Friday, June 26, 2009

We live, we learn, we laugh

"Get thee behind me Satan: Thou art an offense unto me: For thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." Matthew 16:23

And that is the theme of this e-mail.
You can say it to almost anything! Temptation, sin, bad habits, discouragement, anger. Satan relishes in all these things and essentially, he is the one holding the silver platter it's being offered on. Don't give into his tricks and his deceitfulness. He's awful!
I know this first hand, and if you so desire, I would invite you to laugh about what I am about to share with you. Why? Because it is the dumbest, most trivial thing I have ever worried about in my life. It has also been one of my biggest trials on my mission.
To put it frankly, I suck at being a girl. I mean I am a girl, but when it comes to "being" one.....the hair, the nails, the outfits, the shoes, the delicate talents (like singing for instance), I am utterly awful at all of it. It's never bothered me. Ever. Until now. I felt like every time I would put forth an effort I would be reminded that "I just couldn't do it". I let this boil over into missionary work. I have no idea how I connected being a good missionary to being able to walk, talk and look like a girl but I did. Every time I failed to do something "right" I had automatically failed for the day as a missionary. And this happened a lot. It actually got to the point that I found myself fighting back tears in the restroom one morning at the Visitor's Center as I attempted to put my hair back. A thought crossed my mind as I did so. I had officially succeeded in being a girl. I was crying over my hair. "This is dumb", I thought and I moved on.
As stupid as my little story is, the principle is the same. Satan will drag you down. He wants you to fail and will do anything to try and get you there, or at least think you are there. So stand up and look one of the silver platters he has been offering you lately, one you may have nibbled on even, smash it back into his face and exclaim "GET THEE BEHIND ME SATAN! THOU ART AN OFFENSE TO ME!" and move on! It will feel good. Nephi said it perfectly when he said, "Why should my heart weep and my soul linger in the valley of sorrow, and my flesh waste away, and my strength slacken because of mine afflictions? And why should I yield to sin because of my flesh? Yea, why should I give way to temptations, that the evil one have place in my heart to destroy my peace and afflict my soul? Why am I angry because of my enemy? Awake my soul! No longer droop in sin. Rejoice oh my heart, and give place no more for the enemy of my soul."
2Nephi4:26-28

For those of you who know me it will come as no surprise to you that this morning, Sister Barry (not my companion, but an amazing sister) and I ran to the best playground I have ever seen and played our guts out for our half an hour of exercise this morning. It was THE best and I plan to send home pictures of the playground when I get a chance to. It's AWESOME. It's one of the old wooden ones and one of the coolest things in Carthage. THE coolest thing is of course, the jail. Sister Aston and I then got all our chores done, letters, cleaning, laundry and headed out exploring. We have so much more exploring to do, but we found a waterfall!! and took pictures. It was great and really pretty. We saw a snake!. We are going to the temple at four and so we're actually in a little bit of a rush (it's three right now). I still have to write my presidency letter too. Ah! so little time. Anyway, thanks for all your love, support, and prayers. They mean so much.

LOVE LOVE LOVE
Sister Bailey

"Come what may and love it"
"Your future is as bright as your faith"

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