Homecoming Talk

One of the most important things I learned about in my mission was the significance of the doctrine of Christ. Our purpose as missionaries was the doctrine of Christ. Our purpose was to “invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.” My love for those principles and ordinances has greatly increased because of my mission. I will start off by talking about faith in Jesus Christ. Faith in Jesus Christ is such a vital principle. Faith is a principle of action. If you have faith in Jesus Christ you trust in Him. You do what He has asked of you. You will learn more about Him and His teachings. You will strive to be more like Him and strive to keep all of His commandments. In the Book of Mormon, in Ether 12:4 Ether says, “Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God.” And then Moroni continues in verse 8 saying, “But because of the faith of men he has shown himself unto the world, and glorified the name of the Father, and prepared a way that thereby others might be partakers of the heavenly gift, that they might hope for those things which they have not seen.” And then in verse 12, “For if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them; wherefore, he showed not himself until after their faith.” One of my investigators, she was a 19 year old girl. Before she met with us, she had read the entire Book of Mormon and knew it was true. As she met with us, her faith kept increasing. She just knew the gospel was true. She knew that this truly was God’s church. She already had a strong faith in Christ, but the teachings of this church, of the Book of Mormon, and of God’s gospel increased her faith in Christ even further. But as time went on, the trials came on. Family had always been so important to her. But her entire family was against her joining the church. They even threatened to disown her. Yet, she preserved and relied on the atonement of Christ. He was her anchor. She knew that He could strengthen her to endure. She didn’t know what would happen to her, but she trusted in God. As time passed, her family’s hearts started to soften bit by bit. When she was baptized into God’s church, they were okay with it, although they still didn’t support her. Even though her baptism was a happy day, it was a hard day with no family there to support. But she definitely saw how her faith in God blessed her in the end. So after faith, you are led to the step of repentance. If you truly love Christ, if you truly are His follower, you will repent and line yourselves and your hearts to His will. In the Bible dictionary it says, “Without this there can be no progress in the things of the soul’s salvation, for all accountable persons are stained by sin, and must be cleansed in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. Repentance is not optional for salvation; it is a commandment of God.” I know this is this so true! As President David O. McKay said, “The purpose of the gospel is… to make bad men good and good men better.” And the only way you can do that is by repenting! But in order to really repent, you must go through the process of repentance. And I like to call this the ABC’s of repentance. First, you must Admit your problem and recognize that it was wrong. Second, you must Be sorry for doing it. You must have sincere and true sorrow. Third, you must Confess your sin to the Lord. Ask Him and those you sinned against for forgiveness. And you must do it sincerely or it will not count. The Lord knows your heart. He knows whether or not you are intent in your repentance or not. And so if you are doing it sincerely, you will do all you can to correct and fix the problems you may have caused. And the fourth step is Don’t do it again! You will recommit yourself to living God’s commandments. You will recommit yourself to never fall into the same temptation. You will do all you can do to follow God. And you will continually acknowledge that He is your Lord and your Savior. One of my more recent investigators experienced a lot of the repentance process. When we taught her the word of wisdom, which is a health code God has given us, she had to go through the repentance process. When she realized that tobacco was bad, she admitted her problem right there and then. She recognized that according to what we had taught her that tobacco “was not for the body”. She then was sorry for her habit and confessed it to us and to God. She prayed for his help to quit. Then she never picked up a cigarette again. She quit cold turkey. My companion and I were very impressed by her strong dedication to God. For every commandment we taught her, she committed to live it right away. She was always repentant, ready to follow God, to give up everything she had in order to be right with him. After having faith in Christ and repenting, the next step is Baptism! Some people ask, why must we be baptized? Well, one of the answers is because it is a commandment of God. In 2 Nephi 31:13 Nephi says, “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I know that if ye shall follow the