9 Months A Joyful Missionary!

TERE!! 

Tomorrow, I will have been a set apart missionary for 9 MONTHS!  That means I am more than halfway completed with my service as a missionary. I am so grateful and humbled for the opportunity. Every day is a treasure here in the mission field. Every moment is! For example, I just got off a bus where I had the opportunity to tell a woman that Jesus Christ’s church has been restored to the earth through the prophet Joseph Smith in 1820. What amazing knowledge that is that we get to share with others here!! I love bus conversations :)

The work:

• The first snow fell this week! I have heard so much about how beautiful Estonia is in the winter with snow covering everything...I am so excited to experience it (also slightly terrified for the below freezing temperatures and no sunlight hahah but hey...there are so many other things to be happy about!). We had a snowball fight with our investigator’s 8-year-old granddaughter! She took apart her snowman to throw it at us so you could say things got pretty serious...;)

• Õde Durfee and I went to Riga, Latvia for a missionary leadership meeting on Wednesday!! SO good to see Sister Bruner and Sister Goodell. We served in the Utah Missionary Training Center together.

• I also got to spend some time with a new missionary in Riga named Sister Whiteman! Apparently she and her companion ran into my brother, a teacher at the MTC, before she came to Riga. So Abraham, she says hello! :) 

• After knocking some houses of people who learned about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints a long time ago, we came back to give the elders a piece of paper with some information on it. They came down with warm muffins and hot tea for us!! Isn’t that so nice?? 

• Elder Rau (on the left in the photo above) moves to Tallinn tomorrow. I have served with him for my entire mission so far! Tšau! 

Our district

• We had a wonderful lesson with a woman who investigated the Church many years ago! I had a really cool experience as we were talking to her. After a little while of talking, we asked her what her questions were in life. She didn’t say much, she just said that she was getting old (she is about 70 years old). We wanted to help answer her questions but didn’t know what they were. Maybe she didn’t even know what her questions were. But as I was sitting there, the Spirit whispered to me, "Her question is what more should she do in her life...she knows there is a reason she is still alive, but she doesn’t know what more there is for her to do." I expressed to her this question that came to my mind, saying that possibly that was her question. She seemed a little shocked, and she thought deeply after I said that and testified to her that Christ knows her perfectly, and knows exactly what her questions are. I am grateful the Spirit placed her question in my mind so that I could tell her that Christ knew her perfectly and knows exactly what she is thinking and feeling. I am grateful for that truth - that Christ knows us and loves us perfectly. He suffered the Atonement for us so that He could know us and understand us perfectly so He could know best how to help us. That is actually how I have thought about the Atonement for a long time. I imagine a loooong line of people (all of God’s children). Then I imagine Jesus taking each one of us by the shoulders, looking us in the eyes lovingly, and saying, "OK, Eliza. I love you. Let’s do this together." Then He goes through your life with you (all the good and bad times and experiences, feeling all of it). Then after your life finishes, He looks you in the eyes again and says, "OK, we did it! I love you." Then He moves on to the person next to you and does the same thing for them. Again and again and again. Yes, that is how He knows each of us individually I believe....because He suffered and experienced individually for each of us! 

Culture:

If a driver hits someone here, the driver loses her/his license!

Pre-snow pictures

Funny:

OK so the word for "bus station" in Estonian is "bussijaam." Well, from day 1 here in Estonia, we have referred to the bus station as "bussijaam." Even when we are speaking English to each other, we still call the bus station, "bussijaam." So I guess my mind thought "bussijaam" truly was the word for “bus station” in English! Well, when we were in Riga, we were trying to coordinate something with some of the Russian sister missionaries, and I kept saying that we were at "bussijaam," and for some reason, she wasn’t understanding what I was saying...I was so confused. I kept saying, "We are at bussijaam!" And then finally Õde Durfee turned to me and said with a smile, "bus station...." HAHAHAHA I died. It finally made sense why for 2 minutes they were not understanding me! Wow going back to America and trying to speak English again is going to be rough hahahaha.

Spiritual thought:

I am so so excited to share what I learned this week with all of you!!!  So in the Book of Mormon, it talks about a group of people that were taught by prophets to "believe in him to come as though he already was." (Jarom 1:11)  

Think about that...believe in Christ as though He already was. Meaning, if this 2nd coming of Christ that we talk so much about had happened yesterday, for example...meaning if Christ were already roaming among us, how would we act? What would we change? 

