Sister Galli Goes to Washington: I Love to See the Temple 🎶

"Sister Galli, why are you emailing on a Thursday?"

Because our p-day got pushed back 3 days so that we could go to the temple this morning! :D

I love the Temple. It always just feels like I'm coming home.

Good Mid-Week everyone!

The weather is starting to feel nice again here with the past week having a few days get up to 80°. The humidity is only beginning.

I feel like a lot more should have happened in an email covering 10 days of missionary life, but I guess we'll see what I can come up with.

The Fort Meade area has been known to also be called "Fat Meade" or "Fork Meade" because all the members want to do is feed you. Every night. This is a complete 180 from my last area. But I guess every area has its respective challenges.

I'm still not entirely sure of the reasoning why, but on the army post, we can't proselyte in any way. Which includes but is not limited to: knocking doors, street contacting, or even wearing our nametags. I'm not sure why being on a military base for a government that fought a war over the right of religion and the freedom of speech would somehow make it so we can't even wear our nametagsand be under threat that we'll be kicked out and make it impossible for missionaries in the future to get passes to get on post if we do. A member said it clearly, "The war in heaven rages on earth today." So we're really trying to promote member missionary work for those that live on post (which is about 75% of our members).

We got into the homes of 14 families of our ward in the last 10 days.

At a member's home this week, a member said something that I thought was profound. The questions was raised of why do bad things happen to good people? Why is life so hard? Why me?

This member, from her own experience, was able to sum it up to three reasons.

The first two are similar, being death and sin. Because we are mortal, our bodies are subject to death and all manner of afflictions and diseases. That's just the way we are since the Fall of Adam and Eve.

The second is sin. We all make poor decisions ranging in seriousness, but some people make poor decisions that affect others. "Why would a loving God let people make horrible decisions?" Because He loves us enough to not force us to make correct decisions.

The third is Joy. "But I thought the question was why bad things happen to good people." The scriptures do a great job of illustrating why we need suffering to know joy: "For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so... righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one;" --2 Nephi 2:11

You never appreciate breathing as much as you do the day after a head cold and not being able to breathe.

We suffer so that we can know joy.

Oh how great the plan of our God that we may be able to know for ourselves the good from the evil and see how they are closely associated to happiness and misery respectively.

All in all, it's been a great week! (And I'm happy next p-day is in 4 days!)

~Sister Galli