We can choose to be happy.

I refuse to have a countdown. The other week we noticed a sign that someone had up on their roof that had a countdown for when Christmas was down to the very minute. Well I accidentally saw it and immediately knew how many days I had left on my mission then. Well that night I knelt down before my Maker and cried unto Him begging Him to let me forget how many days I had left. Well thanks to the great blessing He has given me of a forgetful memory, I have no idea what that number is anymore. #Blessed So things are going well.

This week has been full of ups and downs. I have noticed that the downs are much easier to focus on, and cause us to forget about the ups. This caused us some discouragement and adversity. One night after we got back to our apartment and were planning out our next day, we stopped and focused on what good had happened to us today. As we reviewed the day we noticed many different little miracles that we completely overlooked and ignored because we were too focused on the bad that had happened. We realized that we were missing out on all these good things in our lives because of our bad attitude and perspective. 

Since then we have been working on focusing on the good more than the bad and it has helped us a ton! We are much more enthused when going out to work. Canceled appointments don't get us down anymore. (And we had 7 this week, 6 being with an investigator). We have been much happier and have had tons of fun. 

When we focus on the bad, we feel bad. We allow ourselves to be affected and changed by the bad experiences that we have. But when we focus on the good things in life, we feel good. And we let those good things change us for the better. As we look each day for God's hand in our lives, we will have more joy in each step we take in this journey. We have not been sent down here to be miserable and hate everything. "Men are that they might have joy!" We can choose to be happy. Our agency starts in our thoughts. So choose to have good, uplifting thoughts! If you do, you will have a heart filled with gratitude and joy for what God has done for you. 

Don't worry, be happy!

Elder Anderson