That is a big question to ponder. It’s a question that will make all of us squirm in our chairs a bit because we are so imperfect. When the prophets taught this to the people, it did "prick their hearts...continually stirring them up unto repentance." (Jarom 1:12) 

The good thing is this - Christ knows we are not perfect!! By the time He does actually come to reign on this earth again, we will still not have become perfect. We will always be bettering ourselves every day. But He wants us to do just that - better ourselves each day. Because the prophets taught these people to live in a way as if Christ were already there, they were "continually stirred up unto repentance," meaning they were bettering themselves every day. 

I know that if we are striving to better ourselves in little things every day, we will be ready when the Savior comes. Just like it says later in the Book of Mormon, "[W]hosoever should believe that Christ should come, the same might receive remission of their sins, and rejoice with exceedingly great joy, even as though he had already come among them." (Mosiah 3:13)

After reading and pondering this thought, I have started bettering an aspect of my life. I can testify that as I have been trying to better that certain aspect, I have felt even closer to the Savior Jesus Christ. 

I know you can too :)

Trust in the Lord. Choose joy. Find peace.

Õde Smith-Driggs

Enos 1:4-8: 

4 And my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens.

5 And there came a voice unto me, saying: Enos, thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou shalt be blessed.

6 And I, Enos, knew that God could not lie; wherefore, my guilt was swept away.

7 And I said: Lord, how is it done?

8 And he said unto me: Because of thy faith in Christ, whom thou hast never before heard nor seen. And many years pass away before he shall manifest himself in the flesh; wherefore, go to, thy faith hath made thee whole.

Saunas and Cemeteries

TERE!!!

FIRST OF ALL!!! It was my sister’s birthday yesterday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLIVIA! She is 18, folks. 18 years old...what an age ;) Hope you had a great day, babe! 

Well, this week we had a great conversation with a girl walking her hamster (yes, her hamster), and we raked leaves in a cemetery with a babushka, so you can say it has been a good week :) 

The work:

• The investigator that I talked about last week is doing well!! We met with her with another member of the Church and talked a little more about baptism. The member we brought with us had also been baptized a member of a different church before joining the Church of Jesus Christ, so it was good for them to connect and understand each other. Our investigator is still grasping the idea of needing to be baptized again. But as we meet more and as she reads the Book of Mormon more, we have faith that she will understand eventually :)

• We had a first lesson with another awesome woman who wants to read the Book of Mormon and learn more about the Church of Jesus Christ. She came to English night a few weeks ago, and we set up to meet after English night. She has seen visions and is an animal whisperer, so that’s cool :) Bummer, because we found out she is moving to Germany in November and doesn’t come back until April. But hey, at least we can meet until November, and she can start to understand the importance of and grow a love for the Book of Mormon!

Feeling "free"

• Interesting experience happened on the bus...I started talking to a woman next to me. After a few pleasantries, she just looked at me and said, "Te olete vaba." That means, "You are free." She could sense that something about my spirit (or my "aura," if you will) was "free." I testified to her that that free feeling I had was because of Jesus Christ. Wow. I am realizing right now as I write this that becoming "free" from the burdens of those I am teaching (as I described in my letter 2 weeks ago) is something I have been praying for and working on, and what she recognized in me was "freedom." Wow, I guess that is a sign to me from God that my working with God and my fervent prayer really is working to free myself from the burdens that I have unnecessarily placed on my back. I have been working to give those burdens to Christ, and it seems to be working! I am so grateful to God and Jesus Christ for their help in this process! 

• A woman gave these flowers to me on the bus, and we ended up giving them to a less active woman we teach. AND it gave us an excuse to drop by another person’s house that we are beginning to develop a relationship with. Not a coincidence that we had flowers to give to her which resulted in a 30-minute chat with her! 

• The mission office changed locations.  Here is the new address:

COP Latvia/Baltic Mission

Õde Eliza Smith-Driggs

Lacplesa iela 71

Riga LV 1011

LATVIA

(It’s also updated on the right-hand side of the blog.)

We carved pumpkins with another less active girl this week. Happy Halloween everyone!

Fun exchange with Sister Nelson last week!

Funny:

• Õde Durfee and I slept talked to each other in Estonian this week...we are taking our mission rule of speaking Estonian to each other from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. to a whoooole different level ;)

Culture:

• Baby strollers are HARD CORE here because of the winters...they are super bulky and super huge to protect the little baby Estonians and make it possible for mothers/fathers to travel around on the busses and streets!

