A Journal for Britt: 06/30/14: Part 2

This Christlike love is called charity! The prophet Moroni (in the Book of Mormon) said that we are nothing without charity. Perhaps it is because charity is the closest thing that we have to feel the hand of God in our lives. In order to work miracles or bestow tender mercies in our lives, often times God works through the charitable selfless hands of a parent, a spouse, a child, a friend, a colleague, an aquaintance, and sometimes even a stranger. I firmly believe that as we become more like the perfect example of our elder brother, Jesus Christ, we turn outward, forgetting ourselves and serving our fellow man through acts of love and kindness. In so doing we forget our own sorrow, struggles and strife because we have given them to someone much greater and far more capable to carry it than ourselves. Someone who invites all the day long to give our burdens to him (Matthew 11:28-30). Because he lived a perfect life, suffered died and ressurrected, we too can live after this life in a state of happiness and find joy in our journey NOW.

´´Let us remember that through any ilness or dificult challenge, there is still much in life to be hopeful about and grateful for. We are infinitely more that our limitations, or our afflictions,´´ or if I may add, our trials and burdens. There exists a way by which we can find the happiness, peace, and comfort that we so desire, despite the challenges that we face. We can be grateful.

I just want to close this letter with the words of our living prophet and my own feelings! ´´´We know that there are times when we will experience heartbreaking sorry, when we will grieve and when we may be tested to our limits. However such difficulties allow us to change for the better, to rebuild our lives in the way our Heavenly Father teaches us, and to become something different from what we were- better than we were, more empathetic than we were, with stronger testimonies than we had before. This should be our purpose- to perservere and endure, yes, but also to become more spiritually refined through sunshine and sorrow. were it not for the challenges to overcome and problems to solve, we would remain much as we are, with little or no progress toward our goal of eternal life.´´

Good timer does not grow with ease

The stronger the wind the stronger the trees

the further the sky, the great the length

the more the storm the more the strength

By sun and cold, by rain and snow

In trees and men good timbers grow

I know that God lives and that he loves us. I know that he sent his son to die for us, to create a more excellent way that we might make it through our journey in this life to return to live in His presence. I know that there is no pain we feel, no tear we cry, no sadness we experience, no burden we carry or trial we pass through that our Savior does not already know personally because he experienced it himself. I know that the perfect plan God created for us is a plan of happiness, we just have to follow it! I love my dear family and friends at home and send all of my love to you!!

Sister Brittany Westover :)

Also other news... Yesterday I went to pick up Josenilson for church and I always have to wake him up because he is with a hangover but yesterday I visited him and he hadn´t even dranken anything yesterday or the day before! This was literally an AMAZING miracle!! I cried a little bit because I honestly was so happy for him. The last time he tried to stop drinking he went to the hospital and was super sick because he has such a strong addiction but this week Sister Palacios and I and his good friend and our recent convert (Jose Mesenga) all prayed for him and the Lord blessed us with a miracle. Oh how I love this work