Living Life With More Love

These last few days for me have been quite exciting. A few new people have arrived here as others are on their way. So far we have had Richard and Linda Eyre come along with their son Tal and his recently new wife Annita and a couple of nurses, who are good friends of Amy. In a couple of days we will also be accompanied by one of the Eyre daughters as well as some of her friends from college. It really has been exciting talking to Linda Eyre, the mother of the Eyre family. She is such a sweet person and someone so easy to talk to. After meeting her and her family, she and I got to know each other better, but mostly just her getting to know more about me. I told her a little bit about my family and myself, and how I came to be a part of all this exciting work I love. I am really excited for their son Tal and his wife Annita to be here for three months. I see them excited to be here and not just excited to be here, but excited about wanting to help build and add on to what we have here at Rising Star. They come from an amazing family and I know I am just as excited as everyone else is to have them join our family here at Rising Star. We now have three amazing couples staying with us: Greg and Rachel Denning, Steele and Sarah Hendershots, and Tal and Annita Eyre. They are just awesome people! Life is really exciting here in India. The weather is still amazingly perfect; the kids are all screaming with laughter and joy at being loved and cared for; the days go by fast because time does not really exist here for me at Rising Star. Each day is so exciting, and each is filled with happy moments, complete bliss, and undescribable ecstasy; time appears to be dead, but dead only because every day is filled with excitement. Time is dead because it flies by as if it does not exist. I simply do not care about time because each second of every minute of every hour of every day I know is spent worth while. Life, for me right now, feels completely like one of the best dreams I will ever have; I do not want to wake up; I simply want to keep dreaming until my dream becomes reality. In some ways I feel my life is already slowly transforming into the sense of reality I desire. Yesterday was a pretty historical day for Rising Star because we had our first sacrament meeting as of my knowledge to ever take place on campus grounds. Sometimes driving two hours to church is not always fun, so having an alternative option was quite nice. The Eyres shared a few thoughts of possibly one day setting up a church service here. They stated we have all the elements here, so why not put them all together? If this were to happen one day we would have to run it in a very cautious manner, but anything is possible if enough will and determination is set forth. Both Ron and Joyce shared wonderful messages as well. Ron spoke about our guard John, and how he has had a vision to share The Book of Mormon all throughout his ministries. He spoke from the fifth chapter of Alma describing how John might one day be the miracle for millions of lives because of his example to spread the gospel. One day the church might be set up where we are growing all throughout India like a wildfire that cannot be put out. What an amazing example John is to all of us! These past few days I have also had the privilege and opportunity to speak with Greg Denning, one of the people here with his family long-term. What a great man he is! As I mentioned in my previous blog about how I am surrounded by great examples well, Greg is definitely one of the many great examples here to me. As we workout together, or share ideas, he always teaches me something new to think about that blows my mind away in a way I never thought of before. He recently let me borrow one of his books because he noticed my interest in reading. He asked if I would be open to read some new material, and of course I was open to it. So far I have been reading "You'll See It When You Believe It" by Wayne W. Dyer. What an awesome book! He shares great messages and personal experiences in order to help people transform their lives around in the right direction. Greg also has given me some great gospel books to read, so I can get a good portion of church reading. Right now I am reading a book called "Leadership" by Sterling Sill, which is also another amazing book! In one of the chapters entitled 'Crossing the Rubicon', Sterling Sill talks about how Caesar, back in the Roman Empire Era, has just come to the Rubicon River with his army. He has to make a decision whether or not to cross. If he crosses it would mean he would be testing the law of the Empire, but if he does not well, then life would continue to go as it always had. Finally, Caesar looks back to his army and says, "The die is cast!" With any decision in our life, we should always weigh the outcomes. Sometimes we might not be so sure while other times we are, but if we come to the conclusion in our minds of not be completely sure, then the answer is already made up for you. In the book, Sill mentions the greatest sermon ever spoken consisted of just three words. Jesus said, "Come follow me." One of the most important decisions we ever have to make is, what are we going to do about it? Will we follow him? Sometimes we do not think about what we have made up for ourselves prior to the question. The important part is not the question, but making up our mind in order to answer. Sometimes we say yes, but when the winds of opposition blow, what about then? We should always stand firm under the pressures of life. Too many times I have made a decision feeling good about it being too confident, and when the winds of opposition blow, I abandon all my plans. It is easy to stagger and fall when your expectations are suddenly met with high responsibility, or when a challenging set of circumstances confronts us. In these times we should just push harder than ever before because success will always be the reward lurking around the corner waiting to be seized. Later on tonight we had a fireside where Linda and Richard Eyre shared with us some amazing thougths about life, their travles around the world, and other mind-blowing advice on how to live life better on a consistent basis. One of the many things spoken tonight by them hit me pretty hard in my mind. Richard Eyre said, "Sometimes truth comes knocking at our door, but we still ignore it by our inability to accept it for whatever reason. We end up living in a completely different reality, allowing our belief system to fog truth God wants us to accept." As I thought more about this statement, I came to know how true it was to me in my life in the past. I think back to my times of despair and adversity realizing how easily I ignored truth in ever aspect of my life. We often forget, or just may not think about enough, how important we truly are to the world around us. If people realized this concept of importance, believed in themselves, valued their abilities as great instead of good, or just mediocre, we could come up with great ideas helping to change and save millions of lives, but if we choose to ignore truth's knock, or become to prideful, blind and ignorant in our beliefs, truth will slip away as easily as it came. Another important principle we shared was the principle of going about our lives with more love. In the Eyre family, this theme has become their family mission statement. They turn to this principle when a family member is struggling in whatever aspect of their life, or when a friend is struggling; no matter what all of them as a family experience, they choose to live their lives with more love, which I think is just absolutely awesome! I have seen incredible change in my life because of this principle I have been allowing into my life the past six months. Living your life with more love and happiness will completely change you in ways you never imagined before! I promise you this! You will act different; you will feel happier; life won't be this dreading, repetitious and agonizing torture as it once was for me. Without realizing it instantly, an imaginary weight will be lifted off your shoulders allowing you to be completely independent and free from the negativeness of others. Two words from such a simple concept can change a life entirely, but if unwilling and uneager to allow this concept to work, life will continue in the cycle it is thought up as. Willingness to change and positive thoughts of seeing the result in our minds will change us if sincerely desired. Saying and doing are completely two different things. I hope all of us can apply this wonderful and beautiful principle in our lives, and not just our lives, but telling others about it as well. I love this work with all of my heart; I love these people; I love and miss all of you hoping the words I write can mean as much to you as they do to me. I love you all! God bless each one of you!