December 4,2017 Email :D

Wow! 

Never in my life did I think that I would wait so anxiously for and be so grateful to receive a General Conference Ensign!! But oh boy were we so excited for this puppy!! We finally got our Ensigns this week and you can now guess what we have been doing during our free time!! <3 I'm so grateful for the inspired words Heavenly Father sends us through His prophets!! 

This last week, though, I have been really loving Joy D Jones' talk "Value Beyond Measure" SO inspired! I loved the stories she related of each wonderful sister, and the concept that 

"If we sin, we are less worthy, but we are never worth less!"

That was truly manifest to me in sacrament meeting just yesterday. A sweet sister in the ward got up and bore her testimony that I just love so dearly! She has been inactive for years, and with a gentle push and some service, she has been coming back to church! She stood up and said the reason she stopped going to church was because she had trials, and every time she tried to be good...Satan pushed her down hard. She figured that if she stopped trying, then he wouldn't push as hard. So she stopped. And he did. Things were great! She said that life was pure bliss and not too hard. But she was completely miserable! She just cried as she bore her testimony that she could not live like that any more! She is back to stay, and claim the blessings! She knows that it won't be easy, but that it will be worth it! I am so grateful for her example! The man after her to bear his testimony said to her "Welcome back! We have been saving your inheritance for you here. It's yours to take!" Wow. Just evidence to me of God's infinite love! She may have made choices that made her less worthy, but she was NEVER of less worth!

Another man got up, visiting his daughter from Australia, and bore his testimony about his family being eternally connected. He testified of the sealing power and how only one of his daughters, the one in our ward, is active. But that he knows his family is eternal. He said that though he is from another country, he knows the church is just as true over there, and that through our influence on his daughter, we are making the sealing power real to him. Wow!

We are kicking off the Light the World campaign this last week for the month of December!! Have y'all heard of it?! It is so good! We are having a fun Ward Family Home Evening (we're calling it "Festive Home Evening") tonight and us missionaries are giving the spiritual thought! I am so excited! We are planning on having a bunch of scriptures that each depict a character in the nativity (Joseph, Mary, shepherds, wise men, etc) and have them read and guess the characters! The last scripture read will be 3 Nephi 5:13 

Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life. 

The last character of the story is us. We are all disciples of Jesus Christ! And as we serve each other and "Light the World" we will be able to help others to feel of the beautiful spirit of Christmas and most importantly, Jesus Christ! 

I again am so grateful for my Savior and all He does for me! For all of us! I love Him in my own imperfect, incomplete way! But I know He loves each and every one of us completely and perfectly! We are never worth less to Him! <3

Have an amazing week!

<3 Sister Van Valkenburg

The joy when we got this Ensigns!! I can't even begin to describe it! ..SO I'll post a picture of
Sister Bloomfield's face! Love her soooo much!

happy happy day!!
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