The People Around Us

I love people. People are the sprinkles to my donut, the frosting to my cake, the Michael to my Tito, and the Batman to my Robin. As I have been in the mission field I've had to seperate myself from people that I have known for a while. My family and ward back home, friends from highschool, my friends from college. People just in my everyday life. But you know what? When I find myelf in a new place, a new area with a new missionary to work with it's just one huge opportunity. Who of these people I now see can be my new friend? We are spirit children of a loving Heavenly Father. Surely we can aspire to love and befriend others as he loves and befriends us? One of the best scriptures that tells us of this is found in Matthew Chapter 5 Verses 44-45. Its here that he tells us to love our enemies and bless them that curse us and in verse 45 He says that we should do these things that we may be the children of him, our Father who is in Heaven. I always think, "if he asks us to bless them that curse us how much more can we do for someone we just met!?" So, in closing, people are awesome, Jesus Christ is a inspired teacher and I have faith in Him and in His teachings. I know that by following his counsel and being a blessing to lives of the people around us we can make the people around us our friends. The people that I have served and served with are my friends. I love them and I care for them. They are good people who are, like me, striving to better their relationship with our Father in Heaven and our elder brother, Jesus Christ. It is my hope that we can all better ourselves and be that good friend and blessing to those around us!

Among the Things I've Noticed

Some things that I have noticed as I have been serving as a missionary are that people are weird. Like, really weird. There are so many differences between each and every one of us. All of us have a trait or something we do that someone else thinks is just the weirdest thing they've ever seen. But another thing I've noticed is God's love for all of us. It runs so deep that it permeates all people, all differences, all life. What gladness this gives my heart! What a connecting link we all share! We are of course imperfect, but God loves us perfectly anyway. The love that we show to others around us is just an extention of the love that we have for God. So, at the very least we can love God, and when we love God, that love boils over to everyone. What a simple concept.