First P-day email (week 1)

2.0 10-5-2019  at 8:40 AM (from miller.sadie@missionary.org)

Mama and Daddy,

Oh how I miss you! I never really thought this day would come,  that I'd be sitting here writing an

email to you and here we are. These past few days have been really confusing and difficult

emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually.  Seriously,  it feels like everything that I think

or feel is at level 10, and that's the only level I can feel at, all or nothing. Luckily, I've been able to

mostly stay in control of my emotions...mostly. I like it here. The food is much better than I was

led to expect but I haven't had much of an appetite thus far. I'm sure that's just the stress of so

much change, and it will improve, but don't be worried because I am still making myself eat.

As far as sleep, I miss my bed like crazy!

I'm on the top bunk and it just cozy, so I am so grateful for the pillow you gave me

and also the pillow case from Sister Colman, please tell her how much I love it!

I put it on the pillow they gave me and it seriously made me feel so much cozier

and at home and helped me sleep. The first night I kept Hermana Kendell up all

night sleep talking! And then the next night I had one of my infamous sneeze attacks,

so I felt bad about that. So last night I prayed that we would both sleep through the

night without waking, and when we got up she said, "wow, I finally slept through the

entire night without waking up once!", and so did I!

It was a small miracle and blessing for us both, Heavenly Father answers prayers!

My district is cool, but inevitably there are a few elders who really get on my nerves Haha. There are four Hermanas in our district and eight Elders, they are all good kids.

I mentioned briefly before, Hermana Kendell is a huge blessing, I really love her.

We get along great and can talk really openly, which has been good for me since I

miss Emma. Please tell Emma my hair always looks like garbage. She lives on a

farm that was established by pioneers and has been in her family for five generations.

She loves cows, fuzzy things, candy, breakfast, and swims competitively. So far she

struggles more than I do with the language, but it had been a blessing for me to

practice helping someone in subtle ways that make them feel confident while also

being humble and grateful for the gift I've been blessed with to learn and comprehend.

We are working hard together and are on our way to speaking Espanol! We set a goal

to start and finish reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish by the time we leave the MTC,

and I know that will help us both to learn the language like nothing else will. I like my

teachers Hermano Frias (from Panama, his English is very hard to understand), Hermana Cash

(served in Mexico), and Hermana Inskeep, who is a small sister from Wyoming who served in

my mission just a few years ago! I also forgot to mention that Hermana Kendell is going to mysame mission, and so that will be so fun! We are the only Ecuador missionaries in our district. Anyway, it is so far the hardest thing I've ever done, but I'm learning to like it and from there can work on learning to love it. :) Sometimes I wonder if it is that this is harder than I thought it would be or if I'm just not as tough as I thought I was. At least its keeping me humble!! Here we say big baby steps. Im trying to remember to just lose myself in the work. And there's plenty of that! Hope all of you are doing well, I miss the kids. Kiss puppy boy for me:)

Love, Hermana Miller

Here are some pictures:

Greenie package from Uncle Nate & Aunt  Jenny

 Package from Aunt Mel

 Missionaries watching General conference

 Quote I saw in an office I love

Hurrah for Israel story painting

PS,

I can read emails all throughout the week, just not respond till pday ,

so tell the kids not to hesitate to email me about what they're up to, I miss hearing about their days.

Since it was your p-day- we got a few emails and we got to talk to you which was wonderful!  You needed some face lotion and some body lotion, so I ordered that from amazon-- that's nice while you are in the MTC, it's easy to send you stuff.  It was wonderful to see your sweet face, and there were tears, but they were so sweet- it made all of us feel better just getting to talk to you.  Later in the day we emailed some more: 

On Sat, Oct 5, 2019, 4:03 PM Holly <clevelandmiller@yahoo.com> wrote:

Loved your pictures!! Get your beautiful face in some next :)

I wondered if you’d think that too about elder holland- and the mic drop-your district must think you are fun :)

I sent you some lotion from Amazon—the scent was described by a review as heaven on a ferris wheel- thought I couldn’t go wrong with that. That was a cool quote that you sent

I love that

Your packages are awesome!!!!

So sweet of them- I will text them today and go overboard

I’m glad you have snacks!! That will be nice

And I’m sure it’s fun to get a package that you can so easily share with your companion

I told dad- and I read everyone your email- we are so proud of you

During our call your Spanish sounded great

What was that scripture

Moroni 15? What verse?

Maybe we can work on memorizing it too- I could make that our come follow me challenge...

