Mountains To Climb Are Easier To Climb With Love

Dear familia & friends,

I think the mountain I prayed to climb 3 transfers ago just made it's
self very apparent & I feel like I can't even have a climb with a nice
path. There are thorns & thickets & mountain lions & whatever other
obstacle, you name it, it's coming at me. But before I get into that
earlier this week I learned a lot of fun things.

I did not know that Noah is the angel Gabriel, I love the ensign, it
goes along greatly with things that have been on my mind or that I
have read about recently. I love receiving revelations & I love how
God is in the details of our lives. His timing is perfect & matchless.
Happiness!

Reading the ensign along with scripture studies is very rewarding,
doesn't happen all the time because studies fly by especially when you
try to read bits & pieces from   All of the standard works, sheesh, I
love it! Can't get enough of scriptures :)

Anywho, Question! In Genesis 9, why did Noah get angry at his son &
punish him when it was his bad decision in the first place & he set
himself up to look like a fool? I might not be interpreting it right
but it was curious & funny to me any insights anyone?

Another insight I had was with Abraham, what sweet faith, how hard it
must have been because his father had tried to sacrifice him when he
was young but for evil reasons rather then good but Abraham was saved
by Christ. The faith & trust he must have had to sacrifice his son
when he was commanded to by God, I wonder if he had wondered if Christ
was going to save Isaac like he had been saved himself from his evil
dad. Could that have provided some form of comfort in the trial of his
faith. Either way talk about strengthen & courage in such a trial.
Taking a bad experience he went through as a young man & turning that
to positive reasons & trust as a father when he didn't have that form
of trust from his earthly father. What a beautiful example &
relationship he had with his Heavenly Father, pure love & devotion
even though he never had that from his earthly dad. I am so grateful
my papa is a loving & worthy priesthood holder who has provided for me
& not only given me but taught me the way to follow Christ's
footsteps. Thank you dad for being a good man & not trying to
sacrifice your children :) you are the best.

It was a delight after district meeting to walk in POURING rain to the
bus stop. I thought to myself, "hmmmm I need to do this more." It is
seriously one of the best & most delightful feelings to be completely
drenched from the rain & to just absolutely enjoy the down pour, I
love it. Ha ha I guess that is what I need to feel towards my
companionship situation just enjoy the exhaustion of it & that it
doesn't have to be exhausting in the down pour. I need to sincerely
love it like I do the rain.

Sister Godwin & I have talked a lot to try to work out things, we are
Very very different. And that's the biggest thing, you can't force
anyone to change, oh the beauty of free agency. You can see that
someone could be happier but until they themselves really do want to
be happy you can't do anything it has to be there choice. That can be
rather aggravating especially when their pride starts to effect you &
the work & others... might result in you yelling... & feeling bad be
because you have been working on not being angry...sigh.

I've been praying a lot for charity & to not be angry because anger &
contention is not from God. I am grateful for God's help, we we're
reading in the white handbook & this stood out to me, "All those who
have callings that put them in the position of influencing others for
good should prayerfully & repeatedly ponder the Lord's teachings to
the Prophet Joseph Smith in Doctrine & Covenants 121:34-46." I am
trying to ponder this more fully & have already had a lot of trying &
crying prayers to God from everything. I sobbed a lot Saturday night
in my prayer to God, I was pretty frustrated with things that happened
that day & the transfer news that Sister Godwin & I would be staying
together another transfer. I want to be the best missionary I can be &
it's hard when you don't have the support or unity in your
companionship. Being equally yoked really makes a difference & I
really want a best friend out here who gets that & is with me in
giving everything we can together as a team. The whole purpose in
bringing souls unto Christ, not running the other direction from
spiritual experiences because they are as she says it, "weird." I
loathe that description word now, every time I say weird it irks me.

Nice thing the spirit taught me at the Kane's was the story in Alma 24
burying our weapons of war, burying our words of war, there is a much
more loving way to deal with life's temptations & contentions. I read
recently a powerful talk in the ensign, I've been praying for charity
& it has been tried like none other. I have prayed to get rid of anger
& to know how to deal with a lot more love towards sister Godwin
because there have been so many times where I just wanted to flat out
smack her not just yell but I have been really surprised to find that
type of anger. I'm not the type or a person who desires to deal with
anger physically but goodness I really wanted to hit her.  Ha ha I
can't believe I'm being this honest but oh man it was hard. Anywho
this article in the ensign was really such an answer to prayer & I
highly recommend all to read it. "Shunning Temptation, A Key to
Receiving Revelation," by Elder Ian S. Ardern.

Another thing that really helped with everything was mom & dad's
letters super grateful! Oh & super sweet/ adorable, the river heights
3rd ward are sweethearts & I got this huge valentines card thing from
them, I'll have to take a picture of it & send it in my next email but
it all came in perfect timing. Oh & loved this quote that helped a
lot, it's a quote from one of the apostles that's along the lines of
do not prayer for your circumstances to be changed rather pray for the
strength to change your circumstances. I love quotes.

Another funny thing that helped this week is Siri. In our area books
on our I-pads we can use the Siri feature so we don't have to spend
forever typing out the background info or updating the lessons, we can
just speak it in & Siri types it out as we voice record it. Well it's
super efficiently entertaining because some things it hears wrong &
types out funny sentences. For example I was recording that Sister
Ciccarello was a member present at a lesson & instead of Ciccarello it
put, "and the chick around the house." It provides a good laugh now &
again, bah ha ha especially when Sister Godwin's Siri once put, "She
feels like s!@$~" we couldn't stop laughing because she did not say
that but that's what it imputed. Luckily we can type out the
corrections but wow :D

Speaking of immaturity, guess what?!? There's an Elder Butt out here
in the mission, ha ha ha I wonder if he's related to the less active
family from Tampa who's last name was Butt. Aww nothing like immature
humor really helps get ya through.

