Make the Pathway Straight

We got to ride in a tank!!
 haha
 okay not really
 but hey I can now say
I have been in a war tank!
So that's cool!  

I'm apologizing now for my random spurt of an email. haha and if it makes zero sense I'm sorry.

Holy smokes I can't tell you how much I love the scriptures enough!! We all know about that path it talks about in the scriptures over and over again right? And it talks about how it is a strait path.(2 Nephi 31:18) Well when you look up the word strait in the dictionary you realize that in this scripture it isn't talking about a straight path that is simple and easy but rather the word strait means narrow restricting and confiding. Meaning that there is only one way and one path. And that it isn't always going to be easy. Living the gospel isn't always easy. It There isn't any wiggle room when it comes to the commandments. Hence the strait meaning narrow and confining. 

Here is the cool part. I was reading in Alma chapter 7 yesterday and I came across a verse. it says

 "For i perceive that ye are in the paths of righteousness; I perceive that ye are in the path which leads to the kingdom of God; yea, I perceive that ye are making his paths straight." (Alma 7:19) 

Notice the type of straight it is now talking about. It's talking about the straight that is easier. When we are on the paths of righteousness and doing what the Lord has asked of us and keeping his commandments we are making the path straight. Our lives become easier and we are greatly blessed. When we are a covenant keeping people and a commandment keeping people our lives are going to be so much easier than if we weren't. The commandments aren't there to with hold us from having fun and doing fun things, but rather they are there to help us make our lives easier. They are there so that we can become the person that our Heavenly Father wants us to be. So that we can one day live with our Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and our families for all eternity. The commandments aren't there to  be a burden but to rather lift our burdens of life so that we can make the pathway straight. 

I love y'all and hope you have a fantastic day! Rely on the Savior and His Atonement. Know that He loves you more than you can comprehend. Know that the commandments He has placed before us are so that we can enjoy never ending happiness "in the mansions of our fathers". 

-Sister Wade

FUN FACTS:

1. There are impostor missionaries going around in El Paso with name tags and Sister Ingold and I got checked to see if we were real or not. haha

2. If you have not tried Blue Bell ice cream you are missing out. Especially cause it's only a Texas thing. But it's the best ice cream I have ever tasted in my life. 

3. I got called on during sacrament to come up and give a talk that second. And honestly relying on the Spirit is the best kinda way to give a talk haha 

4. I officially wanna be a seminary teacher when I come home. I LOVE THIS GOSPEL!

So awesome scripture chain. All of us know the story of Lehi's vision and the tree of life. And we all know that one of the main things it talks about in that vision is the iron rod. In 1 Nephi 11:25 we learn that the iron rod is the word of God, so naturally we think the word of God is the scriptures, but in Revelations 19:13 it says something different. "...and His name is called The Word of God." Meaning that the word of God is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the iron rod. 

When I think of the iron rod I think of something that helps you along. Something to grab when you start to slip so you don't fall. Isn't that what Jesus Christ is for all of us? He truly is our support. "My God hath been my support; he hath led me through mine afflictions..." (2 Nephi 4:20) He is the very thing that can help us get through the bad times and the good. But without Him in our lives we slip and fall. 

Without Jesus Christ we can never have that eternal happiness, that eternal joy. Just like in the vision, the iron rod leads to the tree of life and the fruit thereof is that is "most desirable above all things" the "love of God" also known as the atonement. But without Jesus Christ we would not have the atonement. Without Jesus Christ we could not have the possibility of ever having eternal joy or happiness and living with Him, our Heavenly Father, and our families for all eternity. 

I know that Jesus Christ and this gospel is the only place that we can find true and lasting joy. It is through Him that we can become better today than we were yesterday. I love this gospel with everything that I am and I am so grateful I get so spend the rest of my life strengthening my relationship with my Savior and Heavenly Father. I love them both so dearly. 

Thanks for all that y'all do and for sharing your testimonies with me. They strengthen mine and I am lucky to have such great people in my life as y'all. 

Love 

Sister Wade

FUN FACTS: 

1. I almost got emergency transferred and President Miller almost took missionaries completely out of the YSA ward in El Paso, but don't worry it wasn't anything bad and it didn't happen so that's good!!(:

2. We got to meet another general authority, Elder Arnold. HE'S AMAZING!

3. I am pretty sure I really was supposed to be an Hermana because we taught 2 lessons in Spanish this week haha. Okay really good Spanglish but still! I'm impressed with us(; haha 

1st Discussion

Michael Cason Terry had his first discussion tonight.

As a mother I love it when members send pictures!! It made my night!!!

I now Know..

This week has been one unlike any other. 

I now know what if feels like to be hit on by drunk 15 year olds. (we get hit on way more than I ever would have thought and it's SUPER awkward haha)

I now know what it feels like to be an outcast and hated

I now know what it feels like to come home more tired than ever before; emotionally, physically, and mentally.

I now know what it feels like to have an investigator drop you, and say "this isn't for me," two weeks before his baptism date

I now know what it feels like to willingly want to go through the hardest trial you have ever gone through over and over again if it would help but one person come closer to their Savior. 

I now know what it feels like to want to take someone's hardships away more than anything, and have them placed on yourself.

I now know what Nephi was talking about when he says, "For I pray continually for them by day, and mine eyes water my pillow by night, because of them; and I cry unto my God in faith, and I know that he will hear my cry" (2 Nephi 33:3)

I now know what it must feel like for our Heavenly Father when we willingly decide to turn away from Him and sin. 

