Hi
everyone! How was your week? I hope it's going well and you always know how
much Heavenly Father loves you! I wanted to write about something fun we did
this week. Last week we met a couple who are religious and the wife was a
member of the church a while ago but now goes to a different church, and they
are super awesome! We got to meet them and have been able to do some service
for them chopping wood, then they invited us to go make apple cider with them!
It was an awesome experience and we got to develop our relationship with them
quite a bit! I want to relate the process we went through of making apple cider
to the atonement and hopefully help you know that Heavenly Father has a plan
and will help you become the person He wants you to be!
So first
of all we had to go get apples. We have a friend who has apple trees and
mentioned she was wanting to get rid of the apples (tender mercy!) so we went
over there and pulled the apples off the branches we could. Then there were
some that we couldn't reach so we had to shake the branches and make the apples
fall to the ground. We then had to go through and find which were good to use
and which were eaten by birds or unusable.
So we
gathered all them and took them to where we'd be turning them into apple cider.
The people we were helping had an apple press which worked something like
this.. We had to wash and cut the apples then feed them through a part of the
machine where they were ground up into even smaller chunks which filled the
barrel where they would be pressed. We then had to spin and rotate a plate down
onto the barrel which squashed the apples so tightly that they released their juice
into a pan which drained to buckets we filled up with the product we wanted.
And voila! Apple cider!
It took
quite a bit of time to complete the process of making what we wanted to, and it
wasn't exactly they easiest thing to do, but I can tell you that this was
probably the best apple juice I've ever had! It was a powerful lesson as well
in relation to the atonement of Jesus Christ. Sometimes we don't want to go
through the process we have to to be changed (refined) into what God knows we
can be. Sometimes we're comfortable on our tree branch, not wanting to be
moved, or not wanting to experience trial or pressure, but just like how
diamonds are made from incredible amounts of pressure on coal, we can be made
into something better than we could be on our own. I testify that Heavenly
Father has a plan and sees the bigger picture perfectly. He has enough love to
shake us from the tree and turn us into something more, something better,
something we can only be because of His son Jesus Christ and the refining
process of repentance.
I love you all so much and know Heavenly Father will help you as you put your faith in Him and let Him refine you! 😊
~ Elder McDonald
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