When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!

Hello Family! I decided that when life gets really hard, or I start to feel discouraged, that something great is about to happen. We watched the Joseph Smith movie with some investigators yesterday. It amazes me the faith the Joseph Smith had, no matter all the persecution; all the pain and trails, he never doubted what he knew to be true. It would have been so easy for him to just give up. To stop all the persecution and deny what he saw. If that would have happened, where would we be now? It is sad that there was so much suffering in his life, but if he didn't bear with his afflictions the gospel would not be so true. It is true! It is so true, and I wish it was easier for everyone to see that. But when we take those steps on the right path, and lay in store countless eternal blessings, the devil does not want that. In district meeting on Wednesday we did an activity where we blindfolded one of the missionaries. We sent them out of the room and then brought them in without any instruction on what they were supposed to do. One missionary was the Holy Ghost, while the rest of us were the adversary. We watched as this missionary struggled to figure out what was the right thing to do. It took a while to recognize the voice of the Holy Ghost vs. the adversary. The adversary was loud and bold. The Holy Ghost was quiet and took a lot of listening to hear and understand. However, when the missionary recognized the Holy Ghost it was easier to follow the promptings that were given. However, the closer and closer the missionary got to making it to the end of the obstacle, the harder and harder we (the adversary) tried to distract him by throwing things at him and trying harder now than at the beginning to take him off of this path. That is exactly how it really is, the devil does not want us to succeed. He does not want us to have eternal happiness. He will do everything in his power to try to take us away from that. I see that a lot with our investigators. One of our investigators knows the gospel is true. He knows it so strongly and he recognized the voice of the Holy Ghost. However, Satan knows our weaknesses, he knows what is going to bring us down. And he will try anything to pull us away from something that is going to be good for us. It easy for me to say, just do what it takes to follow Christ because I know the blessings that come from it. It is harder for those who do not see the end result, or do not have that eternal perspective. That is why it is so important in those times, where there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel, to take that leap of faith, and even if the end result is no where in sight, trust the Lord, submit everything to Him, and because he loves all of his children, he will not forsake us. He will bless us! We had a lesson with Ron this week. He told us he is agnostic going on atheist. But before we went to this lesson we had some time to kill. We had been praying a lot for a girl that lived right by him, we decided that we were going to pick a potential investigator each week and pray about them every day. Anyway, we decided that because we had a few minutes we were going to go visit her. She came out and she was crying. It was sad but we were definitely there at the right time. She needs the gospel! She gave us her phone number and we will be meeting with her soon! Ron's lesson went well.. he committed to come to church on fast Sunday and to read. His problem is prayer, he can't get past that he just having a mental diary.. I really don't know how to fix that. But I know if he has sincere prayers and looks for his answer, God will answer! Our member was telling us a story about how God doesn't give us trials we cannot overcome. One fast Sunday she was having a really hard time, everything in her life seemed to be falling apart. Many people got up and bore their testimony and she frankly just didn't want to be there. The last guy got up and shared about his perfect life, how he had a great job, great family, great everything. Our member just rolled her eyes in frustration. Towards the end of his testimony he started to cry, he stated that God does not give anyone trails they cannot overcome, so "why doesn't God trust me". He recognized that trials turn into a strength and a time for improvement in faith. Gah.. I love this gospel! I love how God answers prayers :) You actually get a semi short email this week! Ha ha I love you all so much! I hope you are doing good, I think about you often! Much love, Sister Poulson "If we have faith in Jesus Christ, the hardest as well as the easiest times in life can be a blessing. In all conditions, we can choose the right with the guidance of the Spirit. We have the gospel of Jesus Christ to shape and guide our lives if we choose it. And with prophets revealing to us our place in the plan of salvation, we can live with perfect hope and a feeling of peace. We never need to feel that we are alone or unloved in the Lord’s service, because we never are. We can feel the love of God. The Savior has promised angels on our left and our right, to bear us up. And He always keeps His word." —President Henry B. Eyring