Victory! and Violins

I loved Elder Holland's talk. This time is truly a time of testing, but we can do it! I loved his thoughts, and I want to listen to this talk frequently as a pep-talk.
I also enjoyed this quote from Pres. Monson:
We are waging a war with sin, my brothers and sisters, but we need not despair. It is a war we can and will win. Our Father in Heaven has given us the tools we need in order to do so. He is at the helm. We have nothing to fear. He is the God of light. He is the God of hope. I testify that He loves us—each one.
Mortality is a period of testing, a time to prove ourselves worthy to return to the presence of our Heavenly Father. In order to be tested, we must sometimes face challenges and difficulties. At times there appears to be no light at the tunnel’s end—no dawn to break the night’s darkness. We feel surrounded by the pain of broken hearts, the disappointment of shattered dreams, and the despair of vanished hopes. We join in uttering the biblical plea “Is there no balm in Gilead?”6 We are inclined to view our own personal misfortunes through the distorted prism of pessimism. We feel abandoned, heartbroken, alone. If you find yourself in such a situation, I plead with you to turn to our Heavenly Father in faith. He will lift you and guide you. He will not always take your afflictions from you, but He will comfort and lead you with love through whatever storm you face. ~Thomas S Monson, "Looking Back and Moving Forward." April 2008. 
Another principle I have been thinking about this week is perseverance. My road won't be easy, but I have been realizing that some of the hard things I'm facing right now could be part (in fact, are definitely part) of God's plan for me. I CAN do this!

Also, I had another idea for a business to do right now. I need to get my food permit before starting my Bread and Water business, so that will probably happen next semester. But in my math class this week, I had my violin, and a girl asked me to teach her. She had never played before, and didn't have her own, but wanted to learn. So I've started to teach her.
So the idea is this: giving violin lessons to people for cheap ($5/lesson) and with the requirement that they fill out an improvement form so that I can get better as a teacher. If they don't have their own violin, that's fine for the first two months or so. This way, they can see if they really do want to learn violin, or can learn to play a simple song to impress their friends. 

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