• Saunas are a big deal here in Estonia. I described what they do in saunas in a past email in my culture section. We never get to go to a sauna as missionaries because people don’t wear clothes in saunas hahaha. BUT we play sports at a recreation center now, and it had a sauna in the dressing room!!! So Õde Durfee and I took a picture in it. (It wasn’t on, and no one was inside, don’t worry!) 

Spiritual thought:

Every one of us is a teacher of some sort. We are an older sibling, parent, aunt or uncle, missionary, professor, friend, church leader/teacher, boss or manager of a company, or leader of any kind. I read this week that the best teachers are those that pray as they teach. That does not just pertain to "sit down lessons" when an official teacher gives a lecture or leads a discussion about any sort of topic. This kind of teaching pertains to the conversations parents have with their children while driving them to the dentist. The conversations older siblings have with younger siblings as the younger sibling is having a hard time with friends. The conversations bosses have with their workers as they patiently teach them a new or better way to work. The conversations missionaries have with people struggling to see God’s hand in their life, or why they would even want to find God in their life.  The best teachers are those that pray as they teach. You can pray for love for the person you are talking with. You can pray for patience. You can pray to know what to say and when, and you can pray to know when to just listen. You can pray for the ability to understand the other’s point of view. You can pray for them to understand your point of view. The best teachers are those that pray as they teach.

Since we are all teachers, I encourage us all to find ways to pray for and with those we are teaching. As we do so, we will be filled with the gift of charity, or the pure love of Christ. We will understand each other more and therefore be able to help and love each other more. 

I love you all, and I hope you know that God loves you and knows you individually. You are a child of God. No matter what, He loves you :)

Trust in the Lord. Choose joy. Find peace.

Õde Smith-Driggs

2 Nephi 9:18: But, behold, the righteous, the saints of the Holy One of Israel, they who have believed in the Holy One of Israel, they who have endured the crosses of the world, and despised the shame of it, they shall inherit  the kingdom of God, which was prepared for them from the foundation of the world, and their joy shall be full forever.

Stab Wounds and Emergency Rooms

TERE!!! OK, yes, if you want the story related to the title, get ready for the "Funnies" section of this email :)

This week was amazing as always! 

Shout out to my sister Olivia for sending me this cool shirt!!!!

The work:

• Our investigator wants to be BAPTIZED!!!!! Oh my goodness, it was such a cool lesson. Õde Durfee and I had planned a lesson, and when we got in there, the Spirit led us to say completely different things than we planned. Õde Durfee started talking about repentance (meeleparandus in Estonian...which literally means "change of mind"), and that led to a discussion of other commandments God has given us. As we were sitting there and talking about repentance, the Spirit helped me realize that our investigator was excited about what we were teaching her. It made sense to her. She loved it and wanted to know what to do with the newfound knowledge she had received. The Spirit of the Lord told me, "She needs somewhere to put all her newfound energy! Invite her to be baptized! That way she will have a goal and something to have her energy work towards..." So, I said, "We have been talking about commandments. Another commandment God has given us is baptism." Õde Durfee told me later that she was really surprised because it wasn’t our plan to invite her to be baptized, but Õde Durfee is so amazing and she just went with it and started testifying about baptism too!! Our investigator said she had already been baptized. Õde Durfee asked her if she had received the gift of the Holy Ghost. She said no. We explained that when we are baptized with God’s authority (meaning, when we are baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the only church on earth that has God’s authority), we then become clean and have the opportunity to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. The gift of the Holy Ghost is the opportunity to feel those good feelings of peace, joy, and happiness (she feels while praying and reading the Book of Mormon right now) ALL THE TIME! Once she realized this key difference of the gift we receive when baptized with God’s authority, she was so excited and starting checking her work schedule for a date to be baptized. She is so good. And she said that she understands the responsibility that comes with baptism, so we are excited to continue teaching her about how to prepare for baptism and how to live as Jesus Christ’s disciple after baptism! Please pray that she will continue to have an excited desire to learn!