We loved the one talk by elder Aullid (sp)

Especially because he pronounced baptized like

“Bappp-tized” like Nacho Libre ;)

When  Elder hollland ended with
welcome to general conference
Didn’t you feel like after Elder Holland said, “Welcome to General Conference” at the end of his talk that there should’ve been a mic drop? 😊

I got emma and Dad on google hangouts- & I  added them to our Family hangout group and put the app on their phone so hopefully we’ll all be more aware of when you are available next week

I can imagine what you are saying about being at a 10 or nothing- that can be tiring and overwhelming- but being tired in the Lord is the best tired - just take it one day at a time- you’ll get feeling more focused and scheduled and that will help

I also got your first email ready to send out

I double checked it three times- all edited/good

I think I need to send it from your missionary gmail account rather than from my personal email So reply emails will come to you -

so I will do it that way if that’s ok with you

Emma and I made sure we got everyone’s emails today/ it took us awhile-

you are wildly popular

I think it ended up as 170 emails- since you can only group 100 together I’ll send them in two batches - it’ll be good- I’m sure a lot of them are anxious to hear from you- it’s s neat  missionary opportunity

I’m still glad I get more detail so thank you for that- it makes my heart happy

Emma fed your fish and I cleaned out the aquarium/ they are doing well

Tonight all the girls (even Lainey) will go to the stake center for women’s conference with me - dad and the boys will watch the BSU game here and then a Lakers game

I don’t think they’ll miss us

I’ll be thinking of you-

Love you Buggy-

We’re praying  you have a wonderful week- that you wax confident in the Lord and continue to feel blessed in learning Spanish and in teaching gospel truths...

I loved what you said about learning how to help your companion feel confident while being subtle in your approach

You have so many gifts that qualify you for this work and I know the Lord has many waiting in the wings to pour upon you- as you seek them, trust Him, and give it your best— Let’s  Go #10- you’ve got this!! Baby steps are perfect!

Keep praying for good sleep- you both need it-

Love you so so much-

Mama

On Sat, Oct 5, 2019, 5:45 PM Sadie <miller.sadie@missionary.org wrote:

Mama,

The lotion sounds perfect! Thank you so much and sorry you had to do that. That's hilarious, when Elder Holland said that I literally looked at my district and charaded a mic drop!! You're still reading my mind even when I'm gone, I love that we can do that:)

I got two packages today, from Nate& Jenny and Aunt Mel. I'm one spoiled missionary! Hermana Kendell and I are now pumped about our snacks! If you wouldn't mind telling them how much I appreciated and needed and loved their sweet kindness that would be awesome, I don't know that I will be able to email them today, but I will, for sure if anything next week.

I love you so much!! Please also thank Daddy for his email, it meant a lot to me that he would take the time to do that! I needed both of your words of encouragement today. I cried a ton during the phone call, but I hadn't really cried yet and after that and seeing you guys I just feel the best yet, so much better. I'm so so grateful for my family.

   Saturday, 10-5-2019 5:50 Sadie Miller<miller.sadie@missionary.org>

Last one for the day, oh it's been a great day for me since talking to you, I feel much better. 

Know I'm really emotional when talking to you only because I'm so happy to hear your voices, 

they are good tears!

The scripture I memorized in Spanish was Moroni 10:5

Thank you! We've had a big lesson on pronunciation, so I've been working at it:)

I will so miss Come Follow Me with you all-- I was thinking about what you've 

done for our family with that during conference. Have a fun girls night!! 

Thank you for figuring out all the email stuff for me and also for taking care 

of my fish, it's the lamest thing ever but I miss them, and especially when 

I realized I forgot to say goodbye to them. Sad. But thanks for watching out for them! 

See if Emma remembers their names.😉 

Hermana Kendell finally got ahold of her parents and just bawled, and then I 

did too, so it feels good to cry and know that I'm not the only super emotional

 one when I think of or talk to my family. They are very nice and I got to talk to them.

  I'm turning into dad the bishop version!! 

Thank you for supporting me in this and being such a huge source of strength for me.

 I've talked to so many here who have situations that are so hard and no 

support or love notes and calls from home and I'm so blessed. I love you. 

I'll be so looking forward to Saturday, 

Hermana Miller 

Hooray for Video Chats!

The first time we chatted- we all tried to gather in close so we could all see her and all talk- that was day 3 at the MTC for her and we were all emotional... but it was a blessing and I can already tell that being able to communicate with our missionary weekly will be a huge blessing.  My mama heart needs to see her big blue eyes too, and it gives me great comfort.

