It was a busy week. Today and tomorrow won't be that hard working of days because of Christmas, and that's a huge tender mercy. Some rest is needed.
Last Wednesday was transfer day, me and Elder Brimley were staying but we still had to help haul people and luggage to the mission office. They started doing transfers a little different where one huge bus takes everyone were they need to be, unfortunately the bus starts in Windsor and doesn't come to Longmont and leaves at 6am. So we woke up at 3:30 and got all situated and made it to the mission office on time. Luckily Dutch bros opens at 5am so we were able to drive through and treat ourselves haha. We got back to Longmont and were at a set of Elders apartment and were going to take them out to burger King. Right before we left, their neighbor walked up and said he was going to take us all out because these elders helped Shovel his car out of snow a few weeks ago. We told him we were going to burger King, and he didn't like that idea, so we took us to his favorite diner. We only had a few hours before we had to drive back up to Windsor to get more missionaries, and even though we wanted sleep super badly, we went out. And the lord blessed us for it! We met 2 people who let us teach them and showed interest. Sometimes we go out for 5 hours and don't see that, it was definitely a blessing. Went to the mission office, took missionaries back, went straight to a meeting, did some other stuff, and finally ate dinner at 8:45pm. It was a day.
Thursday we had a good lesson all directed by the Spirit. She let us in and said she had only a few minutes because she had to go take her son somewhere. So our whole lesson plan went out the window and we shared a scripture that applied perfectly to her life. Thank goodness the Lord helps us with His work, it'd be impossible without him.
Friday was really good. We drove up to Lyons and got in contact with someone we haven't seen in a while. Walked around the town for the first time before we came back down to Longmont. That was fun. Kinds strange though, Lyons is a small town and has a completely different vibe than Longmont. I don't think people up their are used to guys walking around trying to share things with them. Then that evening we got in with another person we haven't seen in a while and had a lesson. And at the end of the night we got a text randomly from someone we used to teach that disappeared. Miracle after miracle.
Went to a baptism for another ward early Saturday morning. Ended up having to rush home and grab a pair of towels because we were the closest to the church building. Showed up RIGHT in time. Saturday night we met as a zone at the stake presidents house for dinner. Super good food, smoked turkey and smoked ham. But most importantly the message he shared with us about how to break down walls and get to the hearts of people including the hearts of members. That was the best part, always leave that man's house feeling inspired.
Not much happened the next two days. Church was super great, only went over 30 minutes! Monday flew by and now it's Christmas Eve!
Fun stuff:
-we lost two sisters in the middle of Colorado Wednesday night. They had to drive a car back down to Longmont, but they had NO PHONE. That's fine though, we decided they would just follow us and I'd be really careful not to lose them. We'll before we even got to the freeway I lost them. LUCKILY they found us in the taco bell parking lot. We gave them my phone with the address put in to solve the problem. We lost them again but didn't worry too much because they had my phone. Then we realized they didn't have my password to my phone and they could lose the GPS. So the whole drive back we were freaking out thinking about these two lost sisters, both new to the mission, both never driven before, and both in Colorado for the first time. And WE had no way to call anyone because we didn't have out phone. Luckily we showed up and a few minutes later they pulled in and we were freaking out for no reason.
-this old couple in our ward walked into church with their arms full of wrapped presents and gave them all to us. We kinds just stood in the lobby with 12 gifts in our hands not knowing what to do.
-usually you have to Shovel snow outside of the church building, which you do here but it hasn't snowed in a while. BUT our church building in Lyons has a flock of geese that likes to hang out around the church and every Sunday morning there's some Brethren out there Shovel geese poo
Spiritual Thought: "Joy to the world, the Lord is come". The line of that song is so true. In the words of Prophet Russell M Nelson "For Latter-day Saints, Jesus Christ is joy!". This week I read the account of the Jaredited in Ether Chapter 6. In chapter 6 they enter into the barges they've built "commending themselves unto the Lord their God" and crossed the ocean for 344 days. There were feirce winds, sea monsters, terrible tempests, darkness. But as they relied on the Lord they overcame it all. They never stopped singing praises to the Lord. They thanked him for "the multitude of his tender mercies". The Lord gave them light so they didn't have to cross the waters in darkness. As they focused on the Lord, something that could've been a miserable experience was spent praising and thanking the Lord. No doubt they had joy because of the Savior. That is like our life. We started "commending [ourselves] unto the Lord [our] God". There would be no hope without