Excerpts from the Miracle Journal

While I was serving in Jasper, Alabama, my Sister Training Leaders {STL's} gave all of us little notebooks that they had decorated all cutesy like, as sister missionaries do, and told us that these were our miracle journals. Mine has a quote on the front that says
"As individuals, we are strong. Together with God, we are unstoppable."
I made it a personal goal to record the everyday miracles and to write one thing every single day in this little notebook. It helped me on my hard days to really look for the good in what I was doing, and it has helped me recently as I've been home to look back and remember the good times I had on my mission. Here is my very first entry, from the first time I met sweet Sister Williams:


January 1, 2015
Today I met Sister Williams. I was able to testify that God is proud of her and that she is worth something. I didn't mean to say what I did, and I worried I was overstepping myself, but I said it anyways. The Spirit was so strong with us and Sister Williams was crying. The Lord spoke through me and I was able to say what she needed to hear and what I needed to hear.



We worked with Sister Williams several more times during my time in Jasper, and every time you could feel the Spirit in the room with us. I'm not sure how much I affected Sister Williams, but she sure did affect me and I am forever grateful for all that she taught me.

To the Boy Dating the Girl with Anxiety and Depression

Dear Boy,

How I wish I could tell you these things in person. How I wish I could articulate the things running through my mind, to make you understand what I'm feeling. I want so desperately for things to work out between us. But I'm faced with this crippling fear that they won't.

I'm trying so hard for you, to make you happy. I'm trying to at least pretend interest in the things that bring you joy. I'm trying to keep conversation going so that you don't have to fill the awkward silence. On top of keeping you happy, I'm worried about how everyone else around me is feeling. I'm trying to do my best at work to keep my coworkers happy. I'm trying to keep my friends happy. I'm so busy trying to keep everyone else happy that the happiness is draining from me. Before, other people's happiness used to bring me joy too. Tonight as I expressed a little bit of my insecurities, you started off on me trying to tell me how I can overcome them. Did you ever stop and think for one second that I know exactly how to overcome them?? I told you when