Son, with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God, but with real intent, repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the Father that ye are willing to take upon you the name of Christ, by baptism.” And then in verse 20 Heavenly Father states that if you do all of this, “Ye shall have eternal life.” Not only does baptism affect your eternal salvation, but also the now. As you are baptized into God’s church with the correct priesthood authority, you are also making a covenant with God. As I quoted before, you are promising God that you are willing to take upon the name of Christ. You also promise to always remember Him and to keep His commandments. In return God promises to forgive your sins, that you will be reborn in the waters of baptism, and that you will have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. What beautiful promises He has given to us who accept His will! What beauty! One man that I know who has seriously taken His baptismal covenant, even before he was baptized he was always eagerly helping out the elders quorum, volunteering for different projects and the such. From the first day we met him, he had such a glow about him. We could tell he had pure desires to know God and to come closer to Him. He was always looking for ways to serve others and to come closer to God. 6 months after his baptism, he was called to be the elder’s quorum president. He truly was keeping his baptismal commitment. After being baptized by water comes the baptism of the Holy Ghost, which is conferred upon you by the priesthood. Here you are promised to the right to have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost always! What a sacred, special blessing God has promised. The Holy Ghost has many roles which can include: cleansing you, testifying of truth, comforting you, giving you added strength, guides you to do right, helps you feels God’s love, gives you feelings of peace, and much more. In 2 Nephi 32:5 it says, “For behold, again I say unto you that if ye will enter in by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what ye should do.” The Holy Ghost is really there to help you through all things. He is our constant companionship, our constant guide – if we ask, he will help us with anything and everything. In 2 Nephi 32:9 it says, “But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul.” I love this scripture because really, if we pray to have the spirit to be with us in our activities, he will help us through. I know this for a fact! The first investigator I ever had, he told us of an experience he had. He was asking his wife about the law of tithing. She was trying to explain to him why we do it, but it came to a point that she was frustrated in trying to explain it to him. So she told him she was just going to go to bed. But he really wanted to trust in God’s law of tithing. So he prayed and opened up the scriptures. He turned to Genesis 28 and it happened to be the very last verse that he read (verse 22) where his namesake, Jacob stated to God, “of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.” Right then and there my investigator knew that if his namesake paid tithing so could he. And that was that. He knew that the Spirit of God definitely lead him to that scripture so he could believe and accept God’s law of tithing. After having faith, repenting of all your sins, being baptized into God’s church, and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, all that is left is enduring to the end. Which sometimes can be the hardest part, but also the most rewarding. In 2 Nephi 31:20 Nephi says, “Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.” So really all we have to do is continue keeping the commandments, keep our baptismal covenants, and one day enter into the temple so we can continue to progress. One of my investigators just recently went through the temple with his wife. That day was a happy day for them. They had been waiting to be able to be sealed together forever for over a year – ever since he first believed in that principle of the gospel. And overall, he is doing really well. He still going to church. He’s still reading his scriptures every day. He’s still praying. He’s still nourshing his testimony every day. He’s still going to the temple often. He’s just loving being a member of God’s church. He always knew it had to be out there, but he didn’t know it until he met his wife. He definitely has committed himself to endure to the end. I know this church is true. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint has the fullness of God’s gospel. I know without a doubt that God exists. That He loves each and every one of us fully! I know that our purpose here on earth is to learn to become more Christ-like. I know that we can become better, overcome our natural weaknesses. I know that serving a mission was the right thing for me. I know that because of it my testimony has grown, I have grown. I know these things are true, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Last letter from the mission field!

