How lucky am I

 HELLO EVERYONE!!! 

I am reporting from missionary land, aka narnia, aka i have no clue what's going on, but that's ok

I hope everyone has had a great week!! I can't say that I have buttttt if any of you did then that is a win! 

My week started out pretty good but then just kinda crashed and burned and I was left in tears. But you know we are going to focus on the positives. Tuesday and Wednesday weren't bad and I was like "hey wait this isn't sooooo bad." We had a couple lessons with some pretty amazing people and imma tell yall all about them because they are just so cool! 

First we have Andrick, he sent in a referral request to get a Bible and we were like ok sick we also teach more about Jesus Christ if you're interested and he was like ummm ya!!! So then we had lesson with him and we tried to help answer some of his questions about the Bible and about how to be better disciples of Christ and about what to do when we have doubts and all that jazz. Then he said, and i quote "There just has to be more, like is there another book or something that i should read?" My comps and i looked at each other and were like WHAT?!?! that's every missionaries dream right there! Anyways we were like "so glad that you asked because there is in fact another book you can read"... and then BAM intro to the Book of Mormon. It was pretty cool and Andrick was like "you guys are such a blessing to me, I'm so thankful to God that you came into my life" like awwww thats so sweet!!! 

Then we have Becky!!! Becky has such a cool story. She immigrated here in 2003 after being in a refugee camp on the Ivory Coast during different wars and things. The stuff that she's seen and gone through are insane and so heartbreaking, but she has literally the sweetest soul ever. She was telling us about how God has been with her every step of the way. She said when she got to Kentucky it was winter and when it snowed for the very first time she ran outside immediately to see it. She said it was absolutely magically and that she spread her arms out wide and with tears in her eyes said "God you are so wonderful!!! Thank you, thank you!" As she was re-telling this story she had the sweetest smile on her face and it was just the cutest thing ever! 

And then Thursday, I unfortunately got food poisoning and I'm still in recovery from that one. And then a whole bunch of other sad, negative, depressing things happened with some panic attacks here and there but we don't need to get into all of that. I'm just trying to figure it all out without letting my mental health spiral so ya that is just so much fun #ilovelife 

Anyways, despite feeling miserable, I can't help but feel some gratitude. How lucky am I that God allows me to have this experience and that he trusts me with it? Like I feel pretty lucky that he has allowed me to be in a random place, with weird rules, and crazy people because it shows that he wants me to grow and has faith in me to do so. I have no clue what the future holds or what the rest of my mission is going to look like, but all I can do is appreciate this time for what it is, even if I wish it was something different. 

Spiritual thought time!!! 

I restarted the Book of Mormon this week and at the beginning (and throughout the whole book honestly) they talk about the promise land a lot. When I was thinking about Nephi and his family and their journey towards the promise land, i was reminded of Ether 6:8 which in part reads "and it came to pass that the wind did never cease to blow towards the promised land" I love this thought because the wind can be crazy, so in turn, life can be very crazy. Sometimes it feels like the wind (life) pushes us back rather than forward and that can be really freaking frustrating because it feels like you take 2 steps forward and 5 steps back. It is a constant battle. And in this whole thought process I was kinda like "that sucks, that doesn't seem very fair" But then the lovely spirit brought to mind the scripture 3 Nephi 13:28 where it reads "consider the lilies of the field how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin" (this is one of my fav scriptures because lilies are my fav flower) but I realized that this so called "battle" against the winds of life is really just always an opportunity for growth, and growth is never a step backwards even if we can't see that in the moment. Sometimes the wind pushes us back and sometimes it nudges us forward but it really does always blow towards the promised land because God is in control. 

Anyways, this was kinda long so shout out and bonus points to you if you made it here!!! 

Love you all, hope you have a wonderful week and I'll try to do the same 💗💗