More than 2,000 years after Isaiah called Him the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ is still our key to peace. This year, in the week leading up to Easter, focus on one of the eight principles below to honor Him and find His peace in your life: Faith, God's word, Compassion, Gratiitude, Prayer, Forgiveness, Repentance, and Hope.
This week, I worked on Gratitude. Earlier this week, I was feeling pretty down--just about a lot of different things. As I was figuring out how I was going to fix it (because I HATE being in a bad mood)...I got the impression to write down everything I was grateful for. After 45 minutes and a severely cramped hand, I had a list of over 400 things...ranging from my family, the restored gospel, and my mission call to pugs and sunshine.
There is SO much to be grateful for.
The Church put out this film about the Prince of Peace...I encourage you all to watch it. I'll attach it in Polish too :) Find peace in a troubled world by learning more of Jesus Christ.
"Don't Judge a Book By Its Cover"...a thought from Dad.
My dad just sent this to me in an email and it really made me think....
"You might be wondering about the title of my email. It came to me just now. I am sitting in a downtown Corvallis Starbucks right now. I just dropped off Noah for team warm ups and have an hour to spare. It is also lunchtime and I have a $25 gift card from work. So here I am eating an $8 dollar salad and drinking a $5 orange juice and thinking I would NEVER buy this with my own money (it is quite tasty actually). As you can imagine, this place is packed. I am sitting near the entrance to this small shopping center inside the building where the Starbucks is located. There is a rickety old piano in front of this hippy bagel shop about 20 feet away from where I am sitting. A homeless man who looks like he has lived a hard life just came up and asked if he could take the other chair at my table. Absolutely, I am by myself. He thanked me and took the chair over to the piano. The Starbucks employee rebuked him and told him not to bother customers (he wasn't) and they brought the chair back to my table. He mumbled and went over to the bagel shop and took one of their chairs and placed it in front of the piano. He was mumbling to himself. Like he was having a conversation between his current self and his past self. He put his hands on the keys and poured out some of the most beautiful sounds I've ever heard. It was like he was awakened in some way but I think it was me who woke up and just took in the sounds. It made me feel warm and peaceful and probably the most heavenly thing I would observe today. He played for no more than 30 seconds and he mumbled some more and said "That's it" to himself and then he just got up and walked out of the building. I'm sure I will never see this man again but for a brief moment he lit up my world...
This man was shown no respect and I'm sure feels shunned at times everyday. I know I would have looked the other way if I passed him on the street. I wonder how many amazing people are in front of me everyday that I ignore or judge. It just made me think a little deeper today. Heavenly Father loves all of us, warts and all. His love is unconditional and he sees the eternal and devine potential in all of us."
This made me think of my experience I had a while back with Glitter Girl:
"Sister D and I have been really blessed contacting lately. The other night, this lady with SO much glittery makeup walked by. Honestly, I was pretty intimidated by her because she just had a lot goin' on (makeup wise and neon colors everywhere) and I honestly (I hate admitting it) didn't want to contact her. But then, I felt this overwhelming feeling (hint hint--Holy Ghost) to contact her. I then said, "Good Day, We are missio--" and then she cut me off. I thought she was going to yell at me (like a good amount of the people do), but instead, she said, "You're mormon missionaries, yes, I know! I have your book in English, but I would like it in Polish. *we give her a book*. I have to go, but here is my number, I would love to talk later"...then ran away. I can't believe I wasn't going to contact her because she was all glittery! I immediately repented for making such a shallow judgement"
Whether people are a little more sparkly than usual, homeless, too skinny or too fat, too tall or too short, have crazy colored hair, or 1,000 tattoos...they are a child of God. Like my Dad said, His love is unconditional and he sees the eternal and devine potential in all of us! How special is that? We need to try and see them like God does, too!
Other:
-On Monday, I broke Elder Alvarez's finger while playing volleyball. We both went up to take the ball to Spiketown...and BAM. Broke it.
-Wondering what "Sweaty Tacos" is? The other day on the tram, the windows were really foggy. This little 6 year old Polish girl in front of me started giggling to herself. Then, she drew with her finger...on the window (in English)...the phrase "sweaty tacos". I seriously lost it. It was the last phrase I was ever expecting this little girl to write.
-There is a cute little Polish girl in our branch. She is maybe 4? Anyways, yesterday at church, Elder Einfeldt asked her who her favorite missionary was. She pointed to me and gave me a bear hug. I might have teared up a little bit.
Have an amazing Easter! Remember, He is the reason for the season!
Wesołych Świąt!
Szczęśliwego Alleluja!
be kind to one another,
Tal
ul. Wiertnieza 135, 1 Pietro
02-952 Warszawa Poland
telefon: 48-22-665-9892
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| I think B wants to be a missionary...he looks good with a tag! |
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| Tal with B and Elder Ashworth. |
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| A young adult activity in Warsaw... |
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