Of locking your heart

Hey everyone! :)

What can I say? What a week it has been! Well. Actually it was not outstanding in any way. Very few new great spiritual insights. But I guess that comes with growing up in the Gospel (you know how I mean it...). Brother Simon from Institute shared a while ago how that works: When you`re 14 and start Seminary, you`ll just learn so many new things at once that it overwhelms you and that you walk out of class with a smoking head each day. When you get older, the new things you learn become less and less and all you are really adding are perspectives and repetition. This is where we need to work on our personal progression the most. I feel like, though I`m far from knowing everything in the Gospel (and anything, for that matter), this is where I`m at right now. It`s been a long time since someone shared an eye-opening principle with me. BUT I can still learn something each day when I read the scriptures, go to Institute or to Church, or talk about those principles to someone else. :)

Anyways, last night was great and probably the highlight of the week. We got a group together to read the scriptures. I just LOVE doing things like that because I`m so used to studying alone. But in a group, you just multiply what you learn. It`s amazing and there was certainly a great Spirit in our group :) We studied in the Lorenzo Snow manual and talked about unity. But it ended up being a lot more about service in the end. Which, I feel like, is the true essence of unity. If we stand united, it automatically means that we care for each other and that means that we are willing to serve. Makes sense, huh? :)

The greatest insight though is what I got at the end of the night. Our friend Mary, who also happened to be a part of the group, mentioned in a conversation about dating how...well. How it`s not the time for me to date right now. IT IS MY TIME TO SERVE THE LORD. While I knew this was coming somewhere down the road in the near future, I was surprised to really hear that from someone right now. But: How right my friend was! There is usually a lot of talking going on about locking your heart and throwing the key away for two years, and I actually feel like this might be the time for me to do it. And since most girls say no anyways when I ask them on dates, I feel like there won`t be much loss. Oh, and I won`t be one of those Missionaries who build a shrine for their girlfriend either. So that`s good :)  Mary also says that I`ll be married within three weeks of coming home. Weird! But I`m definitely accepting applications from the time I`m stepping off that plane in two years haha :)

In other news...I`m meeting my Stake President Wednesday night and he *should* be able to submit my papers. We`ll see! :) I`m so excited :) And I`ll let you know in a timely manner how my interview went. But really, I`m not concerned :)

I know the Church is true! <- That`s my testimony for today haha :) It`s short. But I`m not struggling. Don`t worry haha :)

Tons of love! :)

-- Pascal