Choose to be Happy (Week 44) — Called to Serve in Cuiaba

This week was such a blast and a half my goodness gracious. So many lovely things happened and I am just so grateful for these opportunities I have to learn out here. Presidente Granja is the best man on this whole entire earth.

On Monday night I had a super good interview with Presidente Granja. I sat down to talk to him and he was like hey Elder Roskelley how are you doing are you feelin happy: and I was like no dude I'm pretty jacked up right now I need something. He started to talk to me about the Spirit and how the Spirit is what always makes us happy. He told me then that the reason I am sad is because I am not feeling the Spirit. It wasn't that I wasn't worthy of the Spirit it's that I wasn't allowing myself to feel it. Something that I have learned is that things don't make you happy, you make you happy. If you choose to be happy regardless of what's going on in your life you choose to allow the Spirit into your life. When we choose to be sad we aren't allowing God to help us out. We close ourselves off to His blessings because we choose not to help ourselves.

On Friday night we had a super lovely activity in the church. We decided that we wanted to have a little movie night and that we'd pop popcorn for everyone and slap on a nice church film. Side note, this week all of the Sisters in the Zone got sick and they were throwing up so we had to help them a lot this week hahaha. But they were all sick on Thursday and when Friday came around they came to the activity like half zombie. We had Ivo and Marly come with us and they loved the movie. After we got everything all cleaned up after one of the Sisters came and asked me for a blessing because her stomach was still messed up I guess haha. We proceeded to give the blessing and for some reason I got like super nervous before the blessing. We laid our hands on her head and gave a super nice blessing and the Spirit was insanely strong. Then after that, one of the other Sisters asked for a blessing too and so I got to give her a blessing and it was definitely the strongest I've ever felt the Spirit in a blessing. It was absolutely wild and it just confirmed to me once again the reality of this Priesthood and how powerful it truly is. After we gave the blessings I was feeling so strongly the love that our Heavenly Father has for these people it was absolute insanity. I went out back of the church for a sec alone and just took a little walk and said a prayer and just was overwhelmed by the Spirit. I felt in that moment how real our Heavenly Father is, and I felt His true parental love for me as one of his kids. I was all teary and full of the Spirit and I thanked Him for for this experience and then I felt like I should go back inside so I did and right when I walked back in I saw my companion lookin for me all frantically hahah and then life just returned back to normal. I feel so honored and blessed to have been trusted with the opportunity to have this cool little spiritual experience, and it really helped me realize I think why God gives us spiritual experiences. Our lives aren't going to be blasted with spiritual overload 24/7 it's just not reasonable. When we have the opportunity to feel the Spirit at a more elevated level, we must take advantage and remember what it's like to feel that Spirit. Life isn't always easy and it turns pretty doozy sometimes, but for that exact reason God gives us spiritual experiences. To boost us through the normal, and sometimes a little worse times.

We spent a couple lovely mornings down by the river studying and it was so freaking relaxing. I never thought I could feel so calm and at rest just skippin some rocks and reading the Book of Mormon. Heavenly Father is such a Bro for helping us find the river. GET OUT OF YOUR HOUSE AND GO DO SOMETHING IN THE NATURE.

So we have arrived now at the end. I really am craving Chicken fil A right now. And I'm definitely missin hot pilates down at Thanksgiving Point lately.

This sign says “The Porter is in Rondonopolis literally opening doors” hahaha