Carly Helton (Sister Helton): We all have a past, but ... 1-25-2016

Ok, I have a million things to tell you but I'll start with the funniest one.

So last week I went to a sushi place in City Creek to get some sushi-to-go.

I told the guy what I wanted and then he asked what I my name was.

I pointed at my name tag and I guess I said "Sister Helton" really quietly because when I got my to-go box of sushi the man had written "Jesus" as my name!!!

I died laughing. Good to know that the name that stands out the most on my name tag is Jesus Christ (Here's a picture of the box of sushi and what he wrote on it).

Something that really hit home to me this week was a man who came on mormon.org chat.

He was telling us all about his past and how he is working towards getting baptized. He has made some pretty huge mistakes and he said it's been really hard to forgive himself when those he's hurt haven't forgiven him.

He said he's been talking to the bishop about everything and that the bishop told him:

"We all have a past, but we all have a present responsibility to have a future relationship with Christ."

I thought that was so beautiful.

We've all made mistakes and all do things that cause us to have feelings of guilt and shame but the message of the Savior is to look to him and move forward.

We decide today what we want to do and who we want to follow.

I was also reading today in Ephesians 5:8 and Paul is talking to the Gentiles about what it means to follow Christ and how we can do it. He says,

"For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light."

When I read that it made me think about how we all give in to the natural man at different points in our life. We are sometimes filled with darkness but as we look to Christ and choose to follow Him, His light is able to shine in us.

I've been thinking about what I will do when I'm home. How I will apply what I've learned and continue to move forward following the Savior and the words "walk as children of light" was a huge answer to prayer.

There is a tangible difference when you follow the Savior and when you don't. His light is there and it fills you up which then allows you to go out and fill others as well. I love my Savior.

Our investigators are doing really well! My companion is the most hilarious person on earth. I'm learning new things every day and I am so grateful.

The picture at right is of our zone activity. We ding-dong-ditched the houses of the families who fed us Christmas dinner and took them cookies. Of course, I had to drive and it was pouring snow and we got super lost so we just took pictures in our mini van... haha...I will never understand the layout of streets in SLC.

Sister Almeida and I walked over to this little pioneer house from the 1850's and took a picture in it. Today, we did a little district activity and had lunch together than went to the familysearch place in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. It's super interactive and I did this little interview thing where you get asked 14 questions and record yourself. I also learned a lot about Popo's dad John Franklin Helton!

Love you so much!

Sister Helton