Thoughts About Learning

Hello Everyone!

I'm glad to let everyone know that I am in good health, and that this week was so much better than last week. I am so very grateful for my companion who has helped me pull through some really tough things. I'm also grateful for an amazing branch Presidency who all know exactly what to say and do to help us improve and come closer to Christ. (I've told you this before... I think, but if you have time President Newel has his own Wikipedia page... Let me tell you he has some interesting stories.) I am grateful for a supporting and loving family, extended family, and friends. I read all your letters and love them. You are all such a strength to me. I am also grateful for a day of gratitude. Let me just say that Thanksgiving was an amazing experience, and I really will remember it for the rest of my life. If you saw it mentioned in the news that was my district interviewed however Sister Erickson and I were not there with them at that exact moment in time so no Sister Skinner in the story sorry. Still it was a powerfully spiritual day and it ended with the starting of the Christmas season which... CHRISTMAS!!! I am so excited! I think I freaked my District out a little when Elder Joly told us his mom had sent him a little Christmas tree. We decorated it last night and it was so much fun... all three feet of it. 

There was a lot that happened this week but what I really want to share is something that I learned. And it's a bit long but I did try to explain it to the best of my abilities. I do promise to write more of my experiences next week. (I'm sure they're will be plenty to talk about. I get my flight plans this week!) And I wish you all the best of this start to the Holiday Season. Enjoy the Church's Christmas Campaign this year. (I've already watched like 20 times and I never get tired of it.) #aSaviorIsBorn is so much fun to watch and I can really feel the Spirit every time I watch it. The lights here are beautiful and after having Elder Oaks sing to us on Thanksgiving I'm almost sad that I wont be here for Christmas... Almost. 

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So I learned an interesting truth this week. It started with something I heard in passing. "God would have atoned for us if he could have." This made me pause. It rings true to me but at the same time... Something in that sentence made me stop and think. I've had this theme that's been with me for the last month or so and I thought I had shared it in this general email before but looking over my emails I realized that I hadn't yet shared this particular thought. It's something that came to me while I was writing down my thoughts in a stream of conscious one Saturday my second or third week here and since I wrote it down, variations of it have been following me around since then slowing embedding itself into my soul.

Perfect Beings are Perfect because they Love Perfectly. 

When I think of perfection sometimes I have this tendency to think of it in an almost negative light. Sometimes I think of perfection as the Dursleys of Number Four Private Drive. After all "they were perfectly normal, thank you very much." But see the true stressed word in that sentence is the normal... not the perfect. Now here is one of the truths I learned this week: God is not normal... Think about that. Now that I've said it I think about it and laugh, because of course God is not normal he is extraordinary. And why is he extraordinary? Because He Loves us so perfectly that He would have died for us if He could have. 

So why didn't he? Or rather, Why Couldn't he? The answer of course lies in the Book of Mormon. Alma 34:8-20 The description about Justice and Mercy is an often quoted one but the interesting thing is that Justice Needs Mercy just as Mercy needs Justice.They are one and the same. This sound familiar at all? That's also how we often talk about the relationship between God and Christ. God is extraordinary because He is Justice and yet He begot Mercy. God is Merciful through Christ. Just as Christ is called by God.

God loves so perfectly that He gave His Son who also Loves so Perfectly that He Suffered for us.

Perfect Beings are Perfect because they Love Perfectly. 

How do I express exactly what it is that I learned with out saying things that you've heard before? How do I express the Joy that comes from realizing that God Loves us so much that He stands for Justice and yet Loves imperfect beings so much that He sent a Savoir who was also perfect to also Love us. 

They are one in purpose... Just as the Holy Ghost is one with them. I figured I should make a quick note that this Perfect Being line that I keep quoting myself on comes from a stream of thought that was about the Holy Ghost. The Spirit does not have a body of Flesh and Bone. Isn't that interesting? That is part of the divine purpose, and yet what a sacrifice it must be to spend thousands of years comforting and testifying. (perfectly I might add) of a Perfect God and a Perfect Savior and to not have that one thing that separated God and Christ in the beginning. I don't think we realize what an amazing gift our bodies are. The Holy Ghost testifies of Christ, and that must be something that He loves. Because to be a part of the God Head. To be a Perfect being. One must Love Perfectly.

Perfect Beings are Perfect because they Love Perfectly. 

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So I hope you all enjoy the next week. I promise that if you learn to love the rest of the Christ Like attributes with start to follow. Our church really is about love the Ultimate Love. The Ultimate Sacrifice. The Ultimate Hope. Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas everyone! I can't wait to tell you more next week. 

Love,

Sister Skinner