#LifeonEarth

Alma 40:8 "...All is one day with God, and time is only measured unto men"

I don't even know how it's Monday again! I'm sure you get tired of me saying, "Monday....already??!" They always said that on our missions the days would seem long and the weeks would go fast. Tell me about it! Honestly the months go fast! How is it already June?! Don't mind me... just have a 1/3rd-mission crisis over here.

  

Time is such a weird thing. I remember in college how I could spend hours on end doing nothing and the days would drag on. And then other days would be filled to the brim with plans and there just seemed to be no time in a day! Time never does what you want it to.

I guess the changing factor in this equation has to do with WHAT you do in your day. When you fill your day doing "useless" things, your day will drag on uselessy. But when you're constantly engaged in a good cause time doesn't exist. Hence why my mission is flying by. Even still though, missionaries have long days. When I think back on those days I wonder what makes them long because every day is the same task, same goal, same purpose. I realize that the only thing that differs is me! The only thing that changes these long days is my attitude, my weaknesses, my perceptions and my doubts.

All of these seem like roadblocks but they're really just mountains to climb. When I reach the top and overcome them, I gain a bigger perspective and get that much closer to heaven...or to Christ. I know how important these "gifts" are because they're what have really changed me for the better in the long run. In the moment, they may hinder what I think my day should have been like but I know that the work of God is never frustrated only the work of man (D&C 3:3).

Yes... admittedly I was very frustrated this week. With almost every appointment falling through, people struggling to progress, more rules tacked on to our already busy schedule and a potential case of pink-eye most would justify my frustration. You know it's funny because Pribyl and I gave a training on gratitude and how to overcome murmuring just this past Tuesday. Then the Lord was like, "Oh? You want to play the gratitude game??" Needless to say we had many opportunities to practice what we preached this week. Which reminded me of this quote from conference by President Uchtdorf: 

BUT. When I reflect on this week, it's not the hours of frustation that were the most influential. In fact, it was the 10 minutes I spent watching one of the most amazing sunsets I have ever seen and then the 25 minutes I spent praying where I received an answer I've been needing for some time now. Isn't it always just those few moments that stand out?

I am grateful for that sunset. It just proves the scripture that "by small means the Lord can bring about great things" (1 Nephi 16:29). These small moments really do show how powerful He is and how much control He has. It's kind of ridiculous how often we like to think we're the ones with the plan. One of our investigators always says, "want to make God laugh? Tell him your plans". Quite true actually! When you really think about it, every single minute is a gift given to us! And yet we still don't give the 5 minutes to pray or 20 minutes to read or 45 minutes to study when we have a grand total of 1,440 minutes in a whole entire day! Ok... I know sleep is needed, but I know that we all spend more time awake then asleep so no, that's a pretty lame excuse...

In the end, as we know that the work of God is never frustrated, we need to understand that it doesn't give us an excuse not to use our time wisely. You know we spent so much time preparing for this life and we'll have an eternity to reflect on it. On the scale of eternity our life on Earth is just like a little hashtag...#life or #LifeonEarth! It reminds me of Gary E. Stevenson's talk "Your Four Minutes"... if you haven't read/watched it... do it! If you already have, do it again. I promise it's an efficient use of time! Mom will post the video so there are no excuses, right mom?

Anyways I apologize for this choppy email. My brain is jumpy today....I get it from my Dad. Thanks Dad. Love you though!

I hope that you all have a wonderful week! Ciao!

Sister Hawkins