My cousin James is coming home!

My cuzzie comes home from his mishmish in Kennewick Washington this week!! We were in the MTC together for a bit so I got to see him a few times and now he's all growed up and comin' home. *sniff sniff* I'm so proud of him for being the first missionary in his family and for how much he's grown, so Ima share an excerpt from his last email so you can be proud too:

"I'm going to miss the people here.  It took me two years, but now I
really feel a close connection with them all. -- even the ones I
haven't met yet.  These are my people.  There are people here the Lord sent me to find.  I will miss them, but I know that the work of the Lord will go forward here.  It's the work of the Lord -- He always keeps his promises.

...There is a huge contrast from my pre-mission and (almost)post-mission self.  I actually have a relationship with God now.  And it feels great.  I trust in Him.  It reminds me of those verses in the Book of Mormon when it teaches that we will know His voice because Christ is our Shepherd.  That is how I feel right now.  I have learned what His voice sounds like, so now I can recognize when he calls to me.  I have seen His face.

I know that Jesus is my Savior.  I have an understanding of the Fall,  and my sins, which teaches me the necessity of Christ.  I need Him. And I know that He receives my soul as I live the doctrine of Christ. I love Christ, and I will continue to be a disciple of Christ the remainder of my life.

I love you all and look forward to all the tears and hugs and smiles. See you shortly.  Life is good.

Love,
Elder Collier

Isn't he great!? Yeah, das my family. :) 

Canyoneering

Sometimes I feel like I'm on the cusp of greatness, like something huge is just around the corner or something great is about to happen but I can't quite grasp it yet. And then other times I just feel like I'm plodding along in the lone and dreary world, not really making progress.*  I think that happens when Satan gets me to look down and back instead of up and forward. Lot's wife (who got turned into a pillar of salt) had the same problem:

Just what did Lot’s wife do that was so wrong? As a student of history, I have thought about that and offer a partial answer. Apparently, what was wrong with Lot’s wife was that she wasn’t just looking back; in her heart she wanted to go back. It would appear that even before she was past the city limits, she was already missing what Sodom and Gomorrah had offered her...It is possible that Lot’s wife looked back with resentment toward the Lord for what He was asking her to leave behind...So it isn’t just that she looked back; she looked back longingly. In short, her attachment to the past outweighed her confidence in the future.

Josh Moody spoke in church this Sunday and he made an awesome analogy relating the plan of salvation to canyoneering.  He talked about how when we come to earth it's like being in the bottom of a slot canyon, like this one:

It's muddy, dim, and not very comfortable, but we can still see a little piece of the sky through the crack at the top. 

We can't see it all, but we catch glimpses of the sun, moon and stars as the earth turns. We know that's where God is and that's where we want to be too. So we start to climb even though it's hard and it takes effort and other people laugh and have fun together in the mud at the bottom. 

The covenants we make with God through baptism and the temple are like the rope, harness,  caribiners , and SLCDs to keep us safe as we climb through life. Sometimes we get to a ledge and decide to rest, and it feels so nice that we stop climbing. We feel good because we can look down and see how far we've come and we think "Well at least I'm not down there playing in the mud." We stop progressing. We stop moving up because Satan got us to look down and back (like Lot's wife) when God wants us to look up and forward.

...look ahead and remember that faith is always pointed toward the future. Faith always has to do with blessings and truths and events that will yet be efficacious in our lives...So a more theological way to talk about Lot’s wife is to say that she did not have faith. She doubted the Lord’s ability to give her something better than she already had. Apparently, she thought that nothing that lay ahead could possibly be as good as what she was leaving behind.

I think that's what happens to me on the plodding days. But when I really think about it I realize that all God has been trying to do for the last few years is raise my vision--raise my vision of who I am, of who I can become, of what I can do, and of what kind of person I can be with. That's what He's been doing since I moved out to BYU. Only up from here, right?

God doesn’t care nearly as much about where you have been as He does about where you are and, with His help, where you are willing to go...Faith is for the future. Faith builds on the past but never longs to stay there. Faith trusts that God has great things in store for each of us and that Christ truly is the “high priest of good things to come” (Hebrews 9:11).

 Elder Holland "Remember Lot's Wife" Jan 2009 (the best BYU devotional I've ever been to)

Edit:

*Sometimes in our repentance, in our daily efforts to become more Christlike, we find ourselves repeatedly struggling with the same difficulties. As if we were climbing a tree-covered mountain, at times we don’t see our progress until we get closer to the top and look back from the high ridges.

-Neal L. Anderson "Repent...That I May Heal You" General Conference Oct 2009

Sometimes we need to stop and look back from that ledge to get perspective. We just can't stay there.

Steps in the dark

Remember how I used to always say that I can do big things? How I wanted to grow and be stretched? I might be second-guessing that now....ok not really, but it's harder than I anticipated.

"You wanted this, remember? You wanted to be stretched."
"Yeah but not like this," my inside voice always says. Spiritual growing pains again.

