Four months already

Can you believe that I have been gone for 4 months already? But who is counting anyways? Time has surely flown by, and I am continuing to learn and grow each day. First, I need to tell you about an experience that I had last week. I was sitting on the bus next to a girl who I talked to for a few moments, but she quickly went back to reading her book (which happened to be Harry Potter). About 5-10 minutes later, she asked, "What church do you belong to anyways?" We were able to get into a further discussion about religion, family, and life. We came to find out that we are both Math Education majors! It was fantastic. We were able to talk about mathematics together and education as well. It was interesting to learn more about how England's university works for studying Math Ed. Furthermore, I was just really excited to talk about math, probably because I haven't really been able to do so in the last 4 months. It is not everyday that you meet someone who also likes math. As I reflected back on how I light up and got excited while talking about math, I realized that Heavenly Father has blessed us each with individual personalities and interests. While we may have similarities with other people, there are no two people who are exactly the same. Furthermore, our passions about life are what keep us going. Whatever it is that we are passionate about, we need to pursue. It is as we pursue the things that bring us great happiness that we truly are able to find peace and joy in this life. We do need to explore different paths and keep our lives in balance, but I know that we have particular interests because of our talents and the true happiness it brings into our lives.

Next, I finished reading The Book of Mormon this morning! It was absolutely wonderful. I grew up reading it but never really enjoyed all the pages. I will admit, the book started off a little slow. However, by the end I was excited to finish it. I realized that it is like other books in that sense, it may be slow at first and then once you get into it, you just don't want to put it down. The excitement that comes from reading is simply fantastic. There are so many lessons to learn from the pages of The Book of Mormon. As I read, I know that my mind was able to relate experiences and other knowledge I have to these words of ancient prophets. It has been a blessing to be able to learn from others' experiences in the book and then see how I can better serve the people around me as a result. I know that there is always more to learn from those pages, and I am excited to read it yet another time. The fact of the matter is that you can't ever read a good book too many times :)

Hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas season! Know that I love each of you and am thinking about you.

Love, Becca

The first and last pictures are of my companion, Sister Gallozo, and me. The middle picture is from yesterday. It hailed on us, and I was a little bit confused by the weather. Well actually I just want the warmer weather to stay a bit longer, but I guess that winter has finally hit. Oh well, right? It was bound to happen eventually.