Lift up your heart! Lift Up your voice! Rejoice! Again I Say, Rejoice!

Hello All!

How are things?  I hope and pray that all is well.  This week has been good.  One of the things I like most about Kitchener is that we live downtown.  If we want to find and talk to a whole kaboodle (I hope that is how you spell it) of people, we just have to walk out of our apartment.  We received recent instruction from the Assistants on making our finding more effective as well, so it has been fun to apply that and see miracles happen.  This is a blessed land.  I absolutely love it here.

One thing I would like to address today is the importance of maintaining a positive attitude.  That is something that has really helped me recently. There are, of course, the adages - "Whether you think you can or you can't, you're right,"  the "power of positive thinking," as President Hinckley put it, and one of my personal favorites, "Happiness is by Choice, not Chance" (Thanks Mom).  They are all true.  How many times in the scripture are we counseled by historians, prophets, and even the Savior himself to "Be of Good Cheer?"  2 Nephi 2:25 teaches us that "Men are that they might find JOY."  We are here to have joy and prepare to meet God, and oh how Joyful that will be.  The Spirit  brings joy.  The Spirit brings peace.  The Spirit brings happiness.  The ONLY way for us to experience true and lasting happiness is by living the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I have seen and realized that time and time again.

President Eyring has counseled us that Joy comes from Unity.  When we are unified with the Savior, we are becoming what He wants us to be.  We are living His Gospel.  Sometimes life may throw us challenges that seem difficult to overcome.  It is important that we learn, What Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin taught so clearly in the October 2008 General Conference - "Come What May, and Love It."  And when trials come, change the way they are viewed.  President Eyring, just a few short weeks ago counseled us that "The disciple who accepts a trial as an invitation to grow and therefore qualify for eternal life can find peace in the midst of the struggle."  The stumbling Blocks that we have are there for a reason.  We must be prepared to face them, as they are the only way that we can grow.

C.S. Lewis said, "We are blocks of stone, out of which the creator forms the shapes of men.  The blows of His chisel, which hurt us so very much, are what make us perfect."  We are being refined.  We are being tested.  We are being perfected.  I know that this is the Lord's plan for us.  He only wants what is best for us, and the things we receive from Him ARE what is best for us, despite what we might think at the  moment.  I look forward to the day that I will stand before God, and look back on my life and finally realize how each experience I had shaped me, and how My Heavenly Father molded me. I know that as each of us strives to be clay in his hands, we will become what he wants us to be.  Someone told me once, "If each of us could catch a glimpse of the person our Heavenly Father knew we could be, we would rise up and never be the same."  The Father has great things in store for us.  We just have to put our hand in His, and let Him lift us higher.  I love you all.  I know that you are all children of God with Divine potential.  You are my brothers and sisters, children of a Divine and perfect Parent, and I will love you forever.

Your Obedient Servant,
Elder Austin James Ashcraft.

P.S. - If there is ever anything that I can ever do for any of you, please let me know.  Please.