• I talked with a woman on the bus and complimented her cute jacket. After talking for a bit, she said she wanted to meet and talk about how Jesus Christ can make her feel less depressed. We started talking on the bus at 12:30 p.m., and met at 2:30 that same day! Haha that’s never happened to me or Õde Durfee before...anyway, the meeting went well, and she took a Book of Mormon and said she would read it. Then the next day, after I got off a bus, she texted us and said that she heard me complimenting someone else’s jacket, and she never wanted to talk to us again...so that is a big bummer. But at least she has a Book of Mormon now! :)

• Õde Durfee noticed a woman picking acorns up from the ground, so we went over to help her. She was picking the acorns to give to her son for a school project they are doing. (They are taking the acorns into the forest to feed to the squirrels!) Long story short, we ended up crouching down with her and picking up TONS of acorns and teaching her all about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ as we picked acorns! We exchanged numbers, so hopefully we can meet up again with her :)

I wanted to share two awesome quotes from this week:

“You’re never too young to learn; you’re never too old to change.”

“Christ is not the light at the end of the tunnel, He is the light IN the tunnel.” - Sherri Dew

Watercoloring with a less active member!

Funnies:

OK HERE’S THE STORY:

So we do Family Home Evening with the youth here on Monday nights. Õde Durfee and I decided to make soup all together, write notes, and then deliver the soup to the youth's friends and family! Great idea, right? Hahah, well yeah the soup turned out fine, but Elder Gregory's leg didn’t. We used knives to cut up the vegetables for the soup. We cut up all the vegetables, and Õde Durfee and I went home for the night to go boil them, make the soup, and deliver it the next day. Well, we were just minding our own business at home (listening to the prophet’s conference talk while Õde Durfee was cutting up beets and I was eating apples and peanut butter), and the elders called us at 9:30 at night saying they needed us to go back to the church to get Elder Gregory's insurance card. Elder Rau said Elder Gregory had been stabbed by one of the knives we used to cut up vegetables!! Elder Gregory had just moved here to Pärnu, so all his suitcases that had his first aid kit and his insurance card were (miraculously) still at the church. We called a taxi and went to the church. When we opened the church doors, it literally looked like a crime scene. Stuff was everywhere because they had been looking for his first aid kit in all his suitcases, there was a bloody shirt on the couch, and the lights were dim so it was super creepy hahahaha. 

Anyway, we found his insurance card, called a taxi again (it ended up being the same driver who picked us up because it was 10 at night in the small town of Pärnu), and he drove us to the emergency room to meet the elders. The driver at the end said, "Well, am I taking you anywhere else tonight?” Lol. We ended up waiting in the emergency room waiting room for about an hour and a half with the elders. Elder Gregory was totally fine - he was cracking jokes through all of it....hahahah and good thing the emergency room has good hot chocolate (who knew?).

Elder Gregory got 3 stitches, and we got home around midnight. What a night!!! :) 

Also funny quote from Sister Durfee this week: "I just stopped moving, and I realized I’m still asleep." Hahaha life of tired, hard-working missionaries right there lol.

Culture:

A woman we befriended on the bus knitted us hats!

Well, they don’t technically celebrate Halloween or Thanksgiving here in Estonia, so Õde Durfee and I took the liberty of setting up CHRISTMAS in our apartment :)))

Shoutout to my stake young women who sent me this!! Thank you all!!

Spiritual thought:

I have LOVED doing the Book of Mormon challenge our dear prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, extended to us! I have been reading 7 pages of the Book of Mormon a day to finish it before the year’s end.

I wanted to share one insight I was reminded of reading through my notes. 1 Nephi 18:3 talks about the prophet Nephi praying often to the Lord and the Lord showing marvelous things to him. I was reminded that God “showing” himself unto us simply means “revelation” and “guidance.” In other words, God “shows” himself unto us by placing thoughts in our heads and placing feelings of love in our hearts! So we all “see” God in our lives a lot more than we think we do!

I want to finish with this quote one of people the elders are teaching said: "Life has not become easier, it has become better." I testify that living the gospel of Jesus Christ to the best of our ability makes life better. :)

I love you all!

Trust in the Lord. Choose joy. Find peace. 

Õde Smith-Driggs

1 Nephi 21:23 "I am the Lord; for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me."

BELIEVE, LOVE , DO

TERE!!! Mu kallid sõbrad!

So remember how I said last week that we visited the sketchiest dome in Pärnu? Jk  - this dome beats it:

Jk - no one lives there - lol.

