8-19-13 The Lord Speaks to Us With a Love We Comprehend! He Loves Us So Perfectly!

DAD MOM RYAN RACHELLE LIZA EMMA and my dearly beloved friends

 

Bishop Stewart, Dad, and Brother Goodfellow. What a wonderful bishopric you have made as you've relied on the Lord in all that you do. I love you all! And I'm so excited for Bishop Dunn, Brother Tober, and Brother Lyon! Surely it is by divine design. Though I wasn't there to sustain you... I sustain you now! Love you all!

 

I remember how Mom would gather our family together on several occasions to administer a variety of different tests, some of which measured our personality 'color', others our social interaction status, and another our language of love. I remember how amusing it was to see Dad's test results - because he would rarely answer the questions the way mom knew he ought to. But regardless of whether Dad's results were accurate or not, Mom taught us that there are many different ways in which people communicate, express, and feel love. Some people's love language is expressed more poignantly through verbal communication, some through gifts, others through acts of service and others through physical touch. It's pretty obvious that our family is one that expresses our love especially through physical touch. Some of us anyway, like to hug people, touch their arm and like their backs tickled.  Growing up, I remember always feeling loved in such a fashion. Mom would "tickle" my back as I fell asleep, Dad would embrace me in a hug when he returned home, I would cuddle up close to Emma and Liza during church,  I would lounge on Ryan's shoulder as we watched movies, we would give back massages and foot rubs as gifts for Father's Day, and even with extended family - personal space was never much of a concern. When I moved to Boulder City, my dear friends quickly discovered I was a "hugger" and adapted quickly to me. It wasn't until I left for college that I really learned how much I had appreciated this expression of love through physical touch. Not many of whom I affiliated expressed themselves in such a manner as we did and I missed it. It is all good that we are all different and that makes life interesting!  When I would return home for the weekend, I would feel the warmth and closeness of my precious siblings and parents whom I cherished. And I would love and appreciate every moment. 

 

While I have been away on my sacred and priceless mission, I've come to accept and learn how to live without it. With some of my companions I'd sense it was okay to hug and sit close to at times, but with others I knew it would be completely strange and foreign to them.  So, for their sakes - I did not hug them haha.  

 

In John 13:5-9 we can observe that Peter was not one for physical touch. When Christ came to wash his feet, he repulsed the thought of Jesus, the Savior of all mankind, performing such an act. But Christ, knowing Peter so perfectly, knew that he would understand by way of verbal communication, said to him: "If I wash thee not, thou has no part with me." It was then that Peter understood and plead for him to wash his head and hands also.

 

Likewise, we can observe and see that, unlike Peter, John the Beloved better understood love by way of physical touch. In John 13:23-25 we see that the he lay on the bosom of Jesus as they spoke. John knew and understood for himself because Jesus communicated it to him in a manner that he would understand. John felt Christ's love so strongly that the name by which he referred himself was: "the disciple whom Jesus loved." 

 

Nephi teaches us that "the Lord God.. speaketh unto men according to their language, unto their understanding" (2 Nephi 31:3). I testify that Jesus knows each of us perfectly. He has experienced and endured our every pain, affliction, temptation, sickness, and sin. He has felt and made possible our every joy, triumph, victory, and success. He has descended below all, that He might empower us to rise above anything that stands before us. I love Him and thank Him. The Holy Ghost is the messenger of Him and our Heavenly Father. He speaks to each of us with a love deeper than we comprehend. And I know that He does so in a manner each of us will understand. This work is magnificent and I thank Him for allowing me to show love to these people. I thank Him for teaching and showing me how.  

 

LOVE SISTER JEPPSEN

 

We Do Believe We Can Do Incredible Things Here!

 

 Sister Crockett is going home to California this week! Oh how I am going to miss her!
  I have watched and learned much from her Christ-like example.  She's a heaven-sent best friend (as they all are)!

So beautiful!

 I LOVE HER!