Maddy on a Mission: 6-30-14 HEY! I love you. Guess what else? Heavenly father does.

So a BUNCH of random thoughts and not a lot of time to write. Here goes.

Basically just a bunch of quotes I love haha. My week was pretty normal, lots of lessons and learning. Also, we had several people come to church Sunday which is ALWAYS the hardest thing but also the most rewarding. We have Cambios in two weeks and I am pretty scared because I have a lot of time here, but I don't want to leave until Grecia is Baptized!! But I know it's all in the Lord's hands.

-I love this quote I read the other day, "we are not obedient because we are blind, we are obedient because we can SEE."

We as members of the Church of Jesus Christ, KNOW our divine potential and our purpose here on the earth. We know that this time is SO short compared to the eternities if we but obey here. Because we have an eternal perspective, we WANT to be obedient. I am obedient because I can SEE what Heavenly Father has in store for me.

- Another Quote: "HE chose us to follow Him, and to bring others with us." It is not enough for us to just believe in Jesus Christ. We must FOLLOW him and bring our loved ones with us. Through our example and love for others, we will bring others unto Christ. And our own personal Joy will be SO Much greater when we are able to see all of the lives our example has blessed and changed.

-LUKE 1:37 FOR WITH GOD NOTHING SHALL BE IMPOSSIBLE. Go ahead and just think about that. Just think!

-This week. Monday to Sunday I had the mile tracker on my mom sent. We walked 35 miles in 6 days. Normal. (say that in spanish)

-"The most powerful being in the universe is the father of your spirit. HE KNOWS YOU. He loves you with a perfect love. He wants you to know that YOU MATTER TO HIM. Including those who are thinking, "Well. Not me."

I love this. It doesnt matter who you are, what mistakes you have made, where you are at in your life, what kind of faith you have, GOD KNOWS YOU AND LOVES YOU. You are HIS child. Picture your mom or dad. Think of the unmeasurable ammount of love they have for you. Or. Picture your children and the unbelievable amount of love you have for them. Now, times that by ten, no, 100 thousand. Then times it some more. That is how much Heavenly Father loves YOU. We simply cannot comprehend. But, we can have a sure knowledge that he is looking out for us and that EVERY single thing that happens in our lives, was made by a design lovingly prepared for us. But of course, there are natural consequences as well.

Now our responsibility is to choose the right. Simple, no? We have within us the power to be happy, to love and to bless others. WE can choose to be obedient to Gods commandments. He will never force us to do the right thing, but because he loves us SO Much, he will lead us and guide us to do the right if we will but live our lives in a way to be worthy of his help.

- I want to work with handicapped or homeless people after my mission. I have always wanted to, but this week just helped solidify this desire. I have two quick experiences because I am totally out of time. One: There are a lot of completely homeless people here. Like, eat out of the trash, don't have clothes, homeless. We passed a man such as this and I just wanted to hug him. SO hard. I didn't really understand why at first. But then I realized, that's what God's love does to us!! It makes us love others too. Instead (because we cant hug men) We gave him our pack of oreos. I tried to talk to him but he wouldnt respond. But I wasn't annoyed or sad because the thought popped into my head that I could be the first person that has acknowledged him, let alone talked to him in YEARS, maybe his whole life. The other one: A lady came up to me randomly and just hugged me. I asked her a few questions and realized she couldnt speak, so I asked her to write it out, this is what she wrote. I then told her that she was always welcomed to visit us and that she is loved. she hugged me again and walked away. I think she could recognize us as servants of God and it was a super sweet experience. Well I wanted to write more but I am OUT of time!!! Love you all!!!! Have a wonderful week.

Hermana Whitlock