at the end.

This is probably my last post as a full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Let me tell you, 18 months have gone by faster than I could have ever imagined. Well, looking back on it it's gone warp speed. I feel like two weeks ago I was waving good-bye to my mom at the airport. But if you'd asked me how fast it was going 16 months ago, I would have told you that this day would never come because it still felt impossibly far away.

These past 18 months have been full of a lifetime of experiences. The good kind, the bad kind, the laugh-til-you-cry kind, the learning kind, the heart-breaking kind, the tears-of-joy kind, the frustrating kind, the friendship making kind, the spirit-filled kind, the tender mercies kind, the hidden blessings kind. But at the end, they've all been blessings.

If there is one over arching theme to what I've learned in the last year and a half, it's that

we have a Heavenly Father who loves each and every single one of His children.

No matter who we think we are or what we may have done, we are never too far away from the love of God. No one can take that love away from us. We can try to say that it doesn't exist, but we're only kidding ourselves. He loves us. And I'm living proof. 

I'm proof that he gives us infinite second chances through the Atonement of His son--our Savior, Jesus Christ.

He wants us to return to live with Him. So he has a perfect plan for all of us. It's individual. And it's prefect. We don't have to doubt. We just have to have faith. And trust. Because He knows us perfectly. He knows our weaknesses and faults, our triumphs and successes, our talents and abilities.

And as we keep His commandments, He has so many more blessings in store for us than we can even imagine.

I love the Lord. And I've fallen in love with His work.

I'm eternally indebted to Him for this opportunity I've had to serve him.

oh the south.

"...Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do."

[2 Nephi 32:2] 

"Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life."

[2 Nephi 31:20]

the Book of Mormon.

The whole world's talking about it.
It's probably become a household name by now.
Why not figure out why it's so important.
I promise it will change your life.
Because it's changed mine.

My story is a simple and fairly common one.
I was 7 when my family met the missionaries. They'd met them many times before, but this particular set of meetings led to us eventually all being baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I grew up in the Church. I always thought that I knew it was true because of how I felt when those missionaries taught us. As little as I was, I felt the truthfulness of the message they brought. I remember them sitting on the couch in our living room with my sister and I teaching us how to pray. And I received answers.
But when I was in high school, like for so many others I know, there came a point when I needed to know if it really was the church that my Heavenly Father needed me to be a part of. I could only listen to what other people told me was true for so long. I had to find out for myself.
So I set out on a quest for the truth.

And as part of this quest, I read the Book of Mormon.
Cover to cover.
I prayed every day to find answers.
I went to church.

And one day, after praying to know if the Book of Mormon was true, I got my answer. The answer that I knew in my heart the whole time. It was an answer that came from the Spirit directly from my Heavenly Father in special "Hermana Jordan" packaging. It was an answer that helped me to know that my Heavenly Father knows me. He is aware of me. And He loves me.
I promise that this type of answer can come to all of us. We just have to read the Book of Mormon, pray about it, and keep the commandments of God, like coming to His church.

So I invite you to set out on your own quest for the truth of the Book of Mormon.

If you live in Graves County, Kentucky, come to church with us at
1036 Coplen Rd, Mayfield, KY

Or find a church building near you here!

It will change you life for the better!
I promise.

change.

We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have to life that is waiting for us.
-Joseph Campell

Change.
Sometimes it's a pretty scary word.

But you know what word makes all of the change in the world not scary?
Atonement.
[the reconciliation of man with God though Christ.]

President Boyd K. Packer taught,

“There is no habit, no addiction, no rebellion, no transgression, no apostasy, no crime exempted from the promise of complete forgiveness. That is the promise of the atonement of Christ”

Through our Savior, Jesus Christ, all change is possible.

"The Atonement of Jesus Christ is available to each of us. His Atonement is infinite. It applies to everyone, even you. It can clean, reclaim, and sanctify even you. That is what infinite means—total, complete, all, forever."  -Elder Shane M. Bowen

He has faith in us. He will help us do the things that we think we can't do. He will guide us by the hand if we but follow Him.
He enabled the way for us to change from our "lost and fallen state" [Mosiah 16:4] and it's only though Him and His teachings that we can change and become the person that our loving Heavenly Father wants and needs us to be.
I know that we don't have to go back to who we were or what we did. With the help of our Savior, we can change.

i'm a mormon.

I'm a girl who sincerely believes that dark chocolate has the power to fix bad days.
I'm a girl who doesn't really have a hometown.
I'm a girl who would wear rain boots everyday if she could.
I'm a girl who could school you at Jenga.
I'm a girl who takes serious situations humorously and humorous situations seriously.
I'm a girl who would eat pizza or Taco Bell for the rest of her life.
I'm a daughter of God.

And I'm a mormon.

______________________________________________________________________


Soy una chica que cree sinceramente que el chocolate oscuro tiene el poder de hacer mal día mejor.
Soy una chica que no tiene una ciudad natal.
Soy una chica que se usaria botas de lluvia todos los dias si pudiera.
Soy una chica que podría vencerlo en Jenga.
Soy una chica que se toma con humor las situaciones graves y situaciones de humor en serio.
Soy una chica que se come la pizza o Taco Bell para el resto de su vida.
Soy una hija de Dios.

Y soy mormona.

just a little rain.

You know those days or weeks or months when you just feel like you're not sure that you can do any more? Or that you're stuck? Or that your life has reached the point of insanity where you need to try something new but you don't know what? Or even that you're not quite sure that Heavenly Father is aware of you anymore?

For that, I have a scripture from the Book of Mormon.
It's 1 Nephi 1:20
"... But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of  deliverance."

