Thoughts about life...

This has been a hard week. I thought in the beginning of it that having a sick child was hard. Than I had a big test announced that I'm not sure I can get the "A" I want. Besides the normal complains that my knees hurt when I stop working out, my house was not as clean as I wanted, I have not lost the 10 pounds I was working on, etc, etc.

Thursday I heard that a friend of mine from church, Estela, was sick and taken to the hospital with meningites. By afternoon she went on a coma and by early Friday morning she died. She was one of the few Brazilians members around here, there's about six of us. I felt my heart sink. She was 37 and has three kids, 12, 10 and 4. I could only imagine what kind of despair they must been going through.

My friend also from her ward, Jane, went to her house and found everyone in peace and the Spirit there was really comforting.

She was such a happy, positive, good woman. she had been the RS counselor recently and everyone loved her. As I thought about life and how we do have to see that this life is one of learning and nobody knows how long you have to learn and do what you came here to do. I thought about how I had not paid my tithing last week because I forgot to calculate it before I left to church. How I haven't read my scriptures this week because I had been studying and caring for sick kids, home food etc, that my time was not enough (but I still manage to read email, browse the net, look at my orkut and facebook, etc...) How would I explain this to the Lord if it was me instead of her who passed away...

How would measure up all the time I spend reading magazines and its latest diets, but not following the Word of Wisdon and eating healthy as I know? Or the other million substitutions I do, doing "good" but not the "best"?

Talking to Marcus about it, we converse about how "laying treasures in heaven". Those treasures, the only ones we take are really our family, our service to others and the love for the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost we have.

Everything else will stay.

I learned much from saying a sudden goodbye to a my friend. Life is indeed precious. This is the time to live it to its fullest. So I pleadge to do my best. Thanks Estela, till we meet again.