this one's for the sibs. (letter from July 6, 2014)

Dear Whit, Park, Jare... I LOVE YOU AND I MISS YOU LIKE CRAZY. I wish I could be there in Canada with you this week! Say hi to all the Chinese peeps for meeee!!!! :) Tell them "lay hoe". They would love it. :) Anyway, I want to write to YOU specifically because I want you to know how much my mission means to me. And how much I hope yours means to you. And how much I WISH I would have better prepared for it.

I'm committing you to, while you're on vacation this week, try these things out. EVERY SINGLE DAY. Will you commit??

Pray. Learn how to talk to Heavenly Father. Not AT Him or TO Him, but WITH Him. He's real. Did you know that? He's given us the gospel to make us the MOST happy. Think about the funnest times we've had -- like that one time we went to Sand Hollow and jumped off the back of the wave runners, or the bazillion times in a row we would go on Indiana Jones at Disneyland, or family jumps on the trampoline in the backyard, or hide-n-seek in the dark -- you thought those were good?? We can't even imagine how good eternal life will be. We can't even imagine the good things Heavenly Father has in store for us. He wants to give us every good thing. All He asks is that we talk to him -- PRAYER -- and obey His commandments.

Read the Book of Mormon. This week we went to Mission Leadership Council and President Hawks talked all about the Book of Mormon. It truly is the book that will change our lives and our hearts. It'll bring us the best kind of happiness -- way better than all those family vacations, way better than friends, way better than anything you can even imagine. I wish I'd read the BOM more before the mish. It has answered every single question I've ever had. It's brought me comfort when I didn't have anything else (that, and prayer).

I've thought a lot about commitment this week because of something Sister Hawks told us. She said she has two daughters that are runners. One runs races to finish. She's okay with walking some of the time. If she doesn't do best, oh well, she's in it to finish only. The other one runs races to win. She gives it her ALL every step of the way. She doesn't stop to walk because she can't afford it. She wants to give it everything she's got. Sister Hawks related it to our missions. Are we here to finish, or are we here to win? We can apply it to life, too. Are we here to finish, or are we here to win? Are we okay with being mediocre, not reading the scriptures and not praying, because whatever, we'll finish anyway? Or are we here to give it everything we've got? I think that's what Heavenly Father expects of us. He wants us to win. He expects us to "run with patience the race that is set before us." I want to give this mission everything I have. I don't want to be a missionary just to finish the mission and say, "Cool, that was great. It was hard, but I let myself walk for part of it, and I'm just fine. I finished, didn't I?" I want to be the missionary that says, "Wow, that was the hardest thing I've ever done. Blood, sweat, and tears... but look at me now." Through the gospel, we CAN change. We can win any race that we want! IF we trust our Father in Heaven and do things the way He wants them to be done.

My week in a nutshell was this: praying so hard for something specific to happen -- Christina's baptism. I wanted it to be perfect. I wanted there to be no flaws and for her to have a wonderful day and a perfect memory. It didn't happen exactly like that. We prayed so hard for her to get baptized -- and she DID!! :) -- but it wasn't perfect. There were some things that came up that made me think, "Heavenly Father, why would you do that? Why couldn't you just make today perfect for her? Baptism is right, isn't it??!" I was really frustrated. I was a little bit angry... I'm not proud of it, but I was. But then I read the words in the scriptures,

"The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than He?"

Nope, I'm not. Things don't go perfectly because we're not perfect. This life is meant to be a test. When we have trials, that doesn't mean it's time to give up and say, "Heavenly Father must not be there because He didn't give me exactly what I wanted." Of course not!! If He gave you exactly what you wanted, you'd NEVER grow.

I'm so thankful for the chance Heavenly Father has given me to grow. I'm SO thankful for my mission. I want you three to go through these powerful, spiritual, wonderful changes just like me.

Have a great week! COMMIT to do those two things and report back to me next week! hou mh hou?

I LOVE YOU SO MUCH.
Love,
Shay
xoxoxoxo

Happy 4th of July at an American restaurant!! :) woo hoo!

Cute Christina's baptism! :) I LOVE HER SOOOO MUCH I CAN'T EVEN TELL YOU.