General Conference!

From: Jennifer Juker <jennifer.juker@myldsmail.net>
Date: Mon, Oct 3, 2011 at 4:24 AM
Subject: General Conference!

 
Hello everyone! 

This week has been a test of everything! Things falling through, unexpected things, as well as tons of blessings! Its a whole lot like life though if you think about it. No matter where we are in life, no matter how good we think we have it the variables of life take only seconds to change. Its a deep thought. But as a counteractor of sorts I am reminded of a scripture Helaman 5:12. "And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." When we go through out our lives there are so many things that get in the way of our relationship that we are trying to develop with God and Christ. We let the "To Do" lists get in the way of what really matters most. The time we spend is precious. We need to make sure that what we spend it on is of eternal consequence and not just for the everyday variable. I know that when we are built on Christ we are not promised that the whirlwind will stop and that all will be perfect and peaceful but that we will be sustained so much that we cannot fall. The hard things dont ever disappear, how would we ever develop spiritual muscles if we took our heavy burdens away. Christ strengthens us when we ask for help. I know that because I have tested it. I have tried to go without His help, do it my way, my version of "alone". When in reality He is always there lifting just as hard as we are. It's miserable to struggle through life by your lonesome. I know that Christ is there We NEED Him even if we aren't willing to admit it to ourselves! Ok random ramblings over =)

We have a baptism in SWEDEN! Well we have lots but one just here in Västra Frölunda! This saturday! We are super excited to get it done and help our sweet investigator grow in her testimony of Christ and God. We also were able to meet with our other baptismal date and create a new date when he will be baptised! That teach was funny. He always refers to the church as "the church of the mormons" we haven't really thought of correcting it much. Then as we were inviting him to come watch general conference we showed him the apostles in the last conference issue he took it and read the churches full name. "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" and said "Wait?! are the mormons The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?" We explained yes and he shared with us a story of when he was in Ghana and his family gave the church one of their houses. He has been prepared for a long time now. He was able to attend the saturday morning session on saturday night and absolutely loved it. It was so cool to run from the church, literally, to the spårvagn stop to pick him up and  bring him into the chapel to listen to the prophets and apostles! 

General Conference just gets better and better. Did you get to watch it? What was your favorite talk? Mine was definitely, at least so far President Monson's talk on Sunday morning. We haven't watched the afternoon session yet. That's for this Yhursday night with a few investigators. You know you have faith when you can announce the next speaker knowing full well that he is not in the temple. This brings about the challenge time! I love these challenges, don't think that I just dish them out to all of you who read these. They are also things that I am working on as well. =) Anyway, We NEED the Spirit! No matter what we do we can live in a way to recieve the guidence from the Spirit to accomplish what our Father in Heaven would have us do. Since being on my mission I have definitely felt the blessings of having an extra measure of the Spirit when we are all living worthy and willing to follow the promptings. I know that in order to recieve the inspriation of the spirit we must be living worthy of the spirit. Now in a way its sort of a plea to repent and do better. But even more so it is a plea to do better. I know that there are many things that we are "supposed" to be doing so that we can "recieve" blessings. If we are doing those things for that reason thats good but there is a better way. We must be living everyday with Faith and hope knowing that when we stick out our hand to God that He will lift us. So the challenge this week is to do a little better, do some repenting if need be ( i know we all need it) and to smile because God loves you and it is witnessed to you if you but look around and notice the little blessings in each day! 

Thank you all for loves and words of encouragement! I hope that you all have a great week and remember to focus on the good things and Smile because of them! Im praying for you!

Love you
Syster Juker

pictures =) my scripture case! I need a picture of Charity!, a weird crazy misty evening after some conference sessions