Key to God's Blessings

I have been discussing w/ Rachelle the principles of gratitude and charity in a different light then we have previously viewed these wonderful principles. It seems in life once we come to accept and learn to love our situation, we are then blessed with a better result or outcome. For example, once I was in La Coruna as a junior companion. I was really struggling to enjoy my companion. I felt like he was always cutting me off, not letting me speak even when I made the contact with someone in the street. Everything about him started to annoy me. Then I decided I would just be the best junior companion I could be. I sincerely tried to not resent him always talking, etc. It seemed like almost in the exact moment I came to learn from my situation and seek patience and to love my companion, that is when the Lord released me from the situation and transferred me. The people of Alma in the city of Helam prayed for their burdens to be light. They didn't seek to have them removed but lightened. Then the Lord strengthened them. When we're willing to pay tithing and spend our time w/ family and in our callings, etc, that is when the Lord can bless us w/ His choicest blessings. When Job was able to lose all the blessings he had, choose to love and worship and testify of God, then he was given all the blessings he didn't have before and still retain the faith he had already come to develop in God. Jacob 2:18-19. It really is Jacob 2:18-19 principle...just applied to other situations besides riches. Once we are grateful for our situation and learn what we can from the situation, sincerely not just superficially or just saying the right words, but really feeling it, then God can endow us w/ power. Once Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac, that is when the blessing came. Once Rachelle and I were totally willing and wanting to serve as a chaplain family in the army, that is when the Lord saw fit to release us from this call. Once Zion's Camp marched all the way to Zion to fight, the Lord released them from the call to fight and they could go home peacefully and He fought their battles for them. If we are humble and obedient and grateful for the blessings God has given us, then He will bless us. If we are seeking charity through our experiences, then He can bless us. The choice is ours to be softer or harder in our hearts because of the exceedingly great length of the war (Alma 62:41).