Dear family, This week was a good week. We picked up a new investigator! She is the sister of the actress. She's 14. They have a great family. We pretty much met with the whole family...less active mom, 2 daughters, and the non-member husband sat behind us in the background, but he could hear everything if he wanted to. Only the 7 year old boy decided not to come down. It was a good lesson. One of our investigators kind of dropped us/we're dropping him. We've been trying to get him focused on the Book of Mormon, but he's not really interested in that and has refocused himself to studying the Bible. Silly man. But we are definitely focusing our efforts on his 13 year old step-son who is very interested and wants to be baptized. And also on the less active mom/wife. So yep. We've also done a lot of caroling/singing to people this last week. That was a lot of fun. We even went tracting and asked if people would let us sing to them. A lot of people were willing to let us sing to them, but after that...most weren't interested in talking to us, but they were nice in general and appreciated our caroling. Friday I went to the temple. Ten elders, the mission president, and me. That was really weird. People kept asking me if I was waiting for my companion, and then I'd tell them, I didn't have one at the moment! That was weird. But it was really nice being at the temple. It was very good for me. Very enlightening. :D We had our Christmas party on Friday night. It was really nice. Santa came! And we had really good tri-tip. We had other good lessons with some of our less actives and recent converts as well. They are all really good people. I love them all. There were some teary eyes on Sunday. :) And yesterday my bishop told me he would love to hear my testimony...so I was the first to get up from the congregation...wanted to get it over with easily...yet I did start crying as I was up there, I seem to do that every time I do that in sacrament meeting. Anyways. It was a good week. A good transfer. A good 18 months plus some. Since there are no sisters coming in, Sister Slaugh has been placed in a trio with the Rocklin sisters. They will be covering 2 wards for the next 6 weeks. The Thomsons (the people we live with) were really sad! They love having the sisters live with them! But such is life. The only thing constant is change. Embrace it. Love it! Be positive! Trust in the Lord! And all things will work together for your good! I love my mission life. I love missionary work. My testimony of it has blossomed! My testimony of the gospel has increased amazingly! And I feel that I have become better. I am so grateful for this time and how it's helped me to be who I am today. :) Love you all! See you soon! (oddly enough...it still hasn't registered though...) Love always, Sister Walston

How are all of you doing? Sounds like you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving! We had a real good one. We had a p-day. So in the morning we had a brunch with our zone. We had pancakes, fruit, potatoes, and juice. We played some basketball - yeah I did! Played hard against another sister. It was fun. We had a good time...and boy am I out of shape for basketball. But it was fun. Trevor taught me well. :) And then at 2 we went over to a family's house for dinner! They were running late, but we ate o'deurs...I really don't know how to spell that word...appetizer...hopefully you get what I'm meaning... It was a good dinner. It was the mother, her 4 children (ages 4-14), grandmother, and great-grandmother, and us. It was really nice. And then after that we went to our bishops house and played games with his youngest 3 daughters (ages 7, 14, 16). We played a zapping game...I didn't like it. If you didn't press a button at the right time, or before anyone else, you'd get zapped. The only reason I got zapped was because the 7 year old -tisk tisk - made me press the button before we had too. Haha, yep. They are a fun family. Full of girls. 4 girls to be exact. No boys. And then after that we got together again with our zone. A couple of us just passed a volleyball around - fun style. It was a nice good Thanksgiving Day. It was good. So this last week we found out that our investigator is unable to get baptized this weekend. Due to some personal matters - our mission president is on the help though. It's kind of funny, last night we were telling our district leader about it and he felt really bad for us. But I don't feel bad. First, I'm not surprised by this hold back. Second, it's all for the better. Third, she's so good and still learning that I'm not worried about her. She'll be fine to hold off her baptism for a time. Timing sometime is everything. When she gets baptized, it'll be the perfect timing. That's her story. Oh! Something really cool! We got 9 referrals from 1 member on Saturday! Way cool! And you know what!?! ...We all have someone we can work with and share the gospel with. Yesterday in our small ward council meeting, our ward mission leader was talking about some ideas he had. We all have someone out there that we can invite to a ward party, we all have someone we can have a small, simple gospel conversation with. We all have someone we can invite to hear us speak in sacrament meeting. To the friend being invited, it is a privilege. I love missionary work. Really, it is a lot more simple than people make it out to be. I love it. It is so worth it. Oh, and can I say again how much I love my ward again!? They are so