Happy New Year!

 Large Plates

Chill week. Happy new year!

This week was pretty slow because of the holidays. We did a lot of planning this week because its a new transfer and a new year. Also we're the Spanish Social Media Leaders so we planned out a lot of the Facebook and Instagram pages & I'm excited! I'm optimistic for them. 

For new years we didn't really do much haha. We tried to go out for pizza but all 3 places we went to had a 2 hour wait which would have been after bedtime. So we got taco bell haha. We went to bed at 10 to the sound of fireworks, and work up at 12 to the sound of SO MANY MORE FIREWORKS. There were so many that it was like one collective rolling boom instead of individual pops. The people of Orlando love their fireworks.

Also! I started learning portuguese a while back and I ended up finding someone on Facebook who is a Brazilian & I got to talk to her in portuguese!

We also had a zone council this week and it was very spiritual wahoo!

Also I saw Elder Kelly again at Chick Fil A haha.

Small Plates

The creator of the universe created it for YOU. 

I decided this week to dedicate a portion of each of my daily studies to Come, Follow Me, because this year we are studying in the old testament and I'll be honest I have read little to nothing from it. It's an intimidating book and it can be hard to understand. There's a senior couple in our apartment complex and the Elder LOVES Isaiah. He always shares his knowledge with us and I would love to come to know as much about the Bible as he does. He inspired me to open up the Bible and dig in. 

The studies for this week were actually in the Pearl of Great Price. You guys, there's so much to learn from the Pearl of Great Price. I wish I could tell you everything I learned this week but I'm afraid if I tried to do so my thumbs would fall off from typing haha. 

One morning in my studies I came across this verse: 

"But only an account of this earth, and the inhabitants thereof, give I unto you. For behold, there are many worlds that have passed away by the word of my power. And there are many that now stand, and innumerable are they unto man; but all things are numbered unto me, for they are mine and I know them"

I liked it because it's so cool to think about how grand this universe is and just how powerful our God is. We can't even begin to understand how big the universe is. People have tried. Really smart people have tried. And many have come to the conclusion that there are more planets in the universe than there are grains of sand in all the beaches and the deserts on this earth. I have no idea how to quantify that. But I got to thinking about it anyway, and it led me to do a few quick calculations:

1 million seconds = 11.5 days

1 Billion seconds = 32 years

1 trillion seconds?

That's over 284,000 years. 

I don't know about you guys, but knowing how big a trillion is made God's magnitude so much more impressive to me. Because even a trillion is still countable. That's still a fathomable number, to a certain degree. And our Heavenly Father has an infinite amount of worlds beyond that. 

Okay. This is all fun to talk about and to think about. But what's the point? Why did He do it? Here's the answer, from the Lord God Himself:

"For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man."

That's what He wants. Us. He wants us back.

He has all power. All glory. And what does he do with it? 

He provides a way and an opportunity  for each and every one of us to return back to Him. Because that's what He wants more than anything else. 

It's so beautiful to imagine that there is an all-powerful God in Heaven whose capacity to love us is infinite. And even though His love is infinite, it's so personal. 

Anyone who looks for the hand of God in their life will see it. There are no coincidences. Every blessing you have received, every person you've met, every opportunity you've been given, every trial you've faced, every moment of every day? Every one of them was given to you in the exact moment this All-knowing father in Heaven knew you needed them. And He gave them to you because He knew it would help you on your path back to Him. 

Our Heavenly Father loves you so much. You'll never be able to understand or quantify His love. All we can do is be grateful for it, and do our best to share it with those around us.