Hello My Loyal Subjects

Food trucks are the best thing! I LOVE them!

Today, I wish to speak understandably of hard days. They have, and do, and will come.

 A few lines from poet Sarah Kay:

 "There will be days like this (she says, speaking of hard days)

 Days when you open your hands to catch, and only wind up with bruises.

 When you step out of the phone booth to fly, and the very ones you're trying to save are the ones standing on your cape."

 And perhaps as a missionary in the Arizona, Gilbert Mission, I can add "when you hop on your bike to find someone in need of Jesus and only wind up with a sunburn and mild heat exhaustion."

 "There will be days like this (Sarah Kay continues)

 When life socks you in the jaw, waits for you to get back up, just so it can kick you in the stomach. (rude)

 But getting the wind knocked out of you, is the only way to remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air." (Which is just a silly way of saying what Lehi and Alma teach us when they teach us that there must needs be opposition in all things.)

 Yes, there will be hard days. But you have to know the bitter to know the sweet. Which is why I am on a mission. It's to dedicate all of my time to helping people know the sweet of life. Life seems to do a splendid job of bringing the bitter. Let's help people find the sweet that God has provided.

 Last week Sister Donaldson and I were asked to teach Relief Society in one of our family wards on finding joy. What it boiled down to was this: if you want to find joy, you have to go to the Creator of it.

 In the scriptures, we read of people whose lives seem built out of hard days. Lehi's family left a cushy home and had to learn to survive in the wilderness, Abinadi was imprisoned and later become a martyr for a cause he believed in. Alma's son led many people to the bitterness life has to offer before his visit from an angel and subsequent conversion, Samuel the Lamanite faced persecution by stones and arrows, the Nephites spent years in harsh bondage. On and on we go, life is hard. But it was the joy of the gospel of Jesus Christ that allowed them to push forward, to be at peace even in the midst of some of the worst hardships a soul can encounter.

 It was the joy of promised safety that led Lehi to lead his family into the wilderness.

 It was the joy of helping a fellow child of God find the joy God has offered that allowed Abinadi to accept a painful death and go down testifying.

 It was the joy of knowing that this life is not the end, that there's something unimaginably glorious awaiting us, that allowed the Nephites to suffer for years at the hands of the Lamanites.

 It was the joy of being able to offer all of us peace and salvation and real joy that propelled our Savior to the Cross and beyond.  

Sister D, Miriam the RS President, and recent converts Grace and Kas

Perhaps finding joy in the middle of a hard day, or week, or year, or a lifetime, isn't always easy. But it is possible.

 This mission I have embarked on is sometimes really hard. Perpetual 6:30 am mornings are rough. Approaching people on the street and stumbling over my words as I do so is quite the exhausting mental game. Figuring out how to trust and listen for the Spirit can be disappointing. There are moments of fear, homesickness, selfishness, doubt, exhaustion, bitterness, and heartache. I knew and experienced these things before my mission. But on my mission, I've been able to experience the kind of happiness that burns a little. It makes me feel on top of the world like I'm unconquerable. It turns me into a glowing creature, sends me soaring, fills me up and carries me along. Those moments are always powerful, but so far they have been brief. And then I'm back to so called reality. Then it's 6:30 in the morning, then I'm awkwardly striking up a conversation with a stranger, then I'm struggling to feel the spirit, to focus on my purpose.

 Let's bring it back to God. If we want joy that leaves an impression on our hearts, we have to go to the Author of joy and the Creator of our hearts. We have to go to God. But how? I have a question for you that I need you to ponder and then be honest with yourself. Is God the most important person in your life? Is He really? Do you treat Him as such? When I first heard this question it hurt. Because no, not really, not like He should be. Thankfully, because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ that allows us to change, we can turn God into the most important Person.

 What I've realized is this, if we want God to be the most important person in our lives, we have to love those most important to Him. Us. We need to love His beloved children. We need to love our family, our friends, our neighbors, our fellow participants in this grand game of life. As you do so, I can promise you that the joy so many people seek after will be yours. As God becomes the most important person in your life, He will hand you joy, and give you enough to share.

 I love God, I love you, and I love this life, even the hard days.

 Go love somebody today, please and thanks.

 Love,

Sister Barlow

Humidity, my old friend, I have not missed you!