We got to talk to her on second p-day and that time was a little less emotional and we each got individual time with her. I cannot imagine having a missionary that I could just have a phone call with on Christmas and Mother's Day-- I think the Lord knew I'd need more.

So while she's in the MTC, we are living for Saturdays (her p-day)!

She's arrived! Very first email home (1.0)

Oct 2 at 1:46 PM

I made it safe and sound with no setbacks, everything is great, and everyone here is so kind and welcoming.

I got a phone for my stay here and it's a Samsung. It's interesting. That's what I am emailing this on. 

On the plane I sat by a man named Johnny from Italy, and now we are friends:) I told him I 

needed the inside scoop because my sister wants to go to Italy-- i got you Em! He'd never 

heard of our church before, so he liked hearing about that, and he said he would look up

 the Rome Temple when he got home. 

My Pday will be Saturday. 

I've just met my companion Sister Kendell and she is really sweet and has the prettiest

 eyes ever! Don't know anything else about her yet, but I like her. 

I'm in the classroom right now and my district is filing in- I think that there will be

 4 Hermanas and and 8 Elders. 

I'm happy to be here and feeling excited!

Love you all, hope you day in McCall is so fun-- so excited to talk to you on Saturday!💙

Love 

Hermana Miller

And she's off.....

Be still my heart-- the day that felt so far away when she got her mission call finally came. My heart sang and it wept- I watched part of it walk away from me towards a security gate and airplane line.  I've been leaning on the faithful examples of so many missionary mamas who have already done this, many of them several times over, and it has strengthened me to know that if they can, I can.  I can make that kind of sacrifice, I can love my Savior enough to let go....Literally the greatest faith leap of my life-  and while I ache-- I am so so grateful-- because it's right, it's time, she's ready and mostly- I have absolute trust in the Lord because I KNOW HE TAKES CARE OF HIS MISSIONARIES.  She is His- well, she's always been his, on loan to me- but today it felt like I passed the baton back to Him- just for 18 months-- and I trust Him.  I know it will challenge her, humble her, change her, grow her testimony and let her spread her wings.  She will come back to us older, wise, more mature in her understanding of the gospel and the workings of the Holy Ghost.  She'll learn to lead out, and how to follow the spirit.  She will have companions who will be a blessing and some who will stretch her and teach her about compassion and patience.  She's going to return so independent- those amazing blue eyes that will have seen a continent and a people I may never see-- and she will love them dearly.  She will speak Spanish like it's her own language and bear testimony of God's love and the redemptive power,  offered to us by His begotten Son, Jesus Christ.   She will learn to lean on heaven like never before and she'll truly discover the amazing gift that her membership in the church is- and how sharing the truth of the restored gospel, by the power of the spirit will change hearts and draw others to Christ.  This is His work.  This is His hastening and it is an measurable privilege to have a child who wants to please Him, to serve Him, to be His instrument. What  a blessing to send a missionary off-- a beautiful heartbreak, a sweet opportunity -- and so it begins....

Ready to take on Ecuador-- or at least Provo for the next 6 weeks

I wanted to take a picture of her missionary shoes... so shiny- I know they won't come back looking like this

It was actually really hard for us to all smile for this picture-- no one really felt like smiling....

Sadie and Lainey (the bookends)

Sadie and Graham 

Sadie and Avery (the twins)

Sadie and Miles

Sadie and Emma-This one is a tough separation especially not only have they been a duo their entire life, share a room, do everything together- but Emma wants to  go on a mission too- and because they are just 12 months apart in age, they'll  overlap in missionary service-- so this goodbye is a lot longer than 18 months...and I think it was just hard to let go of things that won't ever be the same-- like late night talks, and everything else that growing up with your sister as your very best friend means.

same hug, two angles....

Sadie and Dad

Sadie and Mama

It felt like she was breathing me in and I didn't want to let go....I asked her if it would embarrass her if I came running up to the doors for arriving passengers when she gets home... because I don't think I'll be able to help it. 

But then it was time-- and Sadie is a sunshine always, so she made light of it somehow-- I think by saying "hurrah for Israel" 

and tried to gather herself- and so did we--

and then she was off...

