Big poster in Heaven!

Hello my lovely family! Sounds like you are all enjoying the Christmas season at home. Truth be told the Christmas thing is tough here because it is nothing like home. BUT...that being said...I am excited to shed layers and eat fruit cake this year with my brothers and sisters here in Tacna PERU.

This week we have been working a lot with the members of our ward here in Para Chico, and I love getting to know them better, and hear about their lives. President Zobrist came to visit Tacna this last week and told us that just as important for him as baptisms, is reactivation. We taught a lot of lessons with less actives, and new members and it is such a miracle seeing the progress that these members make when they remember what it is like to feel the spirit, and the love of our Father in Heaven in their lives again. I find so much joy seeing the changes that they make, and the love they have for their Savior once they remember who He is, and what He did.

I am so beyond grateful for my Father in heaven. I cannot even write in words the love I have for my Heavenly Father, and here in my mission I have learned more than ever in my life the love that He has for me.  Humility is hard, but there are not very many things in this life that are easy...and He would never give us something we could not handle. Of course it requires help from Him, but He is so generously willing to give that help.

I am learning so much at this time in my mission. I know that the Lord sends trials because He wants us to rely on Him. I know that He sends difficulties, because He knows we can handle them, and that we can grow from them.  Sometimes I imagine my Heavenly Father with a big poster board that has my whole life written down...and next to it a list of trials, blessings and opportunities...then I imagine Him working with my life, and putting the trials exactly where they are needed, and the blessings equally placed exactly where Hermana Carli Stone needs them.

Take time to study the scriptures. I know that the Lord speaks through his prophets to His children now through the scriptures. I finished the Book of Mormon again this week, and I once again have received my personal witness that it was written for us, by prophets who heard the voice of Christ, who saw Him, and who spoke with Him.  He loves us, and He lives.

Have a wonderful week. Study hard for finals all my dear friends, and remember the reason we have Christmas. Remember the Savior, His sacrifice, and His love for you. I love the story from the Christmas devotional yesterday from the General Primary President where she talked about the little boy John, and told him that Jesus died for Him. He did. He died for you...because He loves you.

This month I am trying to walk with Christ. I am reading the New Testament to understand better His life, and the attributes that He had that made Him the perfect Savior that He was.

Love you all more than you know.

Xoxoxo,

Sister Carli Stone