New Year, New Goals, New Perspective

I love the new year.  I love being able to start fresh with new ideas, new goals, all that stuff.  I know we can set goals any time of year, but there is something about the beginning of the year that gives it a little more weight. I have always been a little disappointed with the stereotype that New Year's resolutions only really hold sway for the first week of the new year, and that after that most people stop them.  This year I plan to use my goals to shape my missionary work and personal development.

One of my biggest goals this year has to do with developing Christlike Attributes.  The sixth chapter of Preach My Gospel is all about becoming more like Jesus Christ through improving on different qualities and becoming better people.  This year especially I want to focus on becoming a more patient, humble individual.  Preach My Gospel defines patience as "the capacity to endure delay, trouble, position, or suffering without becoming angry, frustrated, or anxious."  When we are patient we are willing to wait for the Lord to fulfill His promises, rather than expecting them to come right when we want them.  He knows what He is doing better than we do.  Humility is based in gratitude and recognizing that the Lord will support us in what we lack, and as humans, we lack a lot.  One of my favorite sentences in the section on humility, however, is that when you are humble, "you are confident that you can do whatever the Lord requires of you if you rely on Him."  Humility is not being ground into the dirt, or thinking you can't do anything, instead it is recognizing that with the Lord's help (and only with His help) we can do anything He requires us to do.  That's pretty cool.

For New Year's we had to be in our apartments by 6:00 pm, so we sisters decided to have a hotpot party! 

Pretty much what hotpot is is a soup base that you add whatever delicious food you want to and then eat over time with a bunch of people.  

It's great, and it was delicious.  It was a nice way to spend our holiday evening!

I hope that all of you have had a great holiday and have made great resolutions for the new year.  Good luck as work and school starts up again.  Know that I love you!

Love,

Sister Beer

P.S.  These are all things Sister Liu doesn't like to eat:  peanut butter, fake cheese, and the candy coating off of M&Ms. (In reference to the photograph.)