monday musing #7

7 Weeks! Holy Cow, time goes by fast!

Bienvenidos to my new friends Ü

For those of you who don't know, I started my monday musings as a way to spiritually uplift my wonderful girlfriends who are all serving missions.

That means Y.O.U.

Me, being the person I am, gets a little carried away sometimes with all the random details of my life (boys, school, work, etc.) and sometimes I forget that you're still servants of the Lord.

SO. Here I am, and I hope I can give you a little inspiration for the week.

I try to keep it short, I promise! But don't worry, I won't be offended if you don't have time to read it.

Ok so let me start by saying how much I LOVE my Living Prophets class.

Guess what we do.

We study the lives and the talks of each of the apostles. It's pretty legit.

So this week I read a talk by Elder Quentin L. Cook entitled, "The Songs They Could Not Sing". Towards the end of the talk, I came across this paragraph

*Shoutout to my ABM sistas who will probably appreciate this a lil bit more*

And I quote, "My beloved mission president, Elder Marion D. Hanks (who passed away in August), asked us as missionaries to memorize a statement to resist mortal challenges: 'There is no chance, no destiny, no fate that can circumvent or hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul.' (Ella Wheeler Wilcox) He acknowledged that this doesn't apply to all the challenges we encounter but is true in spiritual matters. I have appreciated his counsel in my life"

ok, stop it right there. You mean to tell me that an apostle had to memorize the exact. same. poem. on his mission that I had to on mine???

Talk about awesomeness!

And then I really started to think..."What else did President Hanks incorporate from his dad?" How cool that this man's influence is being reached to so many different people around the world.

What are some special things that your mission presidents do? How are they going to impact you for the rest of your life? What teachings of theirs have been ingrained in your minds?

I know that one of the reasons I was called to the Alabama Birmingham Mission was being with President Hanks and his dear, sweet wife. They have changed my life for the better and have become my second parents. They have taught me lessons I never could have learned anywhere else and they loved me as their own. I will forever cherish the memories I have with them and I hope that you will with your mission presidents as well. What a special time in our lives!

I love you each dearly. Let me know if there's anything I can do for you!

Xoxo, Hermana Blackner

Oh, and update of the week in pictures :)