We were told not to go anywhere in the car so we went out and
shoveled out peoples cars!
Minnesota!
Christmas in Mexico City! (The Mexican apartments we go to.)
A dead bird we found in one of the hallways (:
Heyyyy! It's December!
And boy is it just a summer dream up
here! haha so fun fact for you, I don't remember if I put this in my
earlier letters, but I'll share it again. When Luis and Clark came up the
Mississippi river and explored Minnesota,
they claimed it uninhabitable because it was so cold. It has been a wonderful
-5 degrees most days with a windchill of -40 degrees. Ohhh boy! Really. It's
not that cold up here, I think Luis and Clark were just wimps. hahaha Well I
have to say that me and Hermana Peterson are prepared for this winter though,
we have the best coats ever. Tested and Approved. They are absolutely
fantastic! So we are staying plenty warm don't you worry! And we have the Holy
Ghost and hot chocolate to warm our insides (:
Me and Hermana Peterson decided it would be
best to make up fake first names if anyone asked, for safety reasons of course.
So If you must use our first names, please refer to us as Ticklin
Ficklin and Schmeterson Peterson.
Thank you.
We had our mission Christmas party this week and we got to watch Miracle, which
by the way is an awesome movie. It's about a hockey team from Minnesota and it's all about their journey
to greatness. I've come to realize hockey is a lot like my mission. You gotta
work hard and you gotta know who you are playing for, and that you are a very
important part of the team. Everyones got a purpose and you have to do your
part. We are a family! One quote I loved from that movie was when Kirt Russell
was picking the hockey team the other coach said that he was missing some of
the best players on the list, and Kirt Russell said "We don't need the
best people, we need the right people" Too true Kirt Russell, too true. We
don't need to be perfect people, if we were perfect, we would never learn our
true capabilities. We need to have a background of opposition to have the
determination to do what we need to do. We have to have the right attitude and
the right heart. That's what it's all about.
Okay so on to the great stuff! So mom wrote me
about the Atonement and how great that it is the "at-one-ment" (love
that) and she asked if I had any input on the Atonement. Well I took the
liberty of writing 5 pages in my journal about it so far. I LOVE THE ATONEMENT!
so, I'll share what I've got so far.
The best thing about a mission is you learn so
much.
First off, The Atonement is basically the
center of making everything in the entire universe possible. God's plan would
not have worked out perfectly if it weren't for the Savior, and thus we would
have had to live in endless misery and woe. Pretty scary thought.
So here's just a brief explanation of the plan of happiness:
-The Pre-Earth life: God's purpose and plan for us
We are all a family. God
is our literal Heavenly Father and we are literally His spirit children. And he
really does know us individually and personally. And that we are here on this
earth for a purpose. And that purpose is to have the chance to be like Him and
live with Him in eternal joy with our families for eternity. He made a perfect
plan for us to do that and we all agreed to this plan, because we are all here
on this Earth right now living out that plan. Pretty important thing to
know.
-The Creation
With the
help of Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ created the perfect world for us to have
the opportunity to choose for ourselves if we really did want to return to live
with God. Here we have the blessing of gaining imperfect bodies and live in an
imperfect world. To discover who we really are through trials. We have the
opportunity of opposition!
- Agency and the fall of Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve were the first parents on the Earth. They lived in the garden of
Eden where literally everything was perfect. They had perfect bodies, they
talked with God and lived in his presence, and everything they needed was provided.
They were perfect and innocent. Not knowing good because they knew no bad.
therefore, they didn't know what true joy was.
God gave them two commandments. 1. Multiply
and replenish the Earth (have a family) and 2. Not to eat the fruit from the
tree of knowledge of good and evil. If they did this, they would have to leave
the presence of God and the garden of Eden and they would have to go through
trials and tribulation.
Satan tempted them and they chose to eat the
fruit. They were cast out of the garden and into the world where they would
face opposition.
What a lot of people don't know is how great
of a thing this was. This was part of God's plan for us. To have a knowledge of
good and evil. To know joy because we knew sorrow. Our first parents chose to
have opposition so that they could have a family and so that we now all have
the opportunity to live with our Heavenly Father again.
