"Yea, Lord, we do love thee"

Woke up to snow on Friday morning! and had to stay inside most of the day because the humidity melts the snow and the freezing cold turns it into ice 

Sister Hall and I have had a really great week. The work is so good in

Paragould. I hope I never get transferred. We have had a lot of

lessons with investigators, some good visits with less active members,

found new people to teach, and put two new people on date to be

baptized; Sherlie, who we met through a bible and Book of Mormon

referral and Richard, the nephew of our recent convert Norma. They

both have accepted the invitation to be baptized on February 5th. When

we invited Sherlie to be baptized she said, "absolutely!" and wrote

the date on her calendar. So cool! Life is good when there is a lot of

work to do. On "the district" (missionary training videos), Elder

Moreno says, "I don't get why I'm so happy. It kind of weirds me out,

'cause I'm tired like all the time". Hahaha that is exactly how I

feel. On Sunday we were able to go to the Searcy stake conference. The

stake presidency was being reorganized so there were two general

authorities that came, Elder Carter and Elder J. Devn Cornish. Elder

Cornish gave the talk in this past general conference titled, "Am I

Good Enough? Will I Make It?" It is one of my favorite talks from that

session. If you haven't listened to it, I invite you to! I got to talk

to Elder Cornish for a minute before conference started. It's cool

because when you're Mormon the general authorities are like

celebrities to you. Anyways, Elder Cornish gave a great talk on

Sunday. It related so well to my favorite talk by Elder Holland, "the

First Great Commandment", which I had listened to earlier that

morning. Elder Cornish talked about the number one thing that we can

do to develop greater faith in God the Father and in His Son, Jesus

Christ. He said that the way we can do this is by keeping the sabbath

day holy. It was funny because he said, "if you're like me you're

probably saying AND....... what else? But that's it. Keep the sabbath

day holy". He talked about how each of the Ten Commandments really

just points back to the first which is, "Thou shalt have no other gods

before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image" (Exodus

20:3-4). Elder Cornish explained that although we don't worship

statues, the "graven image" or "God" that we so often worship and put

before the one true God, is our self. We need to show God that He is

the only one that we worship by always putting Him first. A great way

to start is by keeping the sabbath day holy. "Remember the sabbath

day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou

shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy

manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that

is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth,

the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day:

wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it" (Exodus

20:8-11). Now, this can seem easy to do until Super Bowl Sunday rolls

around, or we are reeeallllyyyy hungry on fast Sunday, or we are just

too tired to go to church. I've been guilty of all of these in the

past. What are we saying to the Lord when we can't even keep His holy

day, holy? We are saying that we put football, food, sleep, etc. above

our God. How wrong is that? Something I've learned as a missionary is

how great it is to receive chastisement. "I know that the words of

truth are hard against all uncleanness; but the righteous fear them

not, for they love the truth and are not shaken" (2 Nephi 9:40). I

know that the message Elder Cornish shared with us was true and

inspired of the Lord. I hope we will all covenant with our Heavenly

Father to be more diligent in having no other Gods before Him. In my

favorite conference talk Elder Jeffrey R. Holland says, "My beloved

brothers and sisters, I am not certain just what our experience will

be on Judgment Day, but I will be very surprised if at some point in

that conversation, God does not ask us exactly what Christ asked

Peter: “Did you love me?” I think He will want to know if in our very

mortal, very inadequate, and sometimes childish grasp of things, did

we at least understand one commandment, the first and greatest

commandment of them all-“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy

heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all

thy mind". Elder Holland goes on to say, "..the voice of Christ comes

ringing down through the halls of time, asking each one of us while

there is time, “Do you love me?” And for every one of us, I answer

with my honor and my soul, “Yea, Lord, we do love thee.” And having

set our “hand to the plough,” we will never look back until this work

is finished and love of God and neighbor rules the world". If that

doesn't encourage and motivate us to press forward and remain loyal to

the Lord our God, I don't know what else will. Yes, it's not easy.

It's really hard. But personally, I would rather be tired and have joy

than be tired and feel guilt and sorrow. Our living prophet Thomas S.

Monson once said, "May we ever choose the harder right instead of the

easier wrong". Howard W. Hunter said, “If our lives and our faith are

centered upon Jesus Christ and his restored gospel, nothing can ever

go permanently wrong. On the other hand, if our lives are not centered

on the Savior and his teachings, no other success can ever be

permanently right". I testify that these things are true. I testify

that Christ lives and He loves us. He knows knows every trial and

every heartache perfectly. He will not always deliver us, but through

His atonement we can find the strength to endure. I love Him, and I

will continue to serve Him.

Much love,

Sister Bailey Guthrie