Jackiequin

As the days draw nearer to the time when I ship myself off to Israel, I become more and more grateful for the many blessings that I have been given. This opportunity is without a doubt very high up on that list. Sometimes the excitement and the overwhelming reality of it all becomes difficult for me to handle, and the frustrations of daily life bother me more than they should. Instead of getting giddy and anxious about my trip, I choose to instead become over-focused on anything and everything else. It is at these times that I simply have to remember the reason I am going there at all, and that is because of the number one greatest blessing I have ever received in my life. The gift of the Savior's atonement. His life, His teachings, and His sacrifice. I will never fully understand it, but I am so grateful for every single time that He allows me to understand it a little bit better than before. I always thought that to become better, we had to pray and read our scriptures and everything and THEN we also had to focus on all of our faults and shortcomings and practice to try to make them better. I have finally realized that coming closer to the Savior IS becoming a better person. Each time I pray to him, even without asking for help in any one weakness or shortcoming of mine, the fact that I am keeping Him an integral part of my life is what will make those things better, even if I don't specifically focus on them. These people who I look up to who seem so great and so perfect are not that way naturally, and they did not become that way because they had specifically recognized each and every one of their shortcomings. They are so great and perfect because their relationship with Christ made them that way. They are becoming perfected in Him, and I can too.

I have so many amazing experiences to look forward to, not only in Jerusalem next month but also in my trip to Guatemala this week, another opportunity that I have been greatly blessed with. I don't know what I did to deserve these kinds of experiences in my life, but I know that every time I have these new and strange adventures, I am gaining knowledge and experience that will help me throughout my lifetime.

So here I go, off to Central America and then to the Middle East.

Oh, but don't worry, I'll still be posting to the blogz. I can't decide if I should create a new blog or just keep writing on here. Your thoughts?