The work:

• Well, a lady taught me how to tie a scarf on the bus AND we bought a candle that smells like Christmas today AND bought Christmas lights...so you can say it’s been a good week!!! :) 

• I hope you all enjoyed General Conference (a worldwide conference when members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gather to hear our prophet, the good man that speaks for God today, SPEAK!). The first session of conference we had technical problems with hearing the sound, so midway through the second talk, we finally just turned on the sound on someone’s smart phone and listened to the rest of the session. The next afternoon, the Relief Society (8 women in Pärnu) came together to hear the General Conference session directed toward the women of the Church, and again we had technical problems haha. So Õde Durfee and I gave an on-the-spot Relief Society lesson for about 30 minutes until it all started working again. Super fun!! Then my brain was officially fried after hearing straight Estonian translation for many hours, so we and the elders watched the Sunday morning session (Sunday night here) in English. Wow that was SO POWERFUL! We still haven’t watched the final session because we are watching it next Sunday with the branch. I LOVE General Conference, and I pray that any of you who watched it heard and felt answers to your questions.

Companion exchange with THE Sister Tullis, 

my dear friend, in TALLINN!! Gotta love rain storms :)

• On a bus in Tallinn this week, I talked with a wonderful old lady. She started crying to me, telling me her husband passed away in April. I gently rested my hand on hers, looked in her eyes, and said joyfully, "I have good news for you. You can see your husband again!" I then went on to read Mosiah 16:7-9 which says: 

7 And if Christ had not risen from the dead, or have broken the bands of death that the grave should have no victory, and that death should have no sting, there could have been no resurrection.

8 But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ.

9 He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be mo more death.

It was a very powerful moment being able to testify to her that because Jesus Christ was resurrected, WE will all be resurrected. She and her husband will one day be reunited. She left that bus with hope in her eyes. As she waved me goodbye, I felt a lot of peace in my heart, knowing that even if she never meets up with the missionaries in this life, she can remember a conversation she had with a young sister missionary on a bus who told her she can hug her husband again.

• We made leaps and bounds this week on working with less active members of the Church!! We are now meeting with members and having the members write notes to the less active members. We deliver the notes, but the members write them (we all write some together!). We also are meeting with less active members WITH active members. This has shown the members how simple it is to befriend less active members of the Church, ultimately creating a feeling of love and unity that will cause the less active member to want to come back to Church hopefully! It is all very exciting to see this work move forward! We are doing our best to do what the Savior would do in helping this beloved branch in Pärnu thrive. As I said this week, "We are not in survival mode...we are in thrival mode!" 

• Many of you ask me in personal emails what the "honest scoop" is...like how I am actually doing? You’ll all be happy to know that I am very honest in my group letters, and I honestly put a lot of how I am feeling into these emails! But I wrote out some more of how I am feeling to some of my close friends and family last week and felt the need to share parts of that with all of you :) 

So here’s the honest scoop - I AM SO HAPPY! I truly was thinking about it the other day, and I just feel so balanced right now. I know who I am and why I am here. I am confident that even though most of the time I get flat out rejected that that doesn’t mean I am any less of a person or missionary. I am building up my teaching skills slowly but surely. I am understanding the language 90% of the time and can converse with people pretty freely... MEANING that the very thing that I love to do - get to know people and why they tick - I can now do with anyone and everyone I meet! Old, young, medium -aged...everyone. It is a freeing feeling. I am obedient, but I also realize the balance between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. I have become a lot more forgiving of myself.

I have learned that God loves me NO MATTER WHAT because I am His daughter. I look at myself everyday in the mirror and say out loud, “Ma olen jumala ilus tütar. Ta armastab mind, ja mina armastan Teda.” Meaning, “I am God’s beautiful daughter. He loves me, and I love him.” AND I BELIEVE THAT! I understand that God’s blessings are conditional, but His love IS NOT.

I have also learned how to really pray. Every morning and night, I get out my prayer notebook and write the promptings that come to my head (no matter if they are about me personally, the people I am teaching, reminders to take certain vitamins(!!), people I need to call or email, etc). After writing those promptings down, I ACT on them. If God tells me to take certain vitamins, I take them. Last week He told me to put moleskin on my foot. I put moleskin on my foot :) I have learned that God gives us promptings of things to do through the Holy Ghost, and He gives us more promptings the more He trusts us. When He trusts us, that means He has seen more than enough times that when He tells us to do something, we try our very best to do it. Even if we cannot do it, He knows when we tried. Simply trying gains His trust! His trust in me is something I hope I will always be growing, and I am grateful to have seen that trust grow as I have come to truly and deeply understand my identity and purpose. 