Hermana Miller-

 there goes our heart all wrapped up in a whole lot of faith until April 2021

Setting Apart Sunday

Today started hard.  And by hard, I mean it started with a meltdown.  I woke everyone up for church and went back upstairs to check on the girls- and there I found 6 people in the girls bathroom.  It's become a gathering place- which is sweet to me.  Emma was doing Avery's hair, and Sadie was waiting to get hers done next.  I walked out quickly because I felt the dam breaking and the tears fell- and over and over I kept thinking about Sadie leaving and our dynamic changing and it's so hard.  It's so hard.  In the same minute I was comforted by the spirit and my thoughts turned to a Savior who understands all hard things and to a Father in Heaven who had to give up so much more than I am to let His son go-- I don't compare this to that-- I just found strength in knowing that in sacrifice there are blessings... and there's power to draw on and I am very grateful.

In our stake the Stake Presidency likes to come to the missionary's home, rather than have the missionary come to the Stake Center for their setting apart.  Roarke explained it to me as the Stake Presidency just likes to feel and leave the spirit that floods in when you do a missionary setting apart in the home rather than at the Stake offices.  I like that.  They also like to set the missionary apart the Sunday before they enter the MTC, which I am not loving so much because with Sadie flying out on Wednesday morning, that gives us Monday and Tuesday where she is actually a missionary, but not on her mission.  Trying to live mission rules with no music, movies, early bedtime, early wake up, no phone, no email, etc-- is tricky.  Sadie is worried about it because it's important to her to be completely obedient and that's not as easy when you are still at home and you don't feel the change of that call yet.  It also means, as the Stake President explained, that she needs a companion all the time between now and Wednesday-- so I'll happily be that-- and Emma at night-- they've been companions all their life-- and these next three nights-- those late night talks (that will need to end early for missionary rules sake) are bittersweet.

We aren't supposed to record the setting apart blessing- but I was prayerful (and fasted today) that it'd be meaningful to her and sustaining to us.   I am counting on the strength that will come from her official calling as a missionary- and the blessings that we will all feel from it as we begin this journey.  I know the Lord will sanctify her efforts and our support. President Woolstenhume and Roarke set Sadie apart. It was beautiful and in a lot of ways I felt the passing of the baton back to Heavenly Father- she is on His errand- this is His work... and we are all grateful for the privilege of sharing in it.

After the blessing, President Woohlstenhume invited us to each write down some impressions we had during the blessing so that Sadie could read later the things that stood out to us.  That was a sweet experience and as we shared them, and then our testimonies, I know we were all buoyed up in the very unique and personal ways that we each needed.

Sadie's farewell talk in Sacrament meeting

Sadie wasn't really loving the idea of inviting a bunch of people, but after we talked about how it could be a sweet missionary opportunity, she was more on board.  So I did a little facebook post (below) and her talk is below that....

Holly Glavinic Miller is with Sadie Miller. September 19 at 4:55 PM · 

“ You cannot kindle a fire in any other heart unless you have one burning in your own.” - Harold B. Lee
This beautiful soon-to-be-missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, called to serve in the Ecuador, Quito North mission, will be speaking at church (LDS chapel on Roosevelt and Middleton) at 9am this Sunday (9/22/19) before she leaves at the very beginning of October - All are welcome!

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  Laurie Lewis Oh no!!!!! I did not want to miss her farewell!!!! I am in Utah and I won’t be home till Tuesday evening 😢😔

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    Laurie Lewis She might have to give her farewell talk twice so I can hear it ❤️😍

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  Jan Terry Lakey I’m so sad!!! We’ll be out of town on Sunday. Sadie will be an amazing missionary and a blessing to so many!!!

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  Stephanie Best Wish I could be there, you will be an awesome missionary. Also that is where my nephew went.

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  Felicia Vedas Pye Oh darn!! I’m out of town this weekend , I hate missing her speak😭
  Such a sweet spirit ❤️🙏🏻🙏🏻❤️🙏🏻

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  Lynn Wood Filler My heart ♥️

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  Korrina Holady Have a great trip and be safe Sadie!

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  Beverly Oels Can't wait to follow you on your mission. Please make sure you have my e-mail address. Love you, Sister Miller.

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  Brandie Oswald I loved Quito!!! It is so beautiful there!!!! So excited for her.

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  Autumn Woodbury Rigby We are so excited for her. Wish we could make it. Give her a big hug from us.

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  Sarah Buma This is going to make me sound like a gushing old woman, but who cares! Oh, I remember the day she was born, her Daddy and I so relieved that all was well and marveling together at the miracle of this new life and God’s hand in all things. We were full…See More

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  Teddie Alexandrova I am so excited for Sadie! The spark in her eyes and the determination in her smile say it all. Your pictures convey her passion and beauty so well! Hugging you both! 💕

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  Susan Webb So sad we are out of town this weekend! What a blessing she will be to the people in Ecuador ❤️

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  Debbie Moser Bibb Congrats to Sadie and your family!!!!

