51 More Days

I think I can say that one of the biggest lessons of this week has been that the Lord prepares us constantly.  He prepares us for blessings by sending us trials and then uses those blessings to prepare us for additional trials.  This week we've had a lot of people getting sick and a little under the weather, some out completely, so its been interesting to make things come together without the whole group, but they always did.  Yesterday we we blessed to have our whole group on deck for our shows which marked our half-way point for the Summer, we only have 51 more days left of Nauvoo before we have to come off this cloud we get to live on for these few months.  In light of that, Elder Camp invited us to examine ourselves individually and see how we could rise to a new level of commitment to missionary work for the last 51 days and as part of that the Tech Sisters suggested a great idea that we use our time back stage to spiritually prepare ourselves between scenes.  The show turned out phenomenal.  Elder Camp even gave us a standing ovation, which is a really big deal for him because he can count on a single hand the number of times its happened for any show, not just in Nauvoo.  It was wonderful to know that they Lord answered our prayers and gives us what we need to be able to invite the spirit and bless the guests that come. The next big blessing of the day was one of the Sisters in the band received her mission call to Mexico City and we had our traditional mission call opening extravaganza at the seventies hall which is always wonderful.  All of these blessings were definitely a preparation for the news that came next.  We found out that one of the YPM's lost their step-father in a plane accident that also left a brother with serious, though not critical injuries, that would hinder his growth for the rest of his life.  I was so impressed by the missionary though because they stood and with unmatched faith and confidence in the plan of salvation, the blessings of eternal families, and the temple, bore firm testimony of the gospel and those principles that allowed what would otherwise be a tragedy to be a moment of joy because a good man was going home to our Father in Heaven.  It was so inspired by the faith and conviction of that missionary and it really caused me to reflect on how quickly life changes and how the only way to truly be prepared is to constantly be living the best we can, focusing on the things of greatest importance.  I'm so grateful that I have this same testimony that our Savior and His church provide the knowledge and truth that families can be together forever.  I know this church is true, because of the peace and confidence that can be felt through the Holy Ghost in times of trial and testing.  I am so grateful for the blessings that Heavenly Father has in store for all of us.