Diana Leaney López Ruano

Some people go through trials to learn to be more humble.  Other people go through trials to learn to be stronger. Every time I take a Pottermore test to see which Hogwarts House I belong to I get Ravenclaw.  Each time I got the results the blue voice in my head would say, ”Nah.  You’re a Hufflepuff.” Hufflepuffs are great.  They are loyal and kind and helpful and good.  That is what I would tell myself as I denied the books and cleverness of a Ravenclaw and submitted to the humble honor of being a Hufflepuff. But that’s not who I am. Humility is not lowering yourself so that others can feel good about themselves. In the Japanese language there are many different levels of respect that one uses depending on who one is speaking to.  As a missionary we were instructed to use honorifics with everyone, even if we spoke to children.  Honestly, I don’t think Jesus would have used honorifics while speaking to children because their language skills are still developing, but the

I've had a chronic cough since January 2018.  Sometimes my prayers go, "Heavenly Father, please help me breath.  Please, I just want to breath." The first six months of this were suffocating.  I couldn't speak full sentences. I was putting people on mute every few words during calls at work.  I couldn't breath.  I had just started to hear myself laugh and sing again, but breathing is the first step towards laughing and singing so those things stopped.    In Japan I couldn't walk without pain.  My knees would hurt intensely after just thirty seconds of standing so I hobbled through my mission with pain in every step.  When my mission president asked me to extend my mission an extra month I looked down at my knee-braces as I tightrope-walked the curb of the sidewalk and immediately said yes.  My prayers changed at that point.  Instead of asking Heavenly Father to heal me I said, "If Thou knowest that I can serve Thee without legs, then go ahead, take t