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  Amanda Lea McLinn So excited for Sadie!!! She will be a wonderful missionary!💕

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  Erica Matthews I would love to come where is this at? Also how long Is this?

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    Holly Glavinic Miller Erica Matthews I sent you a msg 🙂 with details but here is address:
    11288 Roosevelt Avenue
    NAMPA, Idaho 83686

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  Xeai GariSan Beautiful girl with a big heart, I know she will do a great mission, we are happy for her, but we will miss her this time, our best wishes and blessings to Sadie. ❤️

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  Sherron Adamson Danner I love you so very much and with your humble spirit you will make a wonderful missionary

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  Debbie Hodges Hyer So happy for you.

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  Natalie Robison Yay!! She is going to be so awesome and love it!!!!❤️

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  Katie Anderson Beal so exciting!! Lance served there!!♥️♥️

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  Shelly Hansen Carter Wish I could hear her speak! You need to record it🙏🏻💕❤️🎉💝🥰😘. Best wishes to her as she serves!

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  Carolyn Whitney Congratulations! You’ll make a wonderful beautiful missionary!!😀

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  Adohr Hansen Your sweet Sadie is just about ready to take off as a missionary. She will enjoy this time. It’s a once in a lifetime experience. God speed and blessing be with her💞💞💞

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  Bonnie Robertson Huffaker So dang awesome!!!

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  Roberta Shurtz CONGRATULATIONS and best wishes as she sets out to teach the Gospel. Our grand daughter Bailee went through the Temple today in preparation of serving in the Arizona Temper Mission. So proud of these girls.

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  Shonni Stevens Wish I could be there to hear her speak! She’s a great girl!

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Here are her notes from her  farewell Sunday talk:

I’ve had almost five months to be nervous about this talk, and believe me, I’m nervous!

Actually there are only two things that really terrify me, both of which I have had to face recently. One is public speaking and the other is spiders. But if you asked me which I’d rather face, my name would be in your program every. Single. Week. I hate spiders. And yes, there are plenty of gigantic spiders in Ecuador.

As for spiders: I’ve been a Boise Temple worker since I received my call, and one of my assignments is to just stand in the celestial room. I happened to be alone for most of that time one day and I was pondering my mission call.

I’d decided to serve a mission about the time that the age for a sister to serve changed from 21 to 19. I hadn’t ever had any kind of specific confirming witness that that was what Heavenly Father wanted for my life, but I had a desire to serve, so I decided I would.

Up until that point in the celestial room I had never felt hesitant about my decision, but I’d recently heard it said that if you didn’t have an absolute divine assurance that serving a mission was right for you, it would eat at you when things got really tough.

 As I sat thinking about this, trying to recall whether or not I’d ever had such an assurance, I decided to pray right there and plead for Heavenly Father’s confirmation that serving a mission was exactly where he wanted me to be. So I bowed my head, still completely alone, and talked to my Heavenly Father about what I was feeling.

In the middle of the celestial room, which isn’t terribly large, is a round table with a flower arrangement on it. I kid you not, as soon as I had said Amen, I looked right at this table, and a big wolf spider floated down from the flowers, crawled down the table, right to the very center of the carpet, and began scurrying towards my feet. Ew!

 I stood up out of my seat to get out of its way, and it crawled under the chair. I was actually uncharacteristically calm. I even laughed out loud at the irony of it, because the temple is kept so meticulously clean, the odds of this happening are 0. I don’t kill spiders, so he might still be under there. Either way I don’t sit in the chair on the left side of the celestial room, and neither should you.

It seems strange, but that was my answer, it just couldn’t be coincidence. It reminded me He knew the things that really worried me, from spiders, to culture shock, to humidity hair, to leaving home, ALL of it, and He will help me take care of it and I will survive. I’m also grateful for Heavenly Father’s fantastic sense of humor.

I’m speaking today about the fruits of the spirit. I think everyone is thinking of the same Bible verse when you hear “fruits of the spirit” and that is Galatians 5:22 which reads, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law”. The entire chapter is a great sermon by Paul, and the last bit is dedicated to what the Spirit is and what it is not.

There is a little phrase my parents use on me whenever I’m really tired, really grumpy, or Miles is really pushing my buttons, and that is: Sadie, “you’re not being your sweet self.”