good. Yesterday in our meeting, bishop asked how much longer I had. He asked if he could call the mission president and ask to extend my time, if it couldn't be 2 years. And then he offered to give me a calling in the ward. Jokingly of course, but also in seriousness, I could feel the love. I love this ward. They are so amazingly great. Let's see...oh! Last week - from zone conference, President Weston asked us each to read the Book of Mormon in 85 days. That's how long it took Joseph Smith to translate! So we are reading it in 85 days (about 6 pages a day). When he extended that commitment I was almost finished with the Book of Mormon, so for the last week or so I have been reading in 2 different spots in the Book of Mormon - it's been lovely. I just love the Book of Mormon so much! It is such a powerful book! It surely has been written for our day! I love it! It is true! It has been written by prophets of God! And as we are reading it in our 85 days, we are marking (we're using a free copy) every time it mentions Christ, his words, his attributes, and gospel doctrines and principles. I am loving it being able to do it this way...although my own personal Book of Mormon is marked really similarly. I love it. Oh! And Mom asked about my actress 17 year old investigator, well, we weren't able to meet with her this last week, but we stopped by yesterday and set up an appointment for Tuesday. She, and her 14 year old sister, and her less active mother have agreed to be part of the lessons! This will be so exciting! And one of the elders texted us today and said one of their investigators is moving into our boundaries! So we'll hopefully pick up 2 new investigators this week! Exciting! Yes. I love missionary work. It is the work of the Lord. Yesterday people kept mentioning our motto: Redeem the dead, Perfect the Saints, & Missionary Work. We should be focused on all 3. That is plain truth. That is our purpose for being here. That is our purpose as God's children who have the truth. That will be my life motto of work. Love you all! Have a lovely day and week! :D Love much! Sister Kristi Walston

November 19, 2012 Dear Family, How are all of you doing? Are ready for this lovely holiday called Thanksgiving? This week has been pretty fine. Thursday we had zone conference - with our mission president, assistants, and many other missionaries (3 different zones). It was really good. They showed a clip about the atonement. It was very powerful. The Savior went through so much for us. I don't think I can relate what I learned from the clip. But He's experienced it all. HE understands our pain, our sins, our sadness’s, our struggles, our inexperience, our confusion, our suffering, our feelings of grief, worry, anything and everything. HE understands it ALL. He is there for us. The Atonement covers everything! As long as we are repentant and humble and willing to place our life in His, He will succor us. He will help us. He will relieve us. I think that's something that overall I have learned a lot about on my mission. The Atonement is a wonderful thing. We also met with our investigator, whose baptism date is on December 1, 3 times this week. She had a smoking problem, but when we taught her the word of wisdom, right there and then she resolved to quit. She's so dedicated to the Lord. She understands His mercy and understands the necessity to follow His will. She is so good. Whatever commandment we teach her, she accepts right away. She is so good. We also picked up a new investigator! She's about 17 years old and is an actress. She is so sweet. Her mother is a less active member. But they have such a good family. Our new investigator is so willing and eager to learn. Overall, our other investigators are doing about the same. We are working, working hard, and learning a lot. Still. Both of us. Oh! I wanted to share a story from last week that I believe I forgot to tell you all! So we were walking down the street, we had tried visiting a potential investigator, but no luck. As we were walking we saw a group of people outside one house, with a little moveable campfire. Sister Slaugh, good as she is, walked up to them and said hi and asked if any of them were interested in hearing a message. One of them said, Yes. This special lady recently has decided that she needs to get close to God again. And she had been praying all week to make a decision on a job. She is so good. So ready to hear the message. Unfortunately she was visiting a friend and didn't live in the area. But we gave her a Book of Mormon and sent her to mormon.org. From Friday afternoon to Saturday afternoon I was in Loomis on exchanges. It was finery. Oh, last Sunday was also our primary program. I love the children. They are so sweet, so cute, and just adorable! There are so many children here that I just love. We got a new ward mission leader yesterday. He is so cool, so on the ball. And young. (Our last one was ancient...and his health was not that good.) Our new ward mission leader has a great vision, to involve the youth; they are the heart of the church. He knows what his purpose is. He's knows what's going on. He is motivated. And he's the type of person that will get things done. (He was just the young men's president and loved it - so good at it.) So yeah, we are so excited for this new change here. Well, Happy Thanksgiving everyone! This Thanksgiving I will be spending it with some of our families. We've had 2 offers to feed us food. So we'll probably go and do that. I love you all bunches and bunches! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving full of thanks! I am thankful for all of you! I am thankful to my Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ! And I am thankful for our loving Heavenly Father! Love you all! Until next time! Sister Walston

