Ciao belli,
This week was wonderful with Christmas. My Christmas included caroling as a zone at piazza del popolo, eating Filipino, Egyptian and African and Italian food, singing carols to orphans, and skyping my lovely fam. It was definitely a Christmas ill never forget, especially when we had to walk an hour home in the cold darkness from the church to our house. But at least no creeps were out... at least not very many ;)
This lovely Christmas season has been one of the most centered on Christ I have ever had, and it was truly such a special experience. I think the thing that hit me the most was when we were singing to those kids, and I just felt the spirit so strong. I knew Christ was there with us. He was. I felt his presence so strongly, knowing how much he cares for all, especially the ones who need it the most, and come from humble circumstances.
I have been studying a lot lately the worth of just one in the eyes of God. How much that one sheep means to him. How even just one drop of blood he shed for us means so much. How each tear we shed he counts and he matches. I know we have a savior. He is our shepherd. Our guardian from this cruel world. And he will never let us be lost. He is always searching, always right there, coming after us when we lose ourselves to lesser things.
I think sometimes we think our pain doesn't matter. That our heartbreaks are unimportant or our fears are really just tiny little tidbits of nothingness to Christ. To our Heavenly Father. And they are. But that's the point. Once we realize we are nothing to them, it becomes easier for us to realize how much we mean to them despite our weakness and imperfections and failures. How much everything we are makes them proud. How far we have come with them makes them smile. All they want is us to be happy, and they know where to find true happiness. That's the catch because we don't. But they do and they can help us find it, if we choose.
I think something I've always loved is the idea of the refiners fire. How all that pain and suffering and all those wretched human experiences turn us into something so beautiful, so good, so much more prepared to meet God.
I know it is hard to want to be what God wants us to be. But when we realize all he wants us to be is happy, things become simpler and we can treasure them better, and find that true happiness. We can find our new life, which Christ is the father of. We can be born again. We can start over. Thanks to him, we have blank piece after blank piece of paper to construct the perfect final draft.
But we have to be the one to put the pen to the page. To desire to have a happy ending. To desire that the pages turn. We have to want to have a story. Instead of just words.
I know that if we allow Heavenly Father to make us again and again and break us again and again until we get it right. We will become new creatures. We will become people ready to meet God. But most of all, we will be happy.
Happiness is not found in the world, it is found looking beyond the world, in spite of the world, and smiling and remembering there are bigger and better and brighter things always ahead.
I love you all with my whole heart. My mission has changed my life. He has changed my life. He still lives. And he can change yours too, if you believe in him. If you believe he can fix you. He can make you feel whole even when the world would classify you as broken. He died of a broken heart so he can put yours back together. So just turn to him. Set aside your foolish pride and go back. Ask him to lift you. Every day I pray for the strength to go on and every day I receive it. He is there. He is always there. Even when we pretend he isn't or when he is just quite. He never left us. He is still with us. The fight is His. And he has already overcome the world.
So come be on the winning team. Because we know how this ends.
40 Behold, ye are little children and ye cannot bear all things now; ye must grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth.
41 Fear not, little children, for you are mine, and I have overcome the world, and you are of them that my Father hath given me;
42 And none of them that my Father hath given me shall be lost.
43 And the Father and I are one. I am in the Father and the Father in me; and inasmuch as ye have received me, ye are in me and I in you.
44 Wherefore, I am in your midst, and I am the good shepherd, and the stone of Israel. He that buildeth upon this rock shall never fall.
45 And the day cometh that you shall hear my voice and see me, and know that I am.
-D and C 50:40-45
Sorella Jarnagin
Sorella Hannah Jarnagin
Piazza Monte Gemma 9
00141 Roma, Italia
Italia Roma Missione 🇮🇹
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