Good morning Bailey! I wanted you to know we had virtually no effects from the hurricane. Only occasional bands of rain thru the day. The eye of the hurricane was closest to us about 2:00am when it was about 100 miles out (over the Atlantic Ocean) from Cape Canaveral and even then, we only experienced a strong breeze and intermittent rain thru the night. Basically, it turned out to be nothing but a few days where everything in life stood still while we waited to see what would happen! The good news is that we are well prepared for any other hurricanes that may still come between now and mid November, when hurricane season ends.
Everyone at home is going a bit stir crazy. We have been cooped up too long. Tucker is watching Star Trek on Alexa. Reese was playing on the play station until she left to babysit for the Harings, Colton is now on the playstation playing Minecraft, Dad is trying to stay busy so he doesn't go crazy while he waits to hear about the job in Saudi Arabia and I am writing to you. I have been trying some new healthy recipes like making my own yogurt, etc. I like to try new things. :-)
I love you.
After our conversation on Monday, I wanted to caution you about something. Even before your time as a missionary, which can definitely be stressful, I sometimes wondered if at times of peace in your life, if your brain seeks out worry and sadness to give it something to do. I think sometimes we grow used to having high/low emotions and if we are kind of feeling more in the middle (like a flat line) ------------, maybe the brain deems that as boring or lacking in growth and seeks out a different emotion to feel. This can be particularly dangerous when life is very routine. As a missionary, your choices are limited so your brain could be even more likely to seek out a particular emotion to break up the monotony and create some "excitement", even if it's an unpleasant emotion. Just a thought I had. Only you can know if this could be true. I think you will only know if you check yourself when you start to feel a sad or "down" type of emotion, seemingly without reason. If you ask yourself what happened before you felt the emotion and the answer is really nothing, then you can change the dialogue in your brain to focus on something of interest to you. Ask yourself spiritual questions and or start a conversation with Sister Yod about something. Ask the Lord to help you think of something else to think about. You control the dialogue in your head, not the other way around.
I appreciate today's message from Come Follow Me Daily on FB.
One day, my three-year-old was mad.
Really mad.
He was hurt.
And he wanted to share the hurt.
So he said,
“I hate Jesus.”
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It felt like a punch in the gut.
I started to panic.
I didn’t know how to handle the situation.
Should I ignore him?
Should I punish him?
Suddenly, I felt an overwhelming feeling of God’s love come over me.
Not love for me—love for my son.
And the words I needed to say came clearly to my mind.
I looked him in the eyes and said calmly,
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“He loves you anyway.”
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I felt the spirit so strongly that day, and I’ve never forgotten that moment.
I’ve learned a lot about the gift of prophecy this week, and realized I didn’t have the correct understanding of the gift.
I thought it was exclusively used to understand the future—but I was wrong.
The gift of prophecy is “divinely inspired words or writings, which a person receives through revelation from the Holy Ghost. … When a person prophesies, he speaks or writes that which God wants him to know, for his own good or the good of others” (Guide to the Scriptures, “Prophecy,”
https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fscriptures.lds.org%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR0jm3pxWuSOWKDIN_7XT97DBI3Y8yqE97_X3Pz7awjUOCQQPQT2_MEfZA4&h=AT0Zgi__38Rw2xfoUxE8TAsXhqHkyBOCSyAVS1rnG25RHKpFDu0I84q8OoNkfRvf-Qgr6QoN_8Cl0wZyKC-1aNMmA4cjteAyP8Ggky0HmzyXZIDrLt4mmU2ZFptm3K4GHxDdVdqauC3dbuqgts9J7-7_VNQnN-Aof5nyLJgP6Hx_Aaf-fB6p7SmrOE9uzM1S1UVhXoctowDWYRSXg8k66J8Wlg2M4qkI7BVOiGcBWgW1X8WV2IwHz0scObHI7ZAVZNmUAaqoO7s1ze9b5-98Hy6vXC3vamij1t1G3CQLCPJHxsalNprHiWkkCnQ1P0wcZN8ZQoqyYcnL7VOlnNtIwQuzIYGLGgKqRO-qts4ayT4GC1KdX06ZDNFu_MXfnAcxdb8xM-9TfWlW6w5mKvHyJKdXNqbsIl4XZoYUSsI_ILObej-WbGICgtSbnujBXLsV5pQoQ4gu-OlGS7eAygrqlJFvw6vrG7HqS7SsovU3BaGoYMD1MzaAgHqRyLFqzPyAgi5_A-NvzRTtmzze_-5NKWJkE-WQjFgPgnLmMYlYO94VVXxDIPe-CDUShwQNvFCNg2oxxM09zipZaEUnOrlk2A9uZ3SUVvsBN3hMLtBO6D-XYX2TSx5hH48u4t4t6ZQFHbG8cKMQq9CxsDUp08-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow" style="color:rgb(56,88,152);text-decoration-line:none;font-family:inherit">scriptures.lds.org)
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After I understood that, my mind flooded with moments like the one above, moments I treasure, when the spirit brought words to my mind when I didn’t have the words to say.
I also thought of other moments, times when I DIDN’T say things by the spirit, and the sorrow I felt afterwards.
And I finally realized the power of the gift of prophecy.
It is the power to comfort. The power to exhort. The power to edify—not only yourself, but those around you (1 Corinthians 14:1-4).
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This is a gift that I need every single day.
I suddenly understood Paul’s plea for us to seek all gifts of the spirit, but especially the gift of prophecy (1 Cor 14:1).
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I need it for my home.
I need it for my family.
I need it for me.
And I need it daily.
We all do.
Art by Brian Kershisnik