... yet!

Hello hello!!! 

Hope everyone's week was amazing! Here's a little bit about mine:) At the beginning of every transfer the leadership of Christ's Church in our area (the stake presidency) puts together a little meeting they call "Tasty Transfers." They feed us breakfast burritos and talk about the vision they have for the San Clemente zone! (We are literally so spoiled and it's so fun haha). Our Stake President, President Stapley, shared with us a few things I thought were super impactful! 

My new companion--Hermana Haskin

In the Church of Jesus Christ we have these things called the "Articles of Faith" which are basically 13 short summary statements about what we believe! The third article goes like this:

"We believe that through the Atonement of Christ all mankind may be saved by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel." 

This "Atonement" of Jesus Christ (his suffering in Gethsemane, dying on the cross, and His resurrection) we believe helps us overcome any worldly obstacle. For example, since Jesus Christ suffered and felt every possible feeling we will ever feel, we believe he can empathize and relate to us completely. When someone passes away, he knows our heartache; when we see people we love after a long time of being away, he knows our joy!! 

Not only this, but we believe we can become better people each and every day because of the enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ!! I especially loved how President Stapley explained it... he said, "the Atonement of Jesus Christ allows us to put "yet" at the end of any sentence....  "For example, "I am not good at being patient... yet;" "I am not good at saying my prayers every day... yet" or "I am not where I want to be... yet..." all of these phrases indicate that we CAN have those talents or skills in the future, with the help of our Savior. The Atonement of Jesus Christ allows our weaknesses to become strong. We may feel like there are a million things we want to get better at or a million ways we want to become better people... and the only way we can get better and accomplish those things is with the help of our Savior! I love that so much!! For me it is a message of hope to apply in our day-to-day lives. We can always be moving forward if we choose to receive help from Jesus Christ. 

I love living and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ because it helps me become more like Him and thus better able to serve those around me. It makes me truly happy because I know that where I'm at in life right now is not where I will stay. The gospel makes me realize that progress comes with patience, BUT it always, ALWAYS comes. 

That was a super insightful part of my week and honestly my other favorite parts came from seeing and talking to some of my favorite people!! We hadn't seen Juan and Modesta all week because they had schedule changes at work. After calling and calling them they finally called US back to see how WE were doing and to tell us they missed having us over! Haha, these people are literally my best friends and I loved just hearing their voices again. Juan even asked us to pray for his hurt ankle to heal so he can get his jobs done faster so they can have us over again!! So, everyone please pray for Juan!! :) ALSO we finally caught Betzy at home and she always makes us laugh so hard telling us about stuff on Tiktok haha. The best thing, though, was on Sunday when we were prompted to go over to her house and watch church (zoom church, that is) with her and even her less active aunt watched with us too! God always leads the way! 

Well everyone, I am honestly really loving life out here in California. I feel very blessed in so many ways right now and even though there are highs and lows my faith in Jesus Christ is growing daily and my hope is growing daily, too. Jesus Christ really does enable everything good and true and God blesses us more than we can imagine! Have a great week! 

Hermana Leonard 

My new District--at the pier on P-day!

Beautiful Dana Point!