Sister Brooklyn Hermansen Minnesota Minneapolis Mission: President Nelson!

This weekend President Nelson, an apostle of the Lord came to visit our mission! The whole mission gathered together to hear him speak to us and it was amazing! I know that God has called him to help lead Jesus Christ's true church on the earth. The spirit was so strong as he talked to us. He talked to us a lot about the Book of Mormon. He asked us what we would lose if the knowledge of the Book of Mormon was taken away from us. For me, I would lose my sense of belonging. Because of the truths found in the Book of Mormon, I know why I am here on earth and what I have to do to get back to live with our Heavenly Father. I would lose my understanding of God's great Plan of Happiness for us, the knowledge that we will get to be with our families forever if we follow God's commandments. The Book of Mormon helps us understand the Bible, and understand what God wants for us. There's so much more I would lose if we didn't have the Book of Mormon, but I am so grateful I have this knowledge and no one can take it away from me!

Another thing that President Nelson talked about was when people leave the church. He talked about how if we are doing everything we are supposed to, reading the scriptures, praying, increasing our testimonies, we will get to the point where we know with out a doubt, that this is the true church, but if we stop doing those things, our testimonies will decrease until we know nothing. He said that a young couple he is very close to has decided to stop doing the things they should be doing and he asked them, "Are you happy?" And they said, "yeah we're happy." And he told them, "The kind of happy that you get when you jump out of a plane without a parachute. It feels good floating through the air for a while, but eventually you're going to hit the ground." So many things that are popular in the world right now, seem fun in the moment, but if you think about the bigger picture and what's really important, none of it seems worth it to me. But I know that whatever mistakes we make and how far off of the path we get, we can always be forgiven. The Book of Mormon teaches us how we can repent and be forgiven of our mistakes. Don't let that amazing blessing go to waste!

Anyway, it's been a bit of a crazy week. Last Monday we were playing soccer in the rain with the elders and some random kid came and wanted to play, so of course we let him. We had been playing for about 10 minutes and the random kid kicked the ball and it hit Sister Fine's hand. She was in a lot of pain so I took her to urgent care... and her arm is broken! How the ball hit her hand and broke her arm, I don't know, but it did! If you're having a bad week, just think, "At least I didn't break my arm getting hit with a soccer ball." Love you all!

The whole mission with President Nelson!