On a Scale of 1-10: How Much Does This Hurt?

Hi everyone! I hope you all had an amazing week full of joy and love and maybe even cookies. I so look forward to this upcoming week as it's General Conference time! Yes, to the rest of the world this may be a relaxing time to stay home and eat breakfast as you sit on the couch watching General Conference, but for us Temple Square missionaries, it is the busiest time of the year.  We need to be on the square at 7:30 in the morning ready to go and don't get to go home until about 10 at night...I am so excited :)  I just may feel like a little kid at Christmas time.

So, so happy I got to see my beautiful Sister...Casey BRIGGS :)

Waiting for the General Relief Society Broadcast to start with our amazing Zone Leaders!
Sister Hvistendahl (1 of 5 members in Greenland) and Sister Martinez (Spain)

This past week I've seen a lot of miracles in my life.  I have met and spoken with people that have truly inspired me and have brought me closer to my Savior. However, what I really want to share with you all is something I realized earlier this week and have been made so aware of throughout the remainder of it.  My testimony is really growing of Personal and Companionship study time :)

Still waiting with Sister Ince (Canada) and Sister De Castro (Brasil).
It was such an amazing broadcast!

SO excited about my dinosaur shirt from Grandfather and Grandma Jeanie!
I couldn't stop smiling or dancing about it haha

Every time we go to see a doctor, it seems we are always asked the same questions.  One of the most common ones being, "On a scale of 1-10, how much does this hurt?"  I've never really known how to answer this question.  Even Bryan Reagan has done a skit on this question because it's not one that is really fair to answer.  We often don't know how to explain our pain, and oftentimes what may be a 7 on the scale of pain for me, could quite easily be a 2 on the scale of pain for another.  It just doesn't seem like a fair question.

Our HILARIOUS roommates Sister Creal (Indiana) and Sister Taito (Fiji).
We seriously have the best time together every night drinking hot chocolate and talking about our day.
They are the best :)

Sister Siegle and I played basketball with some of the other sisters at 6 in the morning
and it was so much fun!
Watch out Rob, Bryan and Dad...I'm getting some tricky skills on the court :)

All growing up I really have wanted to invent a certain something, and it's not something I've told many people about because they would always just kind of laugh at me and tell me I was silly...but here I am telling you now :) I always wanted to invent some way for the doctors to feel my pain, even for just a second.  I don't mean this in that I wanted them to hurt, or to feel sad or scared like I may have been, I just wanted them to better understand how I was feeling in a way I couldn't express with words. I always figured that if they could just feel my pain for a second, they would best know how to treat me.
When I was reading in The Book of Mormon, I came across a scripture that made me think back to this invention.  
In Mosiah 3:10 it reads, 

"And he shall rise the third day from the dead; and behold, he standeth to judge the world; and behold, all these things are done that a righteous judgment might come upon the children of men."

Never has this scripture been so profound or hit me so deeply as it did at this time. Jesus Christ is the one who stands to judge the world because He knows perfectly how we feel.  He is the only one who could pass a righteous judgment as He as experienced the same pains and knows if we truly gave everything our best, if we truly had faith considering the circumstance we were given in this life.  I also know, that the Atonement is essential to the growth and progression of all mankind.  I know that our Heavenly Father suffered His perfect, beloved son Jesus Christ to die, and that Jesus Christ himself was willing to come, because they wanted to someone to understand perfectly what we would all go through during our time here.

With the birthday girl, adorable Sister Christensen turned 22! 

With Sister P.Lee from Taiwan who will soon be returning to her original mission in Idaho,
I will miss her oh so much!

What I thought would be a perfect invention, is simply modeled after the perfect wisdom of our Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ- our ultimate healers. Because our Savior knows exactly how we feel we don't have to worry about picking a number between 1 and 10 to describe our pain, we don't have to worry about wondering if our description will give him the ability to completely fix us.  Because Jesus Christ suffered as all mankind has and would, He knows best how to heal us.
Just as the doctors around the world have studied, prepared, practiced medicine and wait anxiously each day to help us, so does the Savior wait to help us.  I know that Jesus Christ's role in our life cannot be underestimated.  He already suffered everything for each of us and anxiously waits to heal us.  Although we do not need to worry about explaining our pain to him, we do need to come unto him in order to have the healing in our lives that we so seek.  I have felt my Savior healing me on my mission and throughout my entire life.  At times I knew that no one could understand my heartaches or sorrows, He did.  Let the Savior heal you.

After Maria's baptism :)

Maria was baptized! She was an investigator lesson we took with the local elders here.
She is from Brasil and is 82 years old and was baptized just this past week.
When she came with her son in law and the Elders just a few weeks ago,
I promised her I would bear my testimony in Portuguese at her baptism, and I did. :)
It was the best feeling in the world!

I love you all so very much and hope for nothing but the very best for each of you.  I may not know of everything you are all going through or be able to even understand it, but you already know who does. Trust in him and I promise you will find yourself becoming whole and complete again.


Love Always,

Sister Briggs

P.S. General Conference this weekend! Watch it, take notes, LOVE IT :)  I am so grateful to be serving here for such an exciting time!

SHOUTOUTS: Uncle Mike (thanks for the cookies!), Casey BRIGGS, Courtney King and lovely Aunt Nicole, George Edwards (my best buddy from England came by! Good luck in the MTC!), Jessica HoHeywood (the dinosaur picture was awesome!), Dayna Kirkpatrick (your card was so beautiful, thank you!), Robert and Donakey family, Grandfather and Grandma Jeanie (thank you so much for the DINOSAUR shirt...ahhh!!!!!), Kathy Wiley, Kate Thornock, Sister Lin's sister and Sariah M :)