A Guide to Dreaming Big for Dummies

1-26-15

We had a decent week teaching.  We finally got to teach the wife in another part member family.  The 18-year-old daughter randomly sat in on the end, and we hit it off and she started asking questions and we're going start teaching her! I love this family!  Oh, and we also almost got eaten by a Pitbull this week. Literally. It was so scary.

So yesterday we had dinner at the M---------'s.  Sister M------- cooks up a Southern storm.  She usually makes tons of green beans cooked in butter, potatoes, peas, some sort of salad, her "celestial" biscuits, and this week she made a delicious roast with the best gravy I've ever had.  I love being in their home.  I had a minute yesterday to realize, "Wow, I've been out here in the WVCM for 16 months," and I thought about where I was and where I am now. I have changed, and yet I haven't. I think I told you what Kevin said about how he feels--how he hasn't really changed, just become more him. I totally feel that. 

When I decided to serve a mission, (sometimes I'm not even so sure I decided to come; it sort of feels like it just happened and God just got me out here) I had found what that scripture in John talks about, how the truth will make you free, because I did feel freed by making good choices and having better desires, but  I had no idea that MORE freedom was in store. I didn't even realize what freedom meant. Freedom is so much more than not being tied down by addictions or sin or whatever it is; it goes beyond that until you literally have no limits. Until you realize that you are truly a child of God and that "impossible" is just a word we use when we're scared. That dreams come true and there is ALWAYS something better in store for you. 

I listened to a thing on Mormon.org that was called "Defying Gravity." It talked about how to defy gravity and keep a bike upright, you have to keep pedaling. I've thought a lot about that this week. If we keep pedaling, we will continue to progress and change and we can go wherever we want to. We can defy gravity. We ARE defying gravity. Our lives are just millions of miracles piled on top of each other if you look closely. I might have told you this, but I think that the gospel is really just A Guide to Dreaming Big for Dummies. Children of God are spectacular. It's wonderful to go around and meet so many beautiful individuals who are so different, and as I meet each of them, I can feel that there is more to the human being than just flesh and blood, that in each of us is an eternal being with eternal potential, and that being is a child of God. I know that He loves each one of us because I've felt that love.  I have felt it for me, and for others. We are all amazing. God is amazing. This mission is amazing. 

16 fingers between us because
Elder Tullis and I hit our 16-Month mark

Playing with the baby goats, Miley and Billy Ray

I need one!

A little town called Pocahontas.  They have an exhibition
mine there, but it's closed in the winter.