"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go form here?" That depends a good deal on where you want to get to." "I don't much care where" "Then it doesn't matter which way to go."

Dearest avid readers, this week has been quite a noteworthy one, to say the least:)  We finished up Conference and met amazing people where you just feel like you're in a missionary's dream. We got let in several times and found some awesome new people that show genuine interest and desire to learn more, so I am all a flutter with excitement.

I went on exchanges to the ever risque city of Amsterdam and took in all the culture, class, and faint smell of weed on the trams as I went.  We also did service in Haarlem, where we did some weeding/put gravel on an old people's sports field...Anyway, it's getting oh so chilly here - if you want a feel of what it's like, just go to your local Costco and walk around in the produce section....all day.

Oh! Also, we're going to the temple on Wednesday!:) And having a ward talent night on Friday - keep you posted on that one:)

Lately, I've been thinking about the "song of redeeming love" that Alma talks about in chapter 5:

And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if you have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?

I love the idea of us singing the song of redeeming love of experiencing that true desire to turn ourselves and our will to God.  It was said of Boyd K. Packer that he gave his agency to the Lord.  His desire was to follow Him and he chose to dedicate his life to God.

Elder Neal A. Maxwell said that our desires "are the essence of our individuality and our personal accountability."  Our specific, heartfelt desires are what determines our individuality as children of God.

Alma goes on to ask, And this is not all. Do ye not suppose that I know of these things myself?  Behold, I testify that I do know that these things whereof I have spoken are true. And how do ye suppose that I know of their surety?
Behold, I say unto you they are made known unto me by the Holy Spirit of God. Behold, I have fasted and prayed many days that I might know these things of myself.  And now I do know of myself that they are true; for the Lord God hath made them manifest unto me by his Holy Spirit; and this is the spirit of revelation which is in me.

It is according to our desires that we can sing the song of redeeming love; "It is up to us. God will facilitate, but He will not force."  Elder Maxwell states, "to be a man is to desire"; from the beginning, we've desired to become like God.  It was our desire that motivated us to accept the plan He had laid out for us, it is our desires in life that determine what we become and what we will receive because God will not give us anything that we don't want.

President Packer said, "It seems to me that there is a great power in the Church - in all of us - that is untapped because we are always setting about to do things our way, when the Lord's way would accomplish much greater returns."  It's according to our desires that anything and everything happens.  We are accountable and responsible for how, when, and where we get in life.  He is there to help us, but it starts out with that desire.

Love, Zuster Dobler