Sister Anna Meredith: "Today could be a special day!" (June 4, 2018)

Hola mis amigos!!!! It's been a great week!

We had an amazing lesson with Pablo, who we just started teaching again, with two members there. We talked about the Book of Mormon and repentance and he told us he knows he needs to make changes, and we talked about how we help people make changes in their lives to come closer to Christ, one of those being baptism, and he accepted that challenge. We've been able to call him every day since then to read a little bit in the Book of Mormon with him, and he is understanding hat we are reading, and talks about how he can use it in his life. He calls us his angels, "mis angelitos," and it's so cool to see how ready he is to accept the message of the gospel and let it change his life.

Another miracle, it was the end of the month and we were WAY over on using our monthly mileage allotment, my fellow missionaries will understand the struggle. On Wednesday we couldn't use our car at all, and did the whole day on bikes. But Heavenly Father sent us the perfect weather. Every other day this week was sunny in the 90s with high humidity, but on Wednesday it was cloudy and rainy and in the 70s and we had such a blast biking 16 miles all over Minneapolis in some perfect weather.

We had mission conference this week with Elder Timothy J. Dyches of the Seventy. It was a crazy day and we learned a lot. I got a lot of good ideas about things I am going to apply and try harder than ever to involve members in missionary work. As well as continue to apply the Book of Mormon as a primary tool in conversion in inviting others to come to know the Savior. A promise I have been given by multiple general authorities throughout my mission is that if you in the Book of Mormon every day, you cannot fall away from the church. If you want to stay faithful, or if you want to gain a testimony for the first time, make the commitment right now that you will read in the Book of Mormon every day for the rest of your life. Let today be the day that changes the rest of your life.

This week we received from really sad news. We have been teaching one of our investigators for a little while. He is 12, his mom is a less-active member, but he comes to church every week with another member family in our ward. We've always been teaching him when his mom and older brother were home and they were in the lessons with us. On Wednesday night we got a call that his older brother had passed away in some sort of unexpected accident. He was only 24, and it is so sad, for the family, for the ward. We are trying harder than ever to be there to support that family, so they have that testimony to rely on, so that they know that they can trust in Christ without a doubt that they can see him again.

There is a talk by President Monson from October 2013 called "In Search of Treasure" that is absolutely amazing that I would highly recommend you all read. One part in particular I liked was this,

"Sometimes we let our thoughts of tomorrow take up too much of today. Daydreaming of the past and longing for the future may provide comfort but will not take the place of living in the present. This is the day of our opportunity, and we must grasp it.

Professor Harold Hill, in Meredith Willson’s The Music Man, cautioned: “You pile up enough tomorrows, and you’ll find you’ve collected a lot of empty yesterdays.”

There is no tomorrow to remember if we don’t do something today, and to live most fully today, we must do that which is of greatest importance. Let us not procrastinate those things which matter most. I recently read the account of a man who, just after the passing of his wife, opened her dresser drawer and found there an item of clothing she had purchased when they visited the eastern part of the United States nine years earlier. She had not worn it but was saving it for a special occasion. Now, of course, that occasion would never come. In relating the experience to a friend, the husband said, “Don’t save something only for a special occasion. Every day in your life is a special occasion.”

That friend later said those words changed her life. They helped her to cease putting off the things most important to her. Said she: “Now I spend more time with my family. I use crystal glasses every day. I’ll wear new clothes to go to the supermarket if I feel like it. The words ‘someday’ and ‘one day’ are fading from my vocabulary. Now I take the time to call my relatives and closest friends. I’ve called old friends to make peace over past quarrels. I tell my family members how much I love them. I try not to delay or postpone anything that could bring laughter and joy into our lives. And each morning, I say to myself that this could be a special day. Each day, each hour, each minute, is special.”

For the past week I have been trying, and I hope to for the rest of my life wake up to say "Today could be a special day!" Every moment we have is so precious, something we can never fully appreciate until we come to the end of a chapter. So I hope you all can join me this week in remembering that today is a special today, that tomorrow is a special day, that today is the day we will be better than we were yesterday, and it is never too late to start.

Love you all!! Have a wonderful week!

Quote of the week "I'm agreeing with you and you're yelling at me! You're going to have the hardest marriage ever"

Hermana Meredith

1. Mission Conference feat. the Minneapolis Zone