Dear Family, How are all of you doing? I am doing just fine right now. So this week - what have we been up to? Well, let's see. The new member lessons have been started with our most recent convert. She has such great home teachers. Our ward mission leader was released from his calling and put into the Sunday school presidency. Now we are ward mission leader-less. Hopefully they will call one real soon. We had a really good week full of lessons -a total of 22! We took with us an 18 year old girl, who is thinking to go on a mission, with us a couple of times now. She is so good. She is prepared to serve. And we just love her and her family. They are so good. Her older brother, who is 21, is serving a mission here with us in the California Roseville Mission. He has something...like cerebral palsy...I don't even know if I spelt that right. His body doesn't quite work right, but he is so smart and funny - his brain is all there. He uses a walker to get around. Each day of his mission, he spends with a different set of elders that use a car. He is such a great asset to our mission. One of the elders said about him, "There is no reason, no excuse we can make for not going on a mission. If Elder Barney can do it, anybody can." He is such a good little example. We had a few lessons with some of our investigators. It was a couple of our elders birthdays this last week. We made them cake and cards to celebrate. We had a zone meeting. It was really good. We talked about how the Doctrine of Christ is our foundation, that is what our faith and testimony are built upon; and through that our gospel knowledge increases, we have a good work ethic, we are obedient, and we have a good attitude. There was a little drawing that went with it...but can't really draw that on this email. One day. But we talked about how we need to consistently work on those 4 things. They help build and upkeep our testimony and faith in Christ. All of it is essential. Something else I thought and pondered and heard about this week was due to the new age limit of sister missionaries. We are in the last days. We need to prepare and be strong in the face of adversity. The Lord has lowered the age of sister missionaries to build and prepare mothers for these last days. Missions will help train mothers for the last days. The mothers of this time need to be strong in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are facing hard times in these days. The world around us is falling into Satan's traps. He is pulling down the values and morals of society. He is pulling down the goodness, taking away the peace. But we can maintain all of that ourselves if we build upon the foundation - the doctrine of Christ. We can have peace. We can have happiness. But we need to be strong. Prepared. Missions help strengthen testimonies. Missions help build the soul of the missionary. I have learned so much from my mission. Missions are a blessing; a key to strengthening the character, the testimony of a soul. The worth of souls is great in the sight of God. I know that my mission has been a blessing to me, is still a blessing to me, and will continue to be a blessing to me. It has not only affected my life, but my current family's lives and I know it will continue to affect my future family's life. Missions are a blessing. They build are character and help us prepare for the future days of this life - the latter days - the last days. I am so grateful for this opportunity. So grateful. Thank you for all your help and support in letting me coming out here. This life is the time to prepare ourselves to become better and to meet God. A mission has helped me with that. Well, thank you again. I love you all so much! You are all wonderful. Wonderful, inspiring, and lovely people. Thank you for being part of my life. Love you tons and bunches! Your sister missionary, Sister Walston

It's crazy how time flies by. Can't believe it's November now! Crazy! That means Trevor boy will almost be 19! Crazy! But exciting! How's everyone been? Sounds good from the sounds of it. We had a baptism this weekend! That was exciting. I was thinking about it and all we did to help her reach that point was turn on the water for the font (which luckily was the perfect temperature - right before the program started it felt kind of cool, so we turned off the cold water and kept on the hot water for the next 15 mintues...thank goodness when she got in there it was perfect she said - whooo, what a relief since I told her it would be perfect temperture - the Lord truly does keep the promises of his servants). Haha, when we taught her the lessons she pretty much knew it all already. She's a really sweet lady. Her husband is really sweet too, not a member, though. I think because of his wife's example that there is hope of him joining one day soon. She grew up in Pennsylvannia! 