Fruits Basket: Sixteen and Pregnant...? (April 27, 2015)

Well, surprise, surprise, it's a girl! Tomorrow night, I will mosey on over to the Sendai Airport to welcome my very own mission baby bean-chan.....................

Hullo, I'm gonna be a trainer! Alllow me to say/type that again. I'M GONNA BE A TRAINER. Seeing as today is my first official day as a beanhood graduate... Pray for me? Please.

One week before my mission began, I was really worried about how I would do as a missionary. I felt underprepared and inadequate, lacking in courage and skill and knowledge. I went to a very special and sacred place for me, and I prayed to God to ask for help. I told Him I wasn't sure if I could do it; eighteen months in Japan, loving a people who might not love me back, testifying--I didn't know if I had the strength. All I wanted was to be an instrument in the Lord's hands, and I plead for the faith and humility to be able to become that. I just want to be a good missionary. I just want to be a worthy instrument--please help me. At that time, the thought that came into my mind was an image of Peter, walking across the water to where the Savior stood waiting for him. Although I didn't hear anything, the words that accompanied that image were these: there are greater miracles.

There are greater miracles than lil' Lisa Luke actually crossing the ocean to be a missionary. There are greater miracles than Sister Luke being an area senpai seven weeks after entering the MTC. Yes, we got lost, and yes, it was hard, but there are greater miracles.

I don't have the knowledge or the experience to be a trainer; I'll be honest, I'm barely beginning to function as a missionary myself. I don't know if I have the capacity to teach someone else how to teach when I'm still learning myself, but here is what I do know: if Peter could walk on water, if Jesus Christ asked him to, and he did it, then I can be a trainer. If the Lord says I can do this, I can do it. There's no question in my mind, but the "can do" is not from me. But what I've been teaching others, I know from the depths of my soul and the bottom of my heart. If the Lord is with you, all things are possible.

If Moses really parted the Red Sea, if Nephi really built a boat to cross the ocean--if God the Father really appeared to the boy Joseph Smith in 1820. If Peter walked across the water in a storm so strong it could shake his faith--if all these things are true, I can do this, because there are greater miracles. Am I nervous? Undeniably. But can I do it? With God, all things are possible.

"O Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever. Yea, I know that God will give liberally to him that asketh. Yea, my God will give me, if I ask not amiss; therefore I will lift up my voice unto thee; yea, I will cry unto thee, my God, the rock of my righteousness. Behold, my voice shall forever ascend up unto thee, my rock and mine everlasting God. Amen."

- 2 Nephi 4:34-35

Pictures: I already forgot what picture I attached first and for some reason I can't open it right now, hopefully it wasn't anything too sketch. Sister Luke on a bike in the sunset. With a violin. Yay!