Hola hermanos y hermanas,
Last preparation day was a good one. I got my haircut...elder Killian told me he learned to cut hair on his mission and we could combine our money to buy clippers...I talked him out of it and we found a nice member who cuts missionaries hair. She told us she started cutting hair for missionaries because she had a brother who cut his own hair on his mission to save money. His awful haircut inspired her to help out us Elders. We had time to go to an ice rink with the two other elders in our district which was a party. There was absolutely nobody except us there so that was super fun to have all to ourselves.
Last Wednesday something awesome happened! We got an email from our bishop with some referrals. This man is trying to come back to the church, and his wife wants to be baptized. Well that was nice to have just placed in our lap. But it wasn't as simple as it sounded! This man works out of town often and his wife is from China and speaks mandarin. Cool story-the first day we got into this apartment we were looking through all the random stuff that was here. We found like 4 different types of copies of the book of mormon. One of which was a mandarin copy!! I don't know how that copy of the book of mormon got here, but I'm confident that it was for this woman. Her name is Mei, and we went over and met her and gave her the book. She is super sweet, and can speak English a little, but there's definitely a language barrier. We talked into a translator she had on her phone which worked awful, so she had us just talk very slowly and simply. Didn't ever think I'd experience this serving in the states. I'm praying for the gift of interpretation of tongues. One cool story from that experience though. She got across to us that she wanted to know why we chose our church. She wanted to sit and listen to our conversion story basically. There's some good advice in 1 Peter 3:15 "Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you". So me and Elder Killian had to tell her why we chose this church, and we had to do it in the SIMPLEST way possible so she could understand what we were saying. Elder Killian started talking and I was too entertained by his attempt to simply talk to her that I didn't even think about what I was going to say. Then he finished and they turned to me. Crap...there's lots of reasons why Im a member of this church, but I can't explain everything to her right now what do I say. So I thought...very simply I told her: Life is hard for all of us. I have had hard times in my life. But in this church and in the book she held I found peace and happiness and felt good even when my life was hard. I know this church is true. That's basically all I said. But the spirit was there because each word I said was pure truth. The spirit has never testified so strongly of something that I've said although I've never taught so simply. It was awesome.
Wendsay night we went over an visited an old man in the ward. He is too unhealthy to make it to sacrament meeting, so he loves visits from the missionaries. We drive up to the house and walk up to his front gate and I see something near the front of his door. It looked like a fluffy loaf of bread with feet. He had a Corgi!! And it's literally the identical twin of my dog Katy. We're going to go back to visit him whenever we have nothing to do, and also to go visit his dog Lady :)))
Saturday was an AWESOME day. A man Elder Killian taught and baptized was going through the temple and getting sealed to his wife. So we drove all the way down to Fort Collins to the temple. I met my grandpa! (Elder Killian is my "father" because he's my trainer, so that makes Elder Killian trainer my "grandpa") He's been home from his mission for a while, but came back to go through the temple with this guy which was super awesome. Heavenly Father blessed me by making me companions with elder Killian, so that I could have this opportunity. Again I felt that peace that I cannot express in words in an email, as I was in the House of the Lord. And my testimony of the ordinances and the covenants taken place there was strengthened. Temples are so precious. We are so lucky to have so many of those holy places built around the world. The things that happen in those buildings are of eternal importance. In the temple you make promises with the Eternal Father that will last forever. How lucky are we. Do anything you can to get to the temple. And know you can't get there without the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Everything that happens in those temples is possible because of the sacrifice of our Savior.
After it was over we drove by Cafe Rio (because the only Cafe Rio in the mission is in Fort Collins) and took it home. After dinner we were exhausted...which didn't really make sense because we had basically been sitting down all day. Possibly we were exhausted because our bodies couldn't handle the spirit that was dumped on us by being in the temple for hours and participating in and witnessing the amazing ordinances. We took a power nap then woke up and went out to work!
Nothing else too significant happened the rest of the week just average missionary work!
Spiritual thought: I was studying about the stripling warriors in the book of mormon a few days ago and something stuck out to me that never has before. Back story if you don't know who these guys are. The stripling warriors are the sons of the people of Ammon. The people of Ammon used to be wicked but converted to the Lord and covenanted that they would never kill again. Well they were under attack by the Lamanites and were going to take up their arms to defend themselves, but instead so they didn't break their covenant, their sons (who didn't make the covenant) decided to go fight instead. These sons were all young men who had never fought before. But they had been taught by their mothers that "if they did not doubt, God would deliver them". And they didn't doubt they had strong faith, were true in everything, obeyed every commandment with exactness, and did everything right. They went to battle and "not one soul" of them were killed. But here's the part that stuck out to me. In Alma 57:25 we also get the detail that "neither was there one soul among them who had not received many wounds". So these sons we're basically the best, they did everything perfect, and God did support them. But they STILL received wounds. So in our life, sometimes we feel like we're doing everything right, but bad things still happen. Trials will still come. In the next chapter Alma 58:40 it tells us that "they have received many wounds; nevertheless...they are strict to remember the Lord their God from day to day; yea, they do observe to keep his statutes, and his judgements, and his commandments continually; and their faith is strong". Even when those hard times come, don't give up. Keep doing the things you should be doing, keep following the commandments, don't let the wounds decrease your faith. I know that if you do, God will deliver you. He may not take away a trial right away, or stop trials from occurring, or stop you from receiving "wounds". But that is for a purpose. Blessings will come. Sometimes they come soon, sometimes they come later, they may not even come until after this life. I know for sure that they will come and God will deliver you. You will receive wounds...but just hold on and endure through those and our Heavenly Father will always be there to bless you.
Fun stuff:
-I burned my a pancake Sunday night, but was too hungry to wait for another one to cook so I just ate my crunchy pancake
-there's a family in the ward that has a little 3 year old named Lucy. We went over and she showed me her stuffed bear and I asked her what it's name was and she goes "....MURDER!". Her mom told us that she always comes up with interesting names...we went over for dinner Thursday and I was recalling the name of the bear but Lucy told me that the name is now "jail". I'm scared of that child
-because there's so many rabbits all around, there's a lot of roadkill...I feel bad driving over dead peter the rabbit carcasses sometimes
-I saw antelope for the first time this week just chilling in the fields
-Elder Killian made me kill a spider. I got it with toilet paper then pretended to throw it towards Elder Killian, and he proceeded to beat me with fake sword (He does NOT like spiders)
-Elder Killian threw a measuring cup at my forehead from across the room for singing a "non-church-song"
Pictures: hilarious paper Elder Killian hung on the wall, lady the corgi (my dog Katys identical twin), pics from ice skating, me and my father and grandfather at the temple.
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