God is Not Dead, Nor Doth He Sleep

Another Zone Conference week has come and gone. This past week has been so good spiritually, but man, it sure has done a number on my physical self. I've been combatting a return of foot fungus as well as a nasty little head-cold, but ne'er you fret! The work of God continues to roll forth!

At Zone Conference this past week we learned about how to work better with members-we are on the SAME team, after all--and then we also learned about the love of God, as exemplified in Christmas. If you haven't yet, I highly encourage you to take some time and watch #SharetheGift that the Church just barely came out with a week or two ago. So good! It gives me the chills every time that I watch it :) 

As I've reflected on the birth of my Savior this past week, I've been able to really think about His love for me and for all of humanity. He really just wants us to come back and live with Him again. He's always offering us the opportunity to make covenants and promises with Him. What's the point of these? To bind us closer to Him, to inspire us to aspire to celestial heights, and to help enable us to become more and more like Him each and every day :) He lives--He was born in mean estate, He lived a simple but humble life, He died on a cruel cross, but now, RIGHT NOW, He lives again! The bonds of death have been snapped; the chains that would encircle the world have been severed! As the words of one of my all-time favorite Christmas hymns says, "God is NOT DEAD, nor doth He sleep; The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with PEACE on earth, GOOD WILL to men." ("I Heard The Bells on Christmas Day", Hymn No. 214, emphasis added). 

How have you seen Him active in your own life? How have you felt His hand touching, leading, guiding, and influencing you? He's so real, and He's so amazing! The fact that He loves us enough to have been born, lived, and died for us is remarkable in and of itself; but now He lives for us again! He's not going to stop loving us, and He will always been working with us, until that perfect day when we are like Him. I know that's true :)
For now I bid you a wonderful rest of the day and week! I love y'all lots!

Sincerely,

Mai Zhanglao

p.s. We went to Zone Conference this week. Look what I found....The caption for the second pic is "'Nuff Said" :)