Can I just share some beautiful words with you? They're not mine, they're from my eloquent Southern friend Lyndsi Shae, but I love them and they help me find clarity. She's on a mission in California right now but I don't think she'd mind.

"When I grow older, I promise to never have a job in accounting.

(No offense accountakids, I think ya’ll make great dads. Not because of the hours or the nature of your work, but because every time I meet a dad who is also an accountant, he is honorable, kinda goofy, and gentle.)

Regardless, I promise to never join you in the field of numbers and money.

Gross.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am disenchanted with my own predictions—a loss of faith in all things once hopefully deemed “Obvious. Natural. Coming Soon.”

I am by no means obliterated, only silent for a while—telling myself to relinquish control. And then, relinquish the idea that I have any knowledge of what is to come.

“But I am not that girl!” I say to myself.

“I am not the girl with the 5 year plan who refuses to deviate. I’ve always been okay not knowing the answers.”

“Oh please. You’re NOT the girl with the 5 year plan and the permanent mascara, but you ARE the girl who is thrown by all these twisting outcomes at once. It’s okay that you’re that girl, but you have to change your perspective now: You make choices. God makes outcomes.”

He is the only relationship I can predict as Obvious. Natural. Coming Soon.

As my stories with these people take exits I could not see from the driver’s seat—I realize that I am not wholly driving this thing—that the map I’ve got across the dashboard is drawn by my own narrow predictions.

“That’s a nice map you’ve worked on,” God says to me.

“But in the past I’ve always navigated by my own omniscient vision, and I think we should stick with that.”

I tell him it’s okay, and slip out of his seat. I think I was cramping him a little bit.

See how he talks to me like he’s just my Dad?

The truth is: I am thankful, even desperate to believe in something beyond my human limitations—even if I have no idea where He’s going with all of this.

“Fine. But do I have to be an accountant?” I ask.

I think he said no, but he probably just laughed."

Isn't she great? You should read the whole post.

So yeah, that's pretty much the story of my life lately. Yesterday I went to the Draper temple with the lovely Allison Lew and it was soooo nice. In the celestial room the only thought that kept coming to me was, "You're taking steps in the dark right now, but soon enough the Lord will light up your way."

"Just trust me," He said. Again. You'd think it'd be easier to do since He has repeatedly proven that His map is way better than mine, but I still struggle sometimes. I don't know how all of this is going to end, but I know it's going to be ok when it does.

No, more than ok. It's going to be so much better than everything I had planned.

Coming Home...

Hello world! I got back from my mission in Panama two weeks ago today. I'm still adjusting, but here are some pictures from my arrival and the time I've spent with my parents here in their mission in Latvia.

My mom was there waiting for me at the airport. (my dad was out of town)

This is a view of Riga, the capital city of Latvia. Pretty huh? Although it's suuuuper cold, especially after being in Panama for 18 months haha.

With my mom and dad. For 1 1/2 years half of our family was on a mission at once. Now my parents are outnumbered :(

Without the missionary name tag...and wearing jeans for the first time! Eek!

The last one

Hey family,



This is the last time I'm going to write you all, but I just wanted to share some things I've learned on the mission/my testimony. Things I've learned:



1. How to recognize and follow the Spirit. Before I didn't really know what that felt like and always felt confused when after church meetings people would walk out saying "Man, the Spirit was so strong today, I could just feel it." In my head I would just think "Spirit, what Spirit!? I don't feel anything!?" I think I'd been so dependent on physical feelings/sensations while growing up that I didn't learn how to pay attention to spiritual sensations. Hope that makes sense...

2. A greater love and appreciation for my family, for the home I grew up in and the things my parents taught me

3. The ability to recognize the difference between a home established firmly in the gospel and a home without it. Even the house feels different, and it seems so clear: "Uh duhhhh, if you would just start living the commandments everything would get better."

4. The ability to really listen to people, to read them, and to know their needs/how they are without them having to tell me

5.A greater knowledge and understanding of the gospel principles

6. The ability to plan and prioritize my life according to eternal priorities

7. Feel and experience the pure love of Christ for people I have just met or don't even really know



So many more but that's what comes to mind first. I remember my roommate Sarah M used to say that if she wouldn't have gone on a mission, she doesn't know how long it would've taken her to learn the things she did. At the time I just thought "What things!? I wanna learn them too!" And now I can say the same. Maybe I didn't learn the same things she did, but I learned what I needed to, and I have no idea how long it would've taken me if I wouldn't have decided to come on a mission. If I would've known all the blessings and everything I was going to learn and receive in coming on the mission, I never would've doubted the decision. About 8 months ago dad mentioned a scripture in Doc & C 78:17-18 in one of the talks he sent me, and since then it's been one of my favorites because I've found it to be so true:



17 Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye are little children, and ye have not as yet understood how great blessings the Father hath in his own hands and prepared for you;

18 And ye cannot bear all things now; nevertheless, be of good cheer, for I will lead you along. The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours.

