I always love to read the hymns during sacrament meeting. It works better if you try to take the tune out of it and read it like a sentence, because sometimes the pauses and stuff of the song take some of the meaning out of the words. But the hymns are beautiful.

Since I've been here on my mission the sacrament has had so much more meaning for me. Since we teach people about baptismal covenants and how the sacrament renews them, I've understood them so much more. We have to do three things (Keep the commandments, always remember him, and take his name upon us) all of which benefit us more than they benefit God. And in return, God promises that we can ALWAYS have His Spirit to be with us. Every moment we are worthy of it, the Spirit will be with us. It is a promise. Every time it uses the words "will" or "shall" it is a definite promise. It has been more interesting to read the scriptures every since I realized that. It changes things and makes them more powerful. I want to get a dictionary someday, because the wording of the scriptures is really so powerful, and I think sometimes we are just so accustomed to scriptural language that we don't always realize how strong the words actually are. For example, "A broken heart and a contrite spirit." Broken is a strong word. When you are broken, it means you are like not functioning. It doesn't just mean you feel a bit sad. It means you are like at the end of your rope and have realized that you cannot do more yourself. Contrite means we are sorry. Really, truly sorry and willing to change. When we come forth with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, it means we have done all that we can and have found out that our way doesn't work. And it we realize that God's way is the only way, and so we humble ourselves and basically admit that we are nothing and that God knows everything and we put ourselves into His hands so that he can change us and tell us what to do. But we need to do it with "real intent," which means that we are willing to act on whatever  answer we receive, not just go back as soon as things get good again. I've been reading the Book of Mormon lately and highlighting pride in one color, and the consequences in another and the same with humility (but different colors). It is extremely interesting. Also, I've noticed that so many times, the really bad pride that leads to destruction started with the wearing of costly apparel. I don't know what that means, but it is interesting.

We had a super cool miracle this week.  We were on exchanges and I was with Hermana Carn, one of the sister training leaders, and we went to go knock an apartment complex that we've been working but we found a bunch of mormon.org cards everywhere in English, so we figured they must have just been there.  So we decided to leave and come back in a few days.  But as we were driving away, I thought I wanted to go check up on a family that we found last time we were there that seemed interested.  They weren't home, but we decided to knock on a door that looked Hispanic that wasn't home last time.  So we knocked and this little boy who was probably 8 or 9 answered and said his parents weren't home, only his siblings and his grandma.  We asked to talk to her, so he went to get her.  Then he told us she only speaks Arabic, because they are from Egypt. We were about to leave after talking to them for a couple more minutes (I don't think she really knew what was going on) so we handed them a Jesus pass-along card and she immediately said, "Jesus!" and started to kiss the card and cry.  We were a bit confused, but she waved us inside and her grandson Joseph told us her son had died when they lived in Egypt 4 years ago.  She was still crying and telling us thank you for the card and she left to get a tissue and Joseph asked, "How can I get more of the Jesus in me?" And we asked if he wanted us to teach him how to be more like Jesus.  He got really excited and said yes, so we asked if we could send some missionaries back with stuff in Arabic for his grandma and stuff in English for him.  He told her and she was super excited too, when we said she could be with her son again someday, forever.  We couldn't talk to her very well because Joseph had to translate everything we said, but they are such a miracle.  We said a prayer with them and they were so excited and told us to come back soon.  Unfortunately we had to give them to the English missionaries, so I don't know what else will happen with them, but I hope they take good care of them.  But yeah, that was super cool.  And we were fasting that day too.  It really does bring miracles.  God really knows His children.  If there is one thing that I have learned on the mission, it is that God loves and knows each and every one of His children personally and by name and He only wants the best for them.