And when you've hit that point, and often before, that's where the tender mercies of the Lord come in.

What is a tender mercy of the Lord?
Elder David A. Bednar tells us in this talk. He says:
"the Lord’s tender mercies are the very personal and individualized blessings, strength, protection, assurances, guidance, loving-kindnesses, consolation, support, and spiritual gifts which we receive from and because of and through the Lord Jesus Christ."
He also says that, "the Lord suits 'his mercies according to the conditions of the children of men' (D&C 46:15)."
and that "... the Lord’s tender mercies do not occur randomly or merely by coincidence. Faithfulness, obedience, and humility invite tender mercies into our lives, and it is often the Lord’s timing that enables us to recognize and treasure these important blessings."

A few weeks ago, my lovely companion and I were just having some off moments. We just didn't feel like we were where the Lord needed us to be in order to help Him.
This pattern went on for a few days.
And we didn't like it.
Until one Sunday. When everything just seemed to click back into place and life was well again.
This particular Sunday night, we were at the church building and we left to go out and teach some people and it was pouring rain. We're talking buckets. And there was lighting and thunder right over us. There just aren't storms like that where I'm from so I wasn't exactly sure what we should do.
Being missionaries, we knew that the Lord needed us to work. So we put on our hypothetical, big girl rain boots and braved the rain from the church to our car.
By the time we got to the car, we were drenched. Head to toe, all the way through.
And as we tried to drive, we couldn't see where we were going and lighting was crashing around us and we missed the exit out of the parking lot and we decided that it wasn't the safest idea for us to be driving. So we parked the car, braved the rain again, and ran back inside the church.






So what on earth does this have to do with tender mercies of the Lord?
Well, the Lord's tender mercies come in all shapes and sizes.
And for me, this was one of them.

It was Him saying, 

"Stop worrying. 

Stop stressing.

I've got it all under control and everything will be fine.

This rainstorm is for you.

Because you love them.

And because I love you."

"We should not underestimate or overlook the power of the Lord’s tender mercies. The simpleness, the sweetness, and the constancy of the tender mercies of the Lord will do much to fortify and protect us in the troubled times in which we do now and will yet live. When words cannot provide the solace we need or express the joy we feel, when it is simply futile to attempt to explain that which is unexplainable, when logic and reason cannot yield adequate understanding about the injustices and inequities of life, when mortal experience and evaluation are insufficient to produce a desired outcome, and when it seems that perhaps we are so totally alone, truly we are blessed by the tender mercies of the Lord and made mighty even unto the power of deliverance."  -Elder Bednar.

I know that the Lord delivers us. Even if it's just from stress. I know that He makes us "mighty even unto the power of deliverance" from much harder things as well. I know that He listens and is aware of us. And I know that He loves us. More than we can even know.

today's thought.

"Sometimes we let our thoughts of tomorrow take up too much of today. 

Daydreaming of the past and longing for the future may provide comfort but will not take the place of living in the present. 

This is the day of our opportunity, 

and we must grasp it."

-President Thomas S. Monson

Oh how I love our wonderful prophet and his words of pure wisdom.
Last week I was thinking a lot about the future. and my particular, very near future consisted of a place that I wasn't really sure that I needed to be.
So I worried about it.
a lot.
And quite frankly, I wasted a lot of time.
and energy.
on something that didn't need to even be worried about.
Because I love it here.
And because I wouldn't be here if Heavenly Father didn't need me to be.
Isn't it great how he just knows so much more than we do?

If there's something I've learned these last 16 months, it's that Heavenly Father's will is always greater than mine. and it's always smarter than mine. and it's always easier and happier than mine in the long run and in the immediate future.
Because He loves us.
more than we'll ever know.
and I love Him.

So take it from me.
If we don't take what our loving Father in Heaven gives us now, and just keep on daydreaming or wishing or waiting for our perfect moment, we miss the best things that life has to offer us. The best things that our Heavenly Father has to offer us.
And those aren't things that I want to miss.

_________________________________________________________________________________

"A veces permitimos que los pensamientos de mañana ocupen mucho del presente. 

El soñar en el pasado y el anhelo por el futuro quizás brinde consuelo, pero no tomará el lugar de vivir en el presente. 

Este es el día de nuestra oportunidad, 

y debemos aprovecharla."

-Presidente Thomas S. Monson

¡Oh, cómo me encanta nuestro profeta maravillosa y sus palabras de sabiduría pura!
La semana pasada estuve pensando mucho en el futuro. y mi futuro inmediato consistió de un lugar que no estaba seguro de que necesitaba estar.
Entonces me preocupaba.
mucho.
Y francamente, perdí mucho tiempo!
y energía.
en algo que no tenía por qué preocuparme.
Porque me encanta estar aquí!
Y porque yo no estaría aquí si nuestro Padre Celestial no necesita que yo este aqui.
¿No es maravilloso cómo El sabe mucho más que nosotros?


Si hay algo que he aprendido en estos últimos 16 meses, es que la voluntad de nuestro Padre Celestial siempre es mayor que la mía. más inteligente que la mía. más fácil y más feliz que la mía en el distante y en el futuro inmediato.
Porque Él nos ama!
más de lo que se sabe!
y yo lo amo!


Entonces creame!
Si no tomamos lo que nuestro amoroso Padre Celestial nos da ahora, y sólo seguimos soñando o deseando o esperando nuestro momento perfecto, perdemos las mejores cosas que la vida tiene para ofrecernos. Las mejores cosas que nuestro Padre Celestial tiene para ofrecernos.
Y esas no son cosas que quiero perder.