Yea, this week was crazy hard but I wouldn't undo it for anything. I am pretty sure we were hit with everything and every kind of trial physically possible for a missionary, But I also know I have grown so so SO much closer to my Savior than I ever have before, and because of that I wouldn't trade it for the world. There is a quote from Elder Holland that ran through my mind all week it is 

"I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? It seems to me that missionaries and mission leaders have to spend at least a few moments in Gethsemane. Missionaries and mission leaders have to take at least a step or two toward the summit of Calvary."

When we got that text from our sweet investigator saying he needed to tell us something and wanted to meet the next day my heart sank. I knew exactly where this was going and I knew instantly he didn't want apart of this anymore. Sister Ingold and I joked saying "So THIS is what it feels like when your boyfriend says 'we gotta talk' then he breaks up with you" haha it was a good thing we had ice cream cause we needed it. jokes. But seriously I don't think I will ever feel so much sorrow as I did in that moment.

The next morning I am pretty sure I spend 30 minutes praying/pleading through personal study wanting to know what to say to him that he might realized how much he personally needs this gospel. How much this gospel would and has already changed his life for the better. I opened my scriptures and started to read. As I continued to read something hit me. That if I am feeling like this right now with only knowing this person for 3 months how do you think our Heavenly Father feels when we willingly decide to sin. When we willingly turn our backs on Him and say "You know what you're saying is great for everyone else, but it's not for me." 

In that moment I gained an understanding so real and so true, of how much our Heavenly Father honestly and truly loves each one of us. He wants us to come back and live with Him. He wants us to have eternal joy and live with our families for all eternity. He wants us to one day be as He is. But in order to do so we have to follow the plan that he has already set up for us. 

When our investigator said he didn't want to be apart of this anymore. That it wasn't for him, at that point I literally wanted to stand up and shake him and say how wrong he was. How each and everyone of us need this gospel more than anything. I am sure that is how our Heavenly Father feels with us some time when we decide not to follow the path and he can see what our lives will be like without the blessing of keeping the commandments. Wow. I now know what it is like to want something so bad for someone but in the end have to realize that they have their agency to choose for themselves. I can only imagine how truly sorrowful our Beloved Heavenly Father is when we use our own agency to turn away from Him and the blessings that follow. 

I want y'all to know how much your Heavenly Father and Savior love you so much. They want the best for you and they want to see you with that eternal happiness and joy that we can have. That is why they ask us to do the things that we do. AHH! I seriously love this gospel and this church with everything that I am. I can't imagine my life without it and I want y'all to know how much I love my Savior. He truly is my best friend and I wouldn't trade that for everything. I am nowhere near perfect but through Him I can continue to work at it every day. 

LOVE YALL! and hope you have an amazing day!!(:

-Sister Wade

J.O.Y.

Wow I can't express enough how much I love the Book of Mormon. I am pretty sure when it comes time to start over again I am going to need a new set of scriptures because there is literally zero room in the margins to write anymore notes haha, but today I was studying and something hit me. I know we talk about it all the time and it's such basic doctrine but it hit me how much our Heavenly Father truly loves each of us.

I was reading in Mosiah 3 and over and over again it says something along the lines of "I have come to bring good tidings of great joy." or "I declare unto thy people, that they may also be filled with joy." and so on and so forth all about joy. All of a sudden it hit me. how honestly are truly our Heavenly Father wants us to be happy. Everything he does and asks us to do is so we can be eternally happy. 

Sister Ingold and I have been talking a lot about why we were asked to keep the commandments. Why we are asked to do the little things. Why we are asked to pray. Why we are asked to worship God and no other gods before him. Not so much for our sake but more so for our investigators sakes. And after doing so I came to the conclusion that we are asked to do these things because He loves us. and He wants us to have the kind of joy that He does, but in order to do that we first must love Him enough to keep His commandments, and when we love Him we worship Him and that which we worship we eventually become like. Its all a cycle. That which we worship we love and that which we love we become like. 

He loves us enough that he wants us to have that eternal joy that He has. He wants us to become like Him so we can be happy like He is. So that we can live with our families for all eternity in the Celestial Kingdom, in the place where we can receive COMPLETE joy.

Wow doesn't that just make your heart so happy? To have someone that loves you enough to want you to have the complete and udder happiness? It makes me want to scream it from the roof tops and tell everyone in the world that they have a Heavenly Father that loves them and wants them to have eternal, never ending, complete joy. But it is only through Him that we can. Wow so amazing!!

I love love this gospel with every thing that I am. I know without a shadow of a doubt that this church is true and that I have a Heavenly Father that loves me unconditionally and wants me to return to live with Him forever. and he loves me enough to provide a way for me to and you to do so.

Love y'all and hope you have a great January day! Oh yeah it's 2016!! What in the world?!?!?!

Love ya!!

Sister Wade(:

FUN FACTS: 

1. I may have got offered a free hair cut and dye so obviously I took it haha 

2. I fed homeless people at a homeless shelter and one came up to us and said " i know who you are. I know how old you are. I know why you are here and why you act the way you do. Don't talk to me." haha so that was semi awkward haha

3. Someone may have told sister Ingold and I that he would wait 18 months to hug us.... SUPER awkward.

4. I found out Sister Ingold was best friends in college with my cousin haha small world