2 of our investigators, step-father and step-son, came to the baptism. That was good. I think it helped...a bit. We talked with them quite a bit after the service...like an hour. The son, he's so funny. Before we left, he knelt before Christ's picture and prayed and then as we were leaving he told me, "Don't forget to pray to my brother Jesus." Good kid. Last Tuesday we had our ward trunk-or-treat party. It was good. We got to taste test the soups. That was an experience and I was grateful none of them were very spicy. For Halloween night we ate dinner with the members that we live with. And then we cleaned and organized our lives. Our members gave out big candies to the trick-or-treaters - they go all out! We got a lot of referrals this week. That was pretty exciting. And 3 from one member! I love missionary-minded people. It is so important to share the gospel with others. So many people are decived by Satan. So many have a majority of the truth, but are missing keys pieces to God's gospel. Last night I was reading Mormon 8, and oh boy, how the last full page of that chapter totally describes the world how it is today. The world thinkcing it is okay to do this or that and God will not care. Oh how wrong they are, oh how decieved they are by Satan. I had an experience yesterday that made me realize how suttle Satan is in bringing us down. It all starts with a thought. Satan doesn't want us to be happy. He wants us to be miserable like himself. One thought of doubt - of others or yourself - that is Satan. One thought of negativity - of others or yourself - that is Satan. He works hard to help you feel jusitified in your emotions and in your actions. And eventually because of him we can lose the Spirit of God. Our constant, righteous companion, the Holy Ghost. God will be on our side, we (I) just need to learn to cast out those doubts, those negative thoughts, those fears. They pull us down into captivity and in that captivity there is no happiness. Happiness is only founded on obedience to God's commandments. God has commanded us to become as a child. Humble, submissive, loving, gentle, understanding, meek, and ect. If we love others. If we have positive thoughts. God will be there. The Spirit will be there. I know it. I love it. And I will strive to live it. I love you all so much! I hope you all have a wonderful week and day! Remember, remember the Lord. Remember to be happy, to be positive, to love others. I know that much good will come of it. Love always and forever, Sister Kristi Walston

Hello dear family and all. How are all of you doing this fine day? Well, this week the question of the moment... Oh! So you want to hear the exciting part first?! Well, we were able to teach our newer investigator (the one that we thought disappeared, but came back) - we taught her 2 this week. And! We set a baptism date with her for December 1! That was exciting. Yes, indeed. And! This weekend we are having a baptism! The investigator who had been exploring the church for the last 2 years and has been consistently coming to church since January and already has a calling in the primary and she had been out of town in the month of September and is back and was interviewed and passed and is getting baptized this weekend. Pretty exciting, yes indeed. So that's the real exciting news. Otherwise, we are still trying to teach and help increase people's faith in Jesus Christ. One of our investigators, well, he's got his walls up and is being stubborn and a little argumentative, but then wants to know and learn... The 13 year old son, well he is doing just great. He is so funny though. So, funny. Just got to be there to know it. Otherwise, we haven't been able to meet with any of our other investigators. Due to being busy, doctor appointments, or being doubtful. Yep. Oh, one of our investigators...whom we haven't been able to meet with for a whole transfer and a week...well, she had her birthday on Dad's birthday! So this past Saturday, we made her a card and left it with her grandmother to give to her. So yep... really that's our investigators in a nutshell. Oh...and the person we were hoping to pick up last week...he canceled :( Life of a missionary. Period. But we did miraculously have 4 member present lessons with investigators. We strive hard to do that and for the last while we were struggling to get any, but we finally did! Yea! We've also been meeting some possibly potential investigators...and trying to get back in contact with them... One step at a time... We've been visiting some of our less actives and trying to uplift and help them increase their testimonies. Talking about testimonies, I'd like to share mine. I know that God loves me. I know that He loves all of His children. I am so grateful for the scriptures. The testimonies we have about God, His love, and about Jesus Christ, who is our Savior and Redeemer. I am grateful for Jesus Christ and the atoning sacrifice He paid for us. He truly does know what each of us goes through. He understands our feelings, our weaknesses, our concerns, our pains, our confusion, He understands it All. Yes, sometimes we go through hard things. But we do not go through it alone. He is there to uplift us. He is there to carry us through. But we must reach out to Him. I am so grateful for the scriptures. I love reading through them. Learning about the experiences the prophets went through. I am so grateful for the history, the prophecies, and the testimonies that are contained in them. I am so grateful for God's plan for us. It truly does help us to become better - improvement is good. Necessary to help us become a God-loving people. I know this is God's true church. I know it with all the fiber of my being. And I am grateful for my mission. And for all of the support you all lend me. Thank you! Love always, Sister Walston