Speaking about singing :D we were riding our bikes & funny funny, I
just started singing, " I love biking, I love being a missionary, I
love biking & being a missionary," & lo & behold we passed a house
where as I'm mid singing being random & weird there is a guy sitting
in his chair in his front lawn. It was soooo funny! And instead if
just saying hello, which I did say I first awkwardly singy like, "oh
my goodness, HI!" Biking got hard after laughing so much which just
adds to the crazy look of biking in skirts with helmets, loooovvveee
it! Even better we road pass that house again this week & said hi to
that man, he had a big grin on his face as he waved hi to us if we
hadn't had had an appointment I would have stopped to ask if we can
pray with him & teach him but I promise next time we see him in his
front yard we are stopping & teaching the guy. Wouldn't that be great
if he got baptized & could have the cool story about how he saw some
weird Sister missionary singing a made up song on her bike? Epic I
tell you purely epic.

So miracle of the week we were headed over to the Dacosta's to teach
Laura & it was funny because on the way over their I thought to
myself, "hmm wouldn't that be cool if Brother DaCosta was visiting?"
Lo & behold while talking Sister DaCosta let us know that Brother
DaCosta was in town because they were moving into a bigger house in
Spring Hill for their family & came down to help. It was awesome & I
was super excited to see him & he was able to be there for the lesson.
We are helping them with move tonight & are looking forward to a
lesson & an invitation to be baptized with a date.

Other updates I don't remember if I have shared or not, we dropped
Monica because she's not keeping commitments like reading her
scriptures or coming to church. Hopefully she'll accept it down the
road. Also Donna & Miguel are both out of town, arggg so waiting to be
able to set baptismal dates when they come back. Other then that we
are working on finding like none other.

Scripture time, 2 nephi 32:3-5 I testify that if we enter in the way
of putting God first & applying/ living to the best of our abilities
Christ gospel will be shown all things by the Holy Ghost as to what to
do. Which is what I'm in need of with my companion & fellow
missionaries that can be frustrating & making up their own rules. For
example our Sister training leaders insisted that we send our music
home because President said so. We'll President said in his email the
no music rule was "for now." Just got an email today that we have
permission to listen to moron tabernacle choir or have a church logo
on the cd that we can listen to it in the car. I'm pretty annoyed
because I gave my Sister Training leaders my CDs to send home because
they insisted on it & now the way that really helps me distress is
gone & we have permission to listen to music now. Yeah, I'm ticked. I
didn't know that one of my trials on my mission would be from my
mission President who can't make up his mind on rules or keeps giving
or taking away rules... A little aggravating. But I am trying to be
understanding with it all because he is human to & learning along side
the rest of us.

Anywho mom & dad if you get some CDs that's why, I'm also hoping they
haven't sent them so we'll see.

2 Tim 3:14-17, john 5:39 two other nice scriptures.

And let's see, oh another thought/ insight from brother Kane who
realized Satan didn't hear Heavenly Father out for the whole plan just
got angry & huffed out before the whole plan could be presented, I
think? Not positive on that & I don't know if I have shared that
before but I think it's a cool insight. Let us try to hear each other
allllll the way out before we get angry & storm from the room. I am
grateful for my brother Elijah who taught me that before I had left
for my mission. We were having a family discussion & one of my
siblings voiced his opinion about something & it ticked me off & I was
trying to stand up for what I thought was right. It got frustrating so
I left the room crying & Elijah came after me & pulled me in a big
brother bear hug & whispered in my ear,"don't leave, we need you tash,
if you go this family will fall apart, don't leave just come back, we
need you." I reluctantly came back even though I was incredibly hurt I
knew that truth is truth & we all need each other to be a complete
family. This likewise is true In the bigger picture. I am
understanding more where less actives are coming from. They just need
to be loved & know that they are needed & have someone tell them to
come back, we need you.

I am grateful for my siblings that we stick together as a team. I am
also grateful that they are so loving & humble to apologize even in
disagreements they are willing to let each other know that when it
comes down to it we love each other no matter what.

I think love really helps every problem, I've been frustrated with our
mission President Cusick because he doesn't always portray it or say
very nice things. I just have to remember that people express love
differently & don't show it the same way as others. That is been fun
to learn this transfer oh & Sister Godwin & I are staying together
another transfer, woot for climbing mountains, oh my heart has days
where it can take it & others where I just want to cry. There is hope
though on Sunday she said she was going to try to be more happy and
kind on her part. Yay for the power of prayer.

I need to always remember Christ to have His spirit with me always
just like it says in the sacrament prayers & in 3 Nephi 18:11 & in
verse 15, "watch & prayer always." And in verse 18 says it again. In
verses 24&25 those greatly touch my heart. Christ is the light that we
need to uphold & we do so by sharing that with every child of God, so
many souls need to have the Atonement, so many people don't even know
about the hope of a Savior. There have been times where in a lesson
I'll ask a child if they know who Jesus Christ is & they will respond
with no. Everyone needs to know.

Ok, this is SUPER long :D good luck & woot love you all! Hope things
are improving you've all be en in my prayers & fasts.

LOVE, much LOVE,

Sister Bush