June 18, 2012

Heellooo Everyone, It was so great to hear from trey, and to see maya and Coles hieroglyphics (indian painting) I can't spell worth my life anymore. In Finnish you say all the letters in a word when you speak, and so English is just blown away. Anywho, Aunt Nancy, and Uncle Bill sent me an email! I miss them! Tell them I love them, and I don't mind that they receive my emails. However it is kind of funny to me that I have a blog, and you also send my emails to people haha, does that not defeat the purpose of the blog if they can get highlights in their inbox haha. Maybe I'm just going crazy... or you are... I mean it with love. We had a crazy day yesterday! We went down to Helsinki for stake conference, and it was way fun! Elder Jensen of the seventy spoke there. It is super awkward when you walk up to members you know, or something, and you say hi....... they say hi....... and after that you don't really know where to go with the conversation. I mean for real, how far can you go with someone who works in the mission office... hi... so... you organize the supply closet recently???... great... k ... bye!! HAHA I just decided that I would love to recieve my emails haha. They are so funny....... or maybe not........... but anyways it was great to be in Helsinki. Elder Anderton slept with his mouth open in the car, and I took a picture of him on our phone. He doesn't like it when I do that.. but... it must be done. We had a meeting with Elder Kopichke.... (I really don't know how to spell his name) he was in the area presidency in europe. He was so cool to listen to. I learned a lot from him. I had my specific questions for our area, and for myself, but the answer I recieved from the spirit answered all of them. I studied the way he taught, why he was so happy, and everything he did. I wanted to know why he was successful, and why he was such a good missionary. The answer came from His closing testimony. He said, "Elder's and Sister's... I know that I am a child of God. And He loves me." It hit me. He has been able to do everything He needs to in His calling because he understands and feels that statement not only in his mind, but in his heart. As I studied that statement in my personal life, and study since that day, I finally get it. Whenever we feel discouraged, stress, jealousy, anger, it is because we are more focused on what others think about us, than what God thinks about us. The world (even the church) has ideals of what the successful man or woman is. When we let those stresses get into our hearts, that is when we are down. Likewise, if our only desire is to please god and do his will, we will always be happy, because the man that follows god is always right (I believe it's president monson who said that). It is one thing to understand the principle (that we are children of god) and it's another thing to understand and to feel the principle in our hearts. When the knowledge goes from our head to our heart, I know that our whole perspective on life will change. I have never been happier in my life. I know that God lives and He is my father, my dad. He loves me, and He takes time to show me He cares. I would encourage you all to really think about what it means to be a child of god. When we know, and truly feel it in our hearts, it will bless us so much! We had a lot of different experiences in our work this week. We were in a meeting with this really intelligent engineer. He had a super nice house, and it was apparent that he knew a lot. He started talking about paranormal activity haha. He was asking if we believed that people could communicate with people on the otherside. The first thing that came to my mind was this is so weird! But then the spirit came in! He said, pay attention, and listen to what he was saying. I began to pray for discernment. A scripture came to my mind. Moroni 10:8- 18 "Deny not the gifts of God, for they are many. We read those verses, and explained our perspective on it, and He totally agreed! Had one of us said, that is weird, and of the devil (which some of it is) He probally would have kicked us out haha. I learned an important lesson. Investigators have a different vocabulary than we do ha ha. We use the words, angels, ministering spirits etc. He used paranormal activity. He is a new investigator who said he wants to read the Book of Mormon now! So cool! We are working super hard! I am so grateful for you all. I think about you both often, and you both are in my prayers. Send me pictures of your california trip momma! So I can be home sick for a few days! Especially of disneyland, shelby, and andy and david and their lady friends. Wow... super kinky statement. Actually maybe don't. Love Elder Perry PS tell shelby she is the worst writer ever haha