6-29-25 LIGHT HEARTEDNESS

Por da pictures: https://photos.app.goo.gl/vV5H2ga7QtRdt7ig6 Aloha mai kākou! 🎶 it's a beautipul day in da Pilipeenz, a beautipul day por da Pilipino 🎶 I wasn't blessed to have the blood of these hilarious and amazing people, pero ang Pinoy na Puso ay meron ako. This past week, was another great week! The Lord has taught me so much, this past week in particular, in which I am grateful. Let me tell you what I was blessed with, a beautiful area, an awesome ward, and another stud of a companion. I truly have been blessed by my Father in Heaven with so much. I have a family at home who loves me, in which at home I never had to worry about being hungry. I was blessed with a strong body and a mind that can somewhat function! Blessed! I was blessed with the opportunity to serve a mission, to find and teach people about my friend, Jesus Christ. I have come to realize the importance of recognizing the blessings. It becomes so easy sometimes to think of the things that we lack, of where we struggle, or focus on our current "hassles" rather than taking a step back and seeing what we are working towards. This past week comes an experience that I want to share. It was an absolute failure on my part, but where I learned a lesson worth a fortune. We headed up to a further area, and began teaching one of our friends for her first lesson, as she asked a beautiful question; "Do I need Church for God to forgive me of my sins?" I was prepared! I study everyday, I read the Book of Mormon daily, I prayed in the beginning to feel the Spirit and to have Him guide me. I did the right thing. Now this is what happened. I began to share, and my mind went blank. I couldn't put out a clear sentence, and I took the question way off topic. I felt frustrated with myself, in every way. My companion saved the day by sharing a beautiful scripture in Helaman 14:13, 13 And if ye believe on his name ye will repent of all your sins, that thereby ye may have a remission of them through his merits. We are forgiven as we believe. And if we truly do believe in Him, we will believe in His teachings. If we truly believe in Him, we will act on His words, and through His merits, we can find complete forgiveness. The question is not, are we saved by the Church, the question is, what does Jesus Christ say about His Church. Following the lesson, we left, and my companion went on again laughing and making jokes not once referring to the lesson that I obviously blew. He has a skill to be happy, in the most stressful times, in which my family would call being "classy". I learned of the ultimate antidote to conflicts and stress, a laugh. A merry heart. The scriptures talk about the danger of being light-mindedness, but we must choose to be light-hearted. Elder Gong said, "Be lighthearted, not light-minded. Lighthearted means wholesome, good humor—lots of it. In contrast, light-minded can include making fun of sacred things, using bad language, or doing edgy things that appeal to the world. As Doctrine and Covenants 88:40 teaches, like things attract each other. Be the friend you want others to be to you. Look for friends who help you become what you truly want to be." I bit the bullet this past week. My whole mission, I have laughed naman and had a great time, but have always been very serious about this work. Ive been stressed and shaped in so many sometimes painful ways. My lesson of a fortune this past week? Pray for a "merry heart", and the infinately giving skill it is to be light hearted, it is the antidote to stress. See the blessings and the positives, before we notice the negatives and the things not going our way. The seriousness and urgency for the work never leaves, but we become the message of joy that we share daily. Jahs laugh cuzzn, no worreh, jahs trahs! Aaaloha, ELDER ISHIBASHI