Cookies and apologies

Dear Loved Ones,

     First of all, I LOVE YOU ALL! 

     Second of all, ARE YOU AS PUMPED FOR CONFERENCE AS I AM?!?!?! I have to admit, I wasn´t always this excited for conference. I saw it as a bit of an inconvenience. I am trying to make up for that now, because it is a powerful means of knowing God´s will for our lives. It´s good stuff! The best stuff! I know that when we go to conference, having beforehand prayed about the questions we have (about life in general), we will receive answers. I remember my first experience with this. It was amazing! I remember thinking "Oh my goodness, they prepared their talks just for me. How did they know?" It is because they are inspired men of God.

If you want to watch conference, but don´t know how, go to lds.org or or go to an LDS chapel at 12:00 this Saturday or Sunday or ask my mom (978-761-5132) or any other mormon you know. 

 

     This week we had a bit of an interesting experience. There is a woman in our ward who always helps us by giving people rides to church. She is a little rough around the edges, but she is always there to help. The roughness is hard for people who don´t know her, and there were a few people with hurt feelings. One of our recent converts expressed to us through tears how she didn´t understand the way this woman had talked to her. We explained that she has a way about her, but she doesn´t mean to hurt anyone. An experience of my own came to mind.

     Don´t judge. Everyone has to go through a learning process. There was someone I knew who always got on my nerves and it got to the point where I wasn´t ever in a good mood around them. The hardest part was that I had to see them every day...several times a day. Thinking about how mad this person made me distracted me from learning in my early morning seminary class and this made me more agitated. I started thinking of ways to make them as mad as they made me. I was surprised by the rude comments I could make. One day a friend of mine realized how much this bothered me and told me "bake him cookies." I thought it would never work, but I started to realize how much this was affecting me and keeping me from being the kind of person I wanted to be, so I finally resolved to bake him cookies. 

     You won´t believe how hard it was to make these cookies. I can make a dough in 7 minutes and start baking right away, but this time it took much longer. Now that I was determined to make things right, everything was going wrong. I couldn´t get the cookie sheet out from the storage drawer under the oven. I literally had to wrestle with it. I realized that all the thougths of giving up and the struggles I experienced in making these cookies were the attempts of the adversary to get me to give up. He knew that talking things out, settling our differences, would help us both to be better people.

      Finally I finished and brought the cookies over to him. Of course, the whole family and all their closest friends were present, but they welcomed me in. I was embarassed to be bringing him cookies, but he was like "Oh my gosh! You´re so sweet." I didn´t want to tell him in front of eveyone why I was there, so I waited...and waited and waited until no one was paying attention to the two of us. Then I turned to him and told him how sorry I was for treating him badly and not being the friend I should have been. He smiled and laughed a little and told me he thougth it was all a joke. Then we talked a little and it was all cool. Afterwards, we felt more comfortable around each other and even confided in each other when facing similar hardships. I´m not saying we were best friends, but we communicated and learned how to respect one another better. 

     Now, I am just telling this story, because it´s something I wanted this woman to realize, that communication is key. Often times we take offense to something and the person who said it intended it to have a completely different meaning or we were just having a bad day. Satan would love for us to hold on to all of these things, but we can´t. If we can´t get over it on our own, we have to talk to the other person. We need to seek forgiveness on our part so we can feel at peace knowing we are doing our best, even when we think we have every reason to keep on being mad.

     Okay, that´s done. One last disclaimer: I love to make cookies, so if I´ve made you cookies, please don´t think we have unresolved problems. It´s just because I love you.

     Exciting news! Lisandra is getting baptised on Saturday after conference! She is so excited! We are so excited for her! It´s going to be great!

I hope everyone is doing well and being awesome! I LOVE YOU ALL!

Love, 

Sister Arthur