Can't wait to see you in 18 months!

I cannot wait to see the Spirit work miracles in my life in the next 18 months and in the lives of those I am now preparing teach. As I have been preparing to serve, I have had concerns about how very little I know. How could I ever teach the gospel when I know so little? Just after I received my call I remembered a talk given by Elder Neil L. Anderson in which he stated, “You don’t know everything, but you know enough.” I certainly don’t know everything, but I know enough. I know this is the true church of Christ. I have a testimony of the Savior’s atonement. I know He lived and died for us. I know Heavenly Father knows us each by name and He loves us beyond belief. I know the power of prayer and the power of the Priesthood are real. I have seen these powers work miracles in my life. I am so excited to share the gospel with those whose hearts long for the happiness that the gospel brings. I know that the Spirit will direct my steps towards these people and guide my words so that I may teach and serve them. I love this gospel, and I love my Savior. Again, I am so very blessed to have this knowledge that it leaves me in tears. I am so, so happy!

Mahal kita!

P.S. If you would like to receive my weekly email, please shoot my mamma an email and ask her to add you to the list! donna.breckenridge@comcast.net.

answers and angels

"There should be times when you and I leave tears on our pillows out of gratitude for what God has given us."

- Niel A. Maxwell

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i love answers to prayers.

i have been receiving so many recently, in all sorts of ways.

it is incredibly comforting to know my heavenly father knows me, He loves me, and He wants the absolute best for me.

he has also placed so many angels in my path who have blessed my life beyond belief. there just aren't words enough to express my love for these angels.

i am so very blessed, it leaves me in tears.

2011

"As a new year begins and we try to benefit from a proper view of what has gone before, I plead with you not to dwell on days now gone nor to yearn vainly for yesterdays, however good those yesterdays may have been. The past is to be learned from but not lived in. We look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes. And when we have learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we have experienced, then we look ahead and remember that faith is always pointed toward the future. Faith always has to do with blessings and truths and events that will yet be efficacious in our lives.

This is an important matter to consider at the start of a new year—and every day ought to be the start of a new year and a new life. Such is the wonder of faith, repentance, and the miracle of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The poet Robert Browning wrote:

Grow old along with me!

The best is yet to be,

The last of life, for which the first was made:

Our times are in his hand

Who saith, 'A whole I planned,

Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!'

Some of you may wonder: Is there any future for me? What does a new year or a new semester, a new major or a new romance, a new job or a new home hold for me? Will I be safe? Will life be sound? Can I trust in the Lord and in the future? Or would it be better to look back, to go back, to stay in the past?

To all such of every generation, I call out, 'Remember Lot’s wife.' Faith is for the future. Faith builds on the past but never longs to stay there. Faith trusts that God has great things in store for each of us and that Christ truly is the 'high priest of good things to come' (Hebrews 9:11).

Keep your eyes on your dreams, however distant and far away. Live to see the miracles of repentance and forgiveness, of trust and divine love that will transform your life today, tomorrow, and forever. That is a New Year’s resolution I ask you to keep."

The Best is Yet to Be, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, 2009

(To read Elder Holland's full talk, visit http://lds.org/liahona/2010/01/the-best-is-yet-to-be?lang=eng )