Happy New Year!!

It's 2013! I partied hard. And by partied hard - I mean we went to bed at 10:30 and worked at the Visitors Center on New Years Eve. I wrote some goals in my journal and called it a day. This week has flown by! I honestly don't even know where it went, but it was a very eventful week... here are the highlights.

1. We went to the temple! Yay! It was the BEST! Seriously. So peaceful. So perfect. We get to go twice a year and so we went on December 29, the last day we could go in 2012. We were supposed to go with Ray but the scheduling got mixed up so we just went ourselves. I am so grateful for the blessings of the temple in my life.

2. Joyce is progressing really well and is going to quit smoking! We are working out a plan for how it will all go down. I told her that I'd give up treats at the same time so that we could go through it together. I figure better to do it now so I can offset the road to diabetes that I am on... Dad all your diabetes comments scared me straight! Joyce has been smoking since she was 14! But she is bound and determined to quit and she knows that the Lord will help her. She has so much faith.

3. I got my first drunk dial! One of the men that we had kind of been working with called us at 4:30 in the morning. For whatever reason he only remembers my name... he left a barely understandable message and clearly at the end was like "I love you." So awkward.

4. It snowed! Sister Ho Ching and I went out and played in the snow. Of course. The Californian and the Samoan were the only ones that wanted to enjoy the fresh powder. We made a beautiful snow missionary... and then someone knocked it down with the broom that was sitting on OUR porch. They killed our snowman with our broom. So rude! But she was pretty cute. We spent a lot of time tracting in the snow and it was the best! Sister Sant was hating it, but I for whatever reason loved it. It's a Christmas miracle. 

5. One of our investigators asked if John the Baptist was a Baptist. Never thought of that before!

I've found myself rather distracted recently... like all the time. We have a lot of free time at the visitor center because it's been a lot slower recently. I have been so easily distracted! I think I learned too much from my seven year olds! So I have been using lots of that free time to study the Christlike attribute of diligence. I had no idea that diligence was so important. If you aren't diligent its really hard to qualify for the Spirit, because you aren't giving everything you have and are to the work.  If you are diligent you can work hard and know that you have done everything you could do. There is always a little more that we can do, but it is by those small and simple things that we are more fully converted. By doing the little things we qualify for the Spirit. Read your scriptures and pray daily, and attend church. SO simple. I think I've posted this scripture at least once before but I just love it! 

"Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed." -D&C 123:17.

So this is my resolution for the New Year. To cheerfully do all things that lie in my power to work, and serve, and love. I'm excited to see who I become this next year as I diligently work and serve the Lord. 

President & Sister Keyes, Sister Sant & I with the book President Keyes wrote.