-Our life on Earth
Our whole purpose on Earth is to learn how to become truely happy, no matter
what happens in our lives. The only way to be truely happy is through the
gospel of Jesus Christ. It's the guidelines or the map, if you will, to
Heavenly Fathers plan- The Plan of Happiness!
This is what we have to do on this Earth
1. Have Faith in Jesus Christ- (remember faith
is an action word, we show faith through what we do in life)
2. Repentance- Having a change of heart.
Moving forward from our mistakes, rather than moving backward or staying in the
same place.
3. Baptism- An act of faith and a promise to
God that you want to follow Him (a.k.a #1 and #2)
4. Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost- After
baptism we gain the gift of the Holy Ghost to be constantly with us if we stay
worthy of it, who our guide in this life, our teacher and testifier of truth
through our thoughts and feelings.
5. Endure to the End- Take the truth and run
with it! Stay happy throughout your life and never give in or give up, Ever!
-The Atonement
Before the
world began, our brother Jesus Christ chose to be our savior and Redeemer. He
made it possible to overcome the "natural man" (sin or also known as
the fall of Adam and Eve). Jesus Christ suffered our sins in the garden of Gethsemane and died on the cross for our
sins. He was then resurrected on the 3rd day, completing the Atonement for our
sins and literally bought the right to judge us at the last day by sacrificing
himself.
After he was resurrected he had an immortal
body: Never again subject to disease, pain, or death.
I'm going
to go to the Bible Dictionary for a really good explanation of it:
"At one" of
those who have been estranged. (that's all of us) Sin is the cause of the
estrangement, and therefore the purpose of the atonement is to correct or
overcome the consequences of sin..."For as Adam all die, even so in Christ
shall all be made alive" 1 Corinthians 15:22...The Atonement is conditional... and touches everyone
to the degree that he has faith in Jesus Christ, repents of his sins, and obeys
the gospel... sin is lawlessness, it is a refusal on men's part to submit to the
law of God. By transgression man loses control over his own will and becomes a
slave of sin... The Atonement of Jesus Christ redeems all mankind from the fall
of Adam and causes all to be answerable for their own manner of life."
These are my thoughts on the whole thing
Gods plan is absolutely perfect.
"All that is unfair about life can be
made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ."
We need to realize that without opposition in
all things, we would never know how much we truely want to be happy. It would
not be fair if God did not give us every opportunity we need to find out for
ourselves if this is what we truely want. That knowing all comes from
opposition and mistakes.
Sin had to be part of the plan. It makes
sense. Sin is part of becoming sinless.
"Your best teacher is your last
mistake." -unknown
In all things there is hope. Through Jesus
Christ we can see what we can be.
Apart from Jesus
Christ being perfect and being the single most greatest person who lived on
this Earth, His life was a lot like ours. Being like Jesus Christ IS within our
reach. God does not make anything unobtainable. Jesus Christ's life exemplifies
what we can all become and what we are destined for. He laid down everything
on the table. And we can too. He was perfect and still He was rejected for
everything that He was, He was killed by His own people. And yet, do you think
he regrets a single thing He did in His life? He gave His all, and He loved no
matter what. His life was full and His life was happy despite the trials and
rejection. I'm here to tell you we can too. And it's through His gospel that we
can do that.
Okay Mother Theresa is
the bomb. Mom sent me a bunch of quotes from her that inspired me and go along
with this perfectly. It made me think about how great life is and how great
this gospel is (: I love Jesus Christ!
"People are
unreasonable, illogical and self-centered. Love them anyway. IF you do good,
people may accuse you of selfish motives. Do good anyway. The good you do today
may be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway. Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable. Be honest and
transparent anyway. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway. Give the world the best you have and you may get hurt. Give the
world your best anyway."
"One truely must have suffered oneself to help others."
"A life not lived for others is not a
life."
"Everything that is not given is lost."
"The success of
love is in the loving - it is not in the result of loving. Of course it is
natural in love to want the best for the other person, but whether it turns out
that way or not does not determine the value of what we have done."
It's all about love
guys. Follow Jesus Christ and you can't go wrong. This is what life's all
about. So be happy! Enjoy life! And see the good in all things, including the
bad. Love!
Stay tuned... until next time!
Love you all!
Love, Hermana Ficklin