Welp I'm almost out of time, but I guess I will just finish by saying that I know this is the true church of Jesus Christ, restored by the prophet Joseph Smith. I know the Book of Mormon is true and when we read it every day it's a guide, a protection, a comfort, and a strenght for us in our every day lives. I know God loves us and that He does everything He can to help us learn and grow and be successful in this life so that we can one day come back to Him. This knowledge is the greatest gift I have to share with people, and I hope to keep doing in when I come home...



I love you all and I can't wait to see you!



Love,

Hermana Dance

Hey family,

What's up? Thanks for writing...! How did your birthday go dad? I'm assuming you had a zone conference or something. Friday we had interviews and the president was asking me about what I'm going to do after, my major, . . . . Hermana Ward asked the same thing, and so did Hermana Bloomfield, one of the Hermanas that came with me who was there doing some trainings. I had a little freak out/moment of terror after thinking about all that stuff, but then I calmed down and pushed it out of my head. Waaaaah!

Yesterday was a good day....! We taught a new family (a young couple and their little boy) and the spirit was super strong....wooooo! We'd met the girl a few days ago and Saturday we taught her about the family. She was really quiet but nice and let us put an appointment to come back Sunday afternoon. We came and met the boyfriend and he was lame and didn't really want to talk to us. But she got him to come and at least pretend like he was participating. He wasn't really paying attention and kept looking at the cars and people walking by instead of at us, so I kept asking questions to get them to participate and focus. We were teaching about Christ's earthly ministry and I felt like we were being kind of ignored and I almost decided that we should just get out then because they seemed negative and like they didn't want anything, but I decided that if we left without talking about the restoration the condemnation would be ours. So we kept going, and when we started talking about Joseph Smith everything changed.

Gonzalo (the boyfriend) started looking me in the eyes and paying attention. Elizabeth stopped being so shy and starting answering the questions more. And when I said the First Vision everything got quiet-the cars stopped passing and honking, people stopped yelling, and it was a stillness you could feel. I felt it, and I know they felt it. Later I asked them what this all had to do with them, why they thought we were teaching them this, and when they didn't really know I promised them a whole bunch of blessings that I don't really even remember but I felt the Spirit super strongly. Woot. We're going back on wednesday night (when we first met them they told us that he works all the time, it'd be hard to find a time, . . . , but now they were willing to let us come back no problem. The Spirit works miracles...! ) :)

Ok, that's all for now. Love you all, hope you're all doing well and that you have a great week!

Love,
Hermana Dance

D&C 112:19
D&C 42:61

Hey before I forget, did you all buy my ticket to come home from Latvia yet? I love you guys and I'm stoked to see you and all, but I know that if I'm there for more than 3 weeks I'm going to go crazy without being able to figure out classes, scholarships, work, housing contracts, blah blah blah. ahhh!! So could you buy my ticket porfis? Thanks, love you!

tick, tick, tick

Hey family!

Tomorrow we're going to the temple as a zone because we reached our goal for January, wahoo! It'll be the 4th time I've been during my mission and I'm stoked because just the other day I was thinking about how much I wanted to go...God loves us :)

Yesterday was a good day. All the investigators that we invited came to church, our Principals of the Gospel class was way fun, and all of them had a good experience. Aurora, an elderly woman we found a few weeks ago, was sitting on the corner waiting for us when we went to bring her to church yesterday morning. She has lots of faith and has had a couple of cool spiritual dreams about baptism, but she can't read so it makes it a little hard because preachers or other people have been teaching her false doctrine here and there and she can't read to find out for herself. But she can pray, and when we taught her on Friday she said a sweet, humble prayer saying that she was willing to do whatever God asked of her and that she knows He's been guiding her.

We also taught a reference from an awesome family in our ward yesterday. She's way cool and came to church last week because they brought her, she loved it and needs a lot of help right now. She has cancer and her mom died 9 months ago, and when we taught her yesterday we found out that she doesn't really believe in the resurrection or life after death. But she's eager to learn and I think she wants to believe it, we just have to help her to know how.

I'm glad Grandma and Grandpa got my postcard. I wanted to send stuff to Grandma and Grandpa Dance but I don't have their address...!! Sorry for anyone I've neglected in the last year and half and for the birthdays and the important dates I've forgotten...it's a different world out here and I hope you all understand! The mission has a mysterious memory-erasing/bubble effect, haha. For example, last night I was talking to an elder who was in the MTC with me and we were reminiscing and he mentioned how the first week in the MTC we found out we had a friend in common. Last night he said the person's name and I honestly couldn't remember who it was or how I knew them. Five minutes later I finally remembered, and it made me a little bit worried because I don't think I'm going to recognize anyone or know their names when I come home (beside my family) Oops!

Welp, that was a random tangent, I guess that's what happens cuando tengo pereza para escribir...Life is good, love you all!!

Hermana Dance