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| Watching General Conference with Sister E |
Frohe Oster!!
I hope you all have had an amazing Easter!
Sister Eschenmann and I went to an Evangelische Church yesterday morning
with some of her distant-er relatives we have found in Wiesbaden. I was excited
because they sang some liturgy stuff, so I was actually able to sight-read the
notation, thanks to music history! And then, right afterwards, we listened to
General Conference.
The schedule is so weird for us in Germany. Yesterday, Elder Eyring was
like "We welcome you on this Easter morning" and I was like, actually, you must
mean Easter evening. :) And we didn't get to watch the last session because it
would happen about when we needed to be home without Internet. Haha, I think it
was funny Saturday, we watched the first session with our ward Mission leader
and his YSA children.
Imagine this:
Two sets of missionaries, super stoked about General Conference, our
questions ready....and then the first talk was on marriage...and the next one
was about family...and so it went. I thought it was hilarious. I also loved it.
I think it is so important to be focused on the family, and strong marital
relationships, because that is the most important unit in the church. Everything
that we have in the church is meant to build up the family.
Also, I LOVED the new camera angle. And the sessions we watched at the
church we watched in English, but the first one we watched in German, in case
any one was wondering. :)
So BIG NEWS in Frankfurt Germany...
At the end of this month, Elder Bednar will be coming, all the missionaries
will be getting iPads, and in a couple of months, we will start working with
Facebook! CRAZY!
So I was talking to Elder Blanchard about an interview he and his companion
had had with a Journalist that last week and he said that they asked "What
happens to the people who don't accept your message?" I thought about what I
would say, with what is says in Alma and the Spirit World-spirit paradise and
spirit prison, where everyone will have the opportunity to accept, and about
God's mercy, etc, and that seemed too complicated, so I was like "They stay in
Hell until they change their minds." :) Sorry...missionary jokes are so lame, it
is like its own culture, and half of the time it is not even funny.
In case you were all wondering which of my dreams came true the other week
(and even if you weren't) I wanted to share my experience.
I have struggled with body Image since I was about 8-years-old when I
realized that I was too fat to fit in the outfit that I had dreamed about for
months. (Sheesh, I'm such a girl! haha) I had seen it at Shopko and I was
instantly in love. It was a dress with flowers and some sheer overlay of some
type ( I don't really remember specifically anymore) and it was beautiful. At
least to my mini self it was. I remember talking my parents into letting me try
it on more than once, and I remember when it became clear that it did not make
me look good.
I was crushed.
Like "life is so unfair" crushed.
And from then on, I didn't trust my body any more. That experience
triggered a mistaken belief about my body that basically said "my body isn't
beautiful enough".
16 years later, I've still carried that belief around. So one of my secret
(or not so secret) dreams has always been to have the perfect body. No stubby
legs, no Relief Society arms, no tummy "coolers", and no shopping in the L+
clothing section.
It became more complicated than just working out and losing weight. I
wanted self-worth AND a beautiful body, but I could see that I didn't think I
could have one without the other, so I stayed stuck.
But, the other day, someone said something nice about how I looked, and
this thought came out of the blue "I can work with that". And for the rest of
the day, for the first time in 16 years, I was happy with my body. I didn't
care, I wasn't worried, because as I could work with what I was now. I felt like
a weight was lifted (pun intended). I was no longer trying to be something or
someone first before I liked who I was. I knew I had something powerful to offer
as I was, and that made me feel more beautiful than my body ever could. It
hasn't completely gone away, and that is beautiful to me. The idea that we can
actually change, actually grow, and actually become. Thanks to the Atoning blood
of our Elder Brother, Jesus Christ, we can Keep on trying, and eventually be
made Saints, perfected, intelligent, glorified, and eternal.
One cool thing that I have realized about the Book of Mormon this
week.
The Bible states the events in Christ's life, and the doctrine that He
taught, and the teachings of the apostles and what they taught after He went
back home to heaven. But the Book of Mormon is so critical, not just because it
clarifies many of the doctrines taught in the Bible,
but it is also a record of a people's daily experience with living the
gospel and having faith in Christ. It is their personal account and witness of
Christ.
Are you wondering how to apply the gospel better in your daily life? Read
the Book of Mormon, they did that too.
Are you wondering if it is worth it to believe in a God that you have never
seen, and who came like a bejillion years ago? Read the Book of Mormon, they
know how you feel. They believed in a Christ that HAD NOT YET come. They had to
have faith like us, too. Only a small part of that people had part in His
earthly ministry. But they had personal experiences with Him, and we can too.
That is something that I learned from attending both churches yesterday.One
man that we talked to a few weeks ago said that God is unknowable, and it is
prideful to think that we could know Him. Well, OK. Let's go with that idea for
a minute. What if it was? But what if He wanted us to know Him? To know who He
is, and what is important to Him? Wouldn't that change things? Wouldn't that
make the fact that we want to distance ourselves out of "respect" mean that WE
are being prideful?
As a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, as a
living, dedicated, set-apart representative of Jesus Christ, I can testify, with
every corner of my soul that He does want us to know Him. We are His literal
children, and He can provide us with joy.
Joy.
This is not a a gospel of compromised dreams, forgotten hopes, and buried
pain. This is a gospel of joy.
Joyfully Yours,
Sister Roderer
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