Hello Family and Friends!
This week I had the wonderful opportunity to meet and shake hands with an apostle of our Lord, Jesus Christ. When Elder Holland shook my hand, suddenly I felt light, like nothing could take me down. I knew that when he looked me in the eyes, he knew it all. He knew all of my weaknesses, my faults, my doubts, and my hurts. And will all of this he said, "I love you." And though he only knew me for less than five seconds, he knew. I know that he knew everything. And he did exactly what Jesus Christ would do. He said, "I love you."
It was the experience of a life time. He told us all that he was so proud of us, and that we were all doing exactly what we needed to be doing. To be told this by an apostle of our Jesus Christ really just makes it all worth it. I know that what he told us was exactly what Christ would say if he were here.
"I love you." I love you in your weakness. I love you in your pain. I love you in your faults. I love you in your sins. I love you when you cry. I love you always. Take my hand and I will make you perfect.
He doesn't ask us to be perfect in the eyes of others, or in our own eyes, but his. And he doesn't ask us to strive for this alone, for a goal that is impossible. He asks us to hand it all over to Him, and He will do the work. He will make us perfect.
A word of advice: Stop thinking perfection is a check list of things to do in this life. Perfection is a road. It is a journey. It is meeting the potencial that God knows you have. We do this through Christ-like actions. There are small windows in our lives when we are perfect (in Christ´s eyes). In my life these windows are far and few and in between. But my goal is to make them more constant and last longer. Through acting as Christ would act!
I challenge you to do the same. Forget about what others might say, and act as Christ would. Forget about yourself and help another. And you can reach your true potencial and BE PERFECTED IN HIM.
I love you all so much and hope you all have a wonderful week.
Love Sister Culley
P.S. Mom! I ate Civite this week! (the raw fish with lime and tomatoes!) It was delicious! My puruvian companion made it for us!