you is good

i have the great blessing of teaching spanish and teaching skills to missionaries at the mtc.  and for one hour everyday they teach me and i act as someone who hasn't heard the gospel.  today, two of my missionaries invited me to be baptized...long story short i told them i was a bad person and wasn't good enough to be baptized, because everything i do is for my own benefit.  i'm not selfless like them.  and you know what my sweet, 18-year-old, extremely humble elder said to me in the best spanish he could muster,

"you are a good person, because you chose to follow Christ and come to earth before you were born."

if only this elder could know what an impact that had on me personally today.  how true this is.  we were born good.  with the desire to help and please others...just look at little kids--the way they react when someone gets hurt or is crying.  we are all sons and daughters of the same heavenly father.  we all have the same loving Savior and big brother.  and no matter how far off the path we've found ourselves, no matter how heavy we feel our burden is, there is no sin, no trial, and no person who is not accounted for by the love of Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father.  there is always a way back.  there is always strength to be found.  God loves you.  He knows you are good.

peace+love