Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween sa inyong lahat!

We celebrated by eating brownies, ice cream, and crab. (not all together)

My companion is my best friend. I don't think I have ever gotten along with someone better than her. I am extremely blessed to have her as my trainer. 

The kids that play on the street have gotten to know us pretty well and run to us when they see us coming. Sometimes we proselyte with a little army of children because they like to follow us around. They also follow us into lessons which people seem to be completely fine with because Filipinos are just the most loving, open people. One of the lessons we had last night had about 20 children inside the gate while we taught and more people who stopped to watch us outside of the gate

 I love this place!

One of my favorite stories in the Old Testament is about the brass serpent. As Moses was leading the Jews through the wilderness, they were all infected with a deadly disease. God commanded Moses to lift up a brass serpent on a cross and whoever looked at the serpent were healed. There were others who thought the simpleness of the task was, well, stupid. They thought: how could something as simple as looking at an object cure my pain and sickness? Nothing I have learned so far in my life would tell me that there is any relevance in this story. This answer is too simple. It won't work. 

Because they chose not to look, they died.

The brass serpent is a symbol of Jesus Christ. The disease we all are slowing dying from is mortality, and we will become spiritually dead if we do not choose to believe and look to Christ. 

It's easy to think like the Jews did in the Old Testament: How can something so simple be the answer to my problems? I have a lot of hard, complicated challenges in my life. How can praying give me strength and peace? How does reading scriptures every day protect me from the influences of Satan? How can avoiding coffee increase my spiritual receptivity? That is stupid. Nothing I've learned so far in my life would tell me those two things are related. The gospel of Jesus Christ and His Atonement will help me with all my temporal, spiritual, mental, emotional problems?  That answer is too simple.

In Alma 37, it says that God works by small and simple means to bring about his great and eternal purposes. He knows how to make us into something eternal and divine. We have little perspective compared to His. But we have been told that "it is easy to give heed to the word of Christ which will point you in a straight course to eternal bliss." The answer is literally straightforward. 

So I pray "do not let us be slothful because of the easiness of the way" but let us "look to God and live."(Alma 37:44-47)

Don't over-complicate what you think you need to be healed and happy. 

Instead, look to God and live! 

-Sister Gray