January 8, 2018

This last Sunday this family walked into church with their dog on a leash. Then the woman took the lil dog off the leash and wrapped it up in a blanket, and the entire sacrament meeting, she held this dog in a blanket like a baby. And then this Sunday a different little dog was walking around the church building and nobody questioned why. It was like it was a regular thing to have this dog in church. I guess in the coming Sundays I will find out if this is like a normal thing here to have dogs in church, but this is definitely the first time I've seen dogs in church. haha

I've loved being able to teach with the new year. It's fun to hear people's goals, and those who don't have goals, to help them set goals. Many times people don't realize that God is there to help with any type of goal. They think they are on their own. But that's not the case at all. It doesn't matter if your goal is temporal or spiritual, God is there to help cause if it's important to us, it's important to him. He wants us to be the happiest possible, and when we complete goals we feel good and accomplished and happy. So that's what he wants for us. We will complete more of our temporal goals, with the help of God if we put our spiritual goals as first priority. And this is the part I love, because with a new year, it really is a fresh start. we can leave the past behind and look forward with hope. I was thinking about how if this was my last year here on earth, how would I want to use my time, who would I  want to become? it just pushes me so much more to do the things that I really need to do to please God because in the long run, lots of things won't matter, but what will matter is what we do to strengthen our testimony of this gospel, or what we do to make our relationship with God and Jesus Christ better. Sometimes we feel like this life is long and that we have time to spare, but it's not. This is only a tiny part of eternity and we need to act now on the goals that will bring us closer to our Savior so that we can be prepared to meet him! Let's make this year the best one yet!!