How are you all this week? I know mom and dad are scampering around Istanbul and Turkey... i guess that explains why nobody else wrote me... too busy partying. I understand....
This week has been alright for us. Not a lot of new updates, just working hard and teaching. We have zone conference this week, which is something I always look forward to. It's nice getting to be taught by president Perry and to see all my mission friends. Yesterday was president's day and we had some members of the branch take us up to Williamsburg for the day! It was so much fun!
The first picture is Sis Tarwater and I with the Davenports - they are awesome. We had a great day with them.
The second is us at this colonial coffee house, and we were the only ones in the tour. Everyone is all dressed up in period clothes and pretending like it's 1776. It's cool! At the end of the tour you get to sit at this table and have coffee or hot chocolate with the "colonial" - this guy who sits there and drinks coffee with you and talks all about the gossip and news and politics of the time, like you're really there. It's seriously neat.
The third pic is sis T and I in the streets of Williamsburg, it's so picturesque!! I loved it.
The fourth pic is the governors mansion, where Thomas Jefferson and others lived. kinda cool!
Last, this is a picture from the Virginia Declaration of Rights. This declaration was used as a base for the Declaration of Independence that would be written years later. The thing I love about this is that it says that they are ready to meet their enemies because they "trust that ALMIGHTY GOD, the avenger of wrongs, and the defender of the cause of the innocent, will deliver them into our hands in his own good time...." It reminded me of the people in the Book of Mormon, particularly the 2,000 stripling warriors. God preserved them. And even though they were young and inexperienced, they put their trust in the Lord and in their cause of Liberty, and they were delivered. Check this out, Alma 57: 26-27.
26And now, their apreservation was astonishing to our whole army, yea, that they should be spared while there was a thousand of our brethren who were slain. And we do justly ascribe it to the miraculous bpower of God, because of their exceeding cfaith in that which they had been taught to believe that there was a just God, and whosoever did not doubt, that they should be preserved by his marvelous power.27Now this was the afaith of these of whom I have spoken; they are young, and their minds are bfirm, and they do put their trust in God continually.I think it was the same idea in the early establishment of America. This is a blessed land. It has been and always will be as long as the people are faithful. FAITH being the big catch. Sometimes, we aren't going to have all the answers, and we aren't going to be able to see the end from the beginning... but that's the whole point. We just need to have faith, and God will never break his end of the deal. Even though faith is a simple and basic concept, it can be a difficult thing. It's hard to trust in something you can't see, because we live in such a tangible world. I know from my own experience that God is aware of us, and if we are "firm, and put our trust in God continually", that he will not leave us out to dry. I think the term "exercising faith" is a more accurate use of verbiage because it's hard. It stretches you and pushes you sometimes to the breaking point. But there is a promise in those scriptures that the young men in Helaman's army understood, and some of the early settlers of America understood as well. The miracle never came before their trial of faith.
It's the most amazing thing to see faith growing in the people we teach. It's incredible to see their conversion. To see how they are taught by the spirit, and grow closer to the Lord. Missionary work is the hardest, most rewarding work on the earth! I am convinced of that. Nothing in my life has compared to the difficulty or the joy I have experienced here... and I only have 9 months left to enjoy it! Thanks for all the support and prayers, I know I say that a lot, but they really do help me. I love you all soo much!!!
Love,
sis Skousen
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