I have such dear friends here in Estonia. Sister Tullis and Sister Durfee to just name two. I have come to adore the dear people I work with, especially the members.

Something I have had a hard time with, but something I am working on actively right now, is not taking on the burdens of those I teach and help. There are many I work with here that have had extremely hard lives and are going through extremely hard things. They are very open people here and blunt, and they really tell you everything when you care about them. Because we care about them, they open up to us. For over 6 months here in Pärnu, I have heard and seen a lot. Because of that, and because I have an empathetic soul, I have allowed their burdens to become my own. I am working on correcting that. CHRIST has already taken on their burdens, so I cannot take them on myself. As Sister Durfee says, "Don’t try to hold up the sky...that’s Christ’s job. The sky will crush you. Just hold up your one star!" 

I read another quote 2 weeks ago, and it has become something I read, ponder, and try to embrace every day. “If you are free [from] serious sin yourself, don’t suffer needlessly the consequences of another’s sins. ...You can feel compassion. ...Yet you should not take upon yourself a feeling of responsibility. ...When you have done what is reasonable to help one you love, lay the burden at the feet of the Savior. ...As you so act, not only will you find peace but will demonstrate your faith in the power of the Savior to lift the burden of sin from a loved one through his [or her] repentance and obedience.” - Elder Richard G. Scott

That quote explains exactly how I have been feeling and what I have been now trying to do! I pray every day that God will help me release the burdens that are on me that I don’t need to carry. I am doing my best to love these people, and that’s all Christ and Heavenly Father want me to do.....Wow, love really is the root of everything. 

I’m grateful to experience seeing wonder in people’s eyes as we walk past and talk with them...they really do wonder where our light comes from. I’m grateful to be learning slowly but surely how to explain to others HOW they can have that same light. That same JOY. That same peace.

How grateful I am to know that even if people I talk to are not interested at all, as long as I leave them with a smile on their face (which is all the time!!), then I left them better than I found them. I let them feel a little portion of that joy that only Jesus Christ can offer. 

I am happy. I am balanced. I laugh a lot and just have a blast. Sister Durfee and I make so many goals and plans, and I am at peace if we don’t end up completing all of them because I know that there is learning in even MAKING the plans, so no effort was wasted.

Yeah, that’s a big lesson I have learned. No effort is wasted. I am so so grateful to be here, and I am so so grateful to know of my identity and purpose so deeply. :)

Funnies:

"I love setting things on fire in the fall..." - Elder Widmann says with a mischievous smile on his face...

We made this chocolate box G-rated:)

Culture:

We eat pizza with a fork and knife here! 

Beautiful Estonia!

Spiritual thought:

I read in the Book of Mormon this week about a dad. His sons came to him, telling him they wanted to go serve missions. They wanted to “preach, bring, convince, rejoice, become friendly with, stop contention, and declare” to the people! That is a good thing for those sons to want! The amazing thing is, the dad still prays to the Lord to ask if he should let his sons go or not. He asked the Lord! The choice in front of him was a good one - his sons were wanting to do a good thing. But the dad still asked the Lord if He had something better in mind for them. 

The lesson I learned from this is to ask for the Lord’s counsel, direction, and confirmation with all choices - big and small. Even if the choice you are about to make seems like a good, righteous choice, it is still important to ask the Lord to make sure he doesn’t have something better planned for you! 

So my invitation to all who want one this week is very simple! Whatever choice you are making right now (whether it seems like the best choice or not) - ask God about it. Ask Him in prayer. Listen patiently, then act on what you feel. Develop the habit to ask God, even for confirmation. :)

As Elder Uchtdorf said in General Conference this weekend, "Believe, love, do." Believe that God will answer your question if you are seeking it earnestly, love Him and His guidance (and I add, remember that He loves you), and then do what He says. :)

I love the Book of Mormon. I encourage you all to read it! I am participating in our prophet’s challenge to read the Book of Mormon before the end of the year, marking when it talks about our Lord and Savior and best friend, Jesus Christ...I started with the title page this morning and am striving to finish it from front to back before the year’s end. It’s going to be a stretch - I only have a little less than an hour every day to read it, because of our busy missionary schedule, BUT God doesn’t provide a commandment without a way to accomplish it, so here we go!!!! :)

I love you all and hope you feel my prayers for you. You are so so loved by Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. No matter what. :)

Trust in the Lord. Choose joy. Find peace.

Õde Smith-Driggs

1 John 4:19: “We love him, because he first loved us.”