The church that Jesus Christ organized when he was on the earth has been restored!  After the death of the apostles, his church was rejected by those that were here.  It lead to the Dark Ages.  We look at the Dark Ages as dark spiritually also.  After the dark ages was a time of reformation.  Many churches arose trying to bring back the church as Jesus Christ had organized.  This led to many different denominations that exist today.  Then in 1820 Heavenly Father was ready to restore his church on the earth.  He did it through a young man, named Joseph Smith.  It's an incredible story!  A story that if true is the most incredible event in these modern times.  I know when I first heard it I thought it was too incredible.  I didn't even bother to ask if it might be true.  I dismissed it because I didn't know any differently.

But Heavenly Father, led me down a path where eventually I asked myself, "Could this be true?  Is this where you want me Lord?"  (I had already given my life to Him).  In answer to my prayer, I received a sweet witness of the Holy Spirit that actually yes, He did want me to listen, he did want me to learn, He did want me to join his restored church on the earth.  This knowledge challenged some preconceived ideas I had.  Some assumptions I had made in my search for God.  But I knew the voice of the Spirit. How could I not follow where the spirit led?  Since that humble prayer, I have received witness after witness that I indeed went in the right direction.  My life has been so blessed in ways that I could never have imagined in the beginning.  A new perspective.

I now can testify that I know it is a true message.  I know that I'm representing His church, I'm representing Him.  I'm so humbled by his love and his trust in me to do this incredible work.

I pray that each of us will trust the Lord to lead us in new directions, to be open to where He will lead.  To trust Him to really show us better things than we've ever seen before.  To bless us with blessings we can't even imagine.