( Image on Etsy )
Hey everyone,
So, I'll just recap from 2 weeks ago about the mouse in the house...
Now, those of you who know me, might know that a lot of things in this life does not scare me. Walking through pitch-black alleyways to go home - doesn't scare me. Having to deal with drunk guys asking me to marry them - doesn't scare (that actually annoys me more than anything). Going to foreign countries with a language that I don't speak - doesn't scare.
What does scare me, if you really must know is RODENTS! I hate them. I just hate them and I cannot help but scream when I see them. I actually sometimes freeze up and can't move but all I see is diseases and yucky-ness. When I had an apartment in the Bronx and saw a mouse, I moved out the next day.
Anyways, we got home at about 10:55 pm. We were sitting at our desks daily planning and I see out of the corner of my eye something brown and I look over and there is a mouse running into our room. I let out a tortured scream to which scares the crap out of Kimmons. The next hour becomes quite interesting. Kimmons, after calming down her heartbeat, goes into room, to look for the mouse. After pulling out everything and setting things on our beds she finally sees it behind my closet.
To keep a long story short because I don't have a lot of time. We came up with a plan of which I had to be a part. Kimmons choice of weapons was a stick (which we use to open our windows) and a plastic bowl to capture the mouse. I held a binder to place on top of the bowl. During the capture I was standing on the wood-frame of Kimmons' bed, she needed me in there because I was her eyes (she's practically blind without her glasses/contacts...well not really but kind of -hee hee).
We closed our door, got our weapons of choice ready, had the room arranged precisely so kimmons could run in between everything to catch it and then the battle began. That little squeak was soooooo fast that it took us 45 minutes to catch him. That process entailed Kimmons running back and forth, scaring it one way and trying to get it another; all the while I was standing on the bed, holding the red and gray binder close to my chest with one hand and cupping my mouth with the other so I didn't scream because it messed kimmons up.
I couldn't help but shake (/ quietly scream into my hand) every time I saw it. I tried my absolute best not to scream as I told Kimmons, "He's over there...now he ran there...he's here...he's right here....ahahhahahah....get 'em, get 'em!" At 11:45 pm we caught him. As Kimmons caught him she sang, "We are the champions...we are the champions!" We didn't know how to get him out because our landlord built something above our balcony doors and they didn't open wide enough. So, what we ended up doing was, I had an idea where we took a trash bag and slipped it under and around the bowl. I ran and opened our doors and we took that thing far away from our apartment. We got back at12:01 am but I didn't go to sleep until about 12:35 am because I was cleaning/bleaching/
...Now on to something a little more spiritual...
So for a few days during my personal study I've been studying about suffering and repentance. A few transfers ago someone told me that if we truly, really, whole-heartedly wanted to become like the Savior, which in turn become like God because the Savior came to set the example then we inevitably have to suffer; that's why suffering and opposition exists - to make us become better and refine us - which is a life-long process. Lately, our mission president has emphasized the importance of understanding that repentance is a gift rather than a punishment for being human.
And yesterday, as I was pondering this in church, I had two ideas:
1. In internalizing the gift of repentance, we have to change our initial reactions to particular circumstances and stressful situations. In the scriptures, particularly in the Bible Dictionary it says that repentance is a new view of the world (or situation - I can't remember the words exactly), of God and of ourselves. As you study it through the references in the Topical Guide, you read many verses where it tells you to turn and to return to God. Return to what we once knew, to what we promised, and to what we once felt and experienced. And that's what we are here on earth to do - to prepare to return to God. There was a quote that I liked that I saw a members house one time which said, "If you think that God has turned His back on you, TURN AROUND."
2. With the natural man comes the predisposition to sin. Humans were made imperfect and to sin in order to help us or rather allow us the ability to apply the atonement in our daily life - in every moment of our day. Tiring? You might think so, but as we grow deeper in our conviction and testimony of and relationship with God and His plan for us then our strength to endure and keep moving upward increases.
As my understanding and personal experience with the process (and it is, indeed, a process) of repentance grows, I'm learning that it really is not a punishment for us but rather a key to open the door to the grace the atonement of Jesus Christ allows us; that comes through constant prayer and scripture study and our constant effort to be better than the day before. Everything worthwhile in this life takes enduring work. Turning and returning is really hard - but the first initial step is always the hardest and there is a promise that it really does get easier. Men are that they might have joy. I bear testimony of that.
I hope you all have a great week and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!
(Just in case the image link breaks in the future- it is found at this address on the web- https://www.etsy.com/listing/242715252/needle-felt-mouse-angel-of-home-in-a?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=mouse&ref=sr_gallery_13 )
