I've grown a foot or two..

Yup, they booted me out of Park City!

I don't know yet where I will be going, but honestly, I am so excited I cant even stand it!

I had the opportunity to serve in Park City for 4 1/2 months and its been a great run. As much as I'd love to stay for so many reasons, from the people that I have met and learned from as well as taught I know that nobody ever grows in their comfort zone. I feel like I may have started to get comfortable, a little to comfortable, and we all know what happens when we get comfortable!

I thought of Elder Hollands talk "Sadly enough, my young friends, it is a characteristic of ourage that if people want any gods at all, they want them to be gods who do not demand much,comfortable gods, smooth gods who not only don’t rock the boat but don’t even row it, gods who pat us on the head, make us giggle, then tell us to run along and pick marigolds."..

I don't want to pick marigolds! Give me challenges! Rock that boat! So basically, Im excited for new experiences and opportunities to grow and learn.

I thought it was pretty interesting that the night before i found out i was getting transferred I had been reading another talk by, guess who- haha, that's right- Elder Holland!

Anyway, it was titled "The Best is Yet to Be"...how fitting haha

It was so perfect that I read it last night for a couple of reasons, one being that I was going to be getting transferred the next day. Its not always easy to "be where you are when you are there". We have cell phones and all these other objects that take us away from the here and now. Obviously I'm not on Facebook or Instagram since I'm on a mission, but our thoughts can also be a distraction. Just as much as any cellular device.

In his talk Elder Holland recalls the account of Lot's wife, what was it that she did that was so bad? It wasn't just that she looked back, it was that she yearned to be back.

I think of home, my family, and my friends, and if i do it long enough..i might as well be as effective as a pillar of salt. Elder Holland then makes the statement "FAITH points to the FUTURE"...A perfect example of this is Paul "After the Apostle Paul reviewed the privileged and rewardinglife of his early years—his birthright, education, and standing in the Jewish community—he says to the Philippians that all of that was “dung”compared to his conversion to Christianity.He says, and I paraphrase, “I have stopped rhapsodizing about ‘the good old days’ and now eagerly look toward the future ‘that I may apprehend that for which Christ apprehennded me’.

Then come these verses:

“This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto thosethings which are before, “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13–14). No Lot’s wife here. No looking back at Sodom and Gomorrah here. Paul knows it is out therein the future, up ahead wherever heaven is taking us,that we will win “the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

With a new area, new companion, and new challenges... I plan to look forward with faith! I know that with this transfer, I will be where Heavenly Father wants me to be, in a place where he has prepared more of his children to hear his word. Bring it!

I'll end with this last quote from Elder Holland "To all such of every generationI call out, “Remember Lot’s wife.” 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 eachof us and that Christ truly is the “high priest of good things to come” (Hebrews 9:11).

I am so grateful for these 18 months of my life that I can dedicate to the Lord, lessons like this, of looking forward with faith. I will carry them with me forever. I know that as we all " look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes "

our lives will be richly blessed.

I love my family, and I love the Lord, I hope you all have a great week!

Love sister Efnor