This means I’m allowing myself to be grouchy and proud and stubborn. In short, it means that I’m not being influenced by the Spirit like I should be.  And let me tell you, I’m much better at being proud and stubborn than I am and being loving, peace-making, long suffering, gentle and etc.

 On occasion, the reminder “Sadie, be your sweet self” makes me even more mad, but if I humble myself enough to go to my room and get on my knees really quick and invite the Spirit back into my day, it works every single time.

Paul also explains in Galatians why it’s such a battle to let ourselves be worked on by the Spirit; it is because we are human, and the flesh tends to resist the Spirit and its fruits.

“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things ye would.”

There is another scripture that perfectly describes our mortal condition and how to overcome it. It just so happens to be my dad’s very favorite, and the topic of a talk from Brother Searle not so long ago.  

Mosiah 3:19 reads, “For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.”

Modern day prophets have further explained how the fruits of the spirit are seen in us. President Ezra Taft Benson said, “The Holy Ghost causes our feelings to be more tender. We feel more charitable and compassionate with each other. We are more calm in our relationships. We have a greater capacity to love each other. People want to be around us because our very countenances radiate the influence of the Spirit. We are more godly in our character. As a result, we become increasingly more sensitive to the promptings of the Holy Ghost and thus able to comprehend spiritual things more clearly.”

I know that when you hear that, there are some, maybe several, faces that come immediately to mind. These are the people we admire, and want to be more like. I know for me several of those faces are among the congregation today, and I’m so grateful for their love and example.

 However, there is one who is perfect at it, and that is our Savior Jesus Christ. The inevitable result of being filled with the Spirit, and consequently its fruits, is that we become more like Him, and isn’t that who we’d all like to be like?

The question that remains then is how do we do it? I’m a goal-setting type of girl, and I love lists and check boxes, checkpoints, and measurable, tangible progress. I wanted to come up with some ideas for myself that could help me a day at a time experience the fruits of the Spirit and as a result, become more Christlike. If there’s anything I’ve ever learned, its that Heavenly Father can and will help me meet my goals when I include Him in the planning.

I’m crazy about country music. The other day Lainey said, “Sadie, can you listen to country music on your mission? Nope. How are you going to function?”

I play it all day long every day in my house, so much so that I constantly catch people in my family singing my favorites if it ever isn’t on. However, I’ve found that while I love listening to it for hours on end, I can’t listen to the Spirit at the same time. It keeps me so busy dancing and singing and feeling fired up to get stuff done, that I’m too busy to feel still or think about what I can do for those around me. It’s a small example, and of course if you come by my house, you’ll probably find that I still have to turn it down every once in awhile to come get the door -like my dad’s always asking me to-  but I’m trying to find time to turn it off and be still and in tune with the Spirit.

In pondering other ways I can reap the fruits of the Spirit, I’ve noticed, of course, in my time as a temple worker is that I am consistently and entirely my “sweetest self” when I am in the Lord’s house, and that isn’t a coincidence.

I love the quote, “The way you feel in the temple is the way to want to feel in your every-day life.” It comes back to the strong Spirit that’s there, it is why in the temple it’s so easy to say hello and smile widely at every person you see, it feels like your heart is bursting with love for everybody, even the people you’ve never seen before.

Of course, in our everyday lives we can’t quite recreate the reverent, beautiful, and perfectly peaceful surroundings of the temple, (trust me I know, I’m the oldest of six) but we can facilitate the feelings of love, charity, and compassion that we feel in such abundance in the Lord’s House.

For me, maybe that looks like smiling at the people in the aisles of Wal*Mart even if they look at me a little funny (or Hobby Lobby, you’re probably more likely to find me there). It might look like offering to put away someone’s shopping cart, or writing an “I’m thinking of you” note, or reading Lainey two books instead of one. Maybe visiting someone who is lonely, or playing toys with kids instead of doing something “productive”.

 They are tiny little services, but you know that feeling you get when you’ve done something Christ would do, that’s the fruits of the Spirit, and instead of waiting for the Spirit to fill me only when I can make it to the temple, or when I’m at Church or when I feel like it, I can make it my own personal goal to fill my life with those warm fuzzy type of feelings 24/7.

 It’s one of the many reasons I’m so looking forward to being a missionary, its an 18 month dedication to trying to feel the Spirit ALL of the time.

There are such wonderful blessings associated with our ability to be in tune with the Spirit. Hopefully this motivates you—like it does me—to try harder to be filled with the Holy Ghost, so that we can each put off the natural man a little more often, that we might become more like Jesus Christ, one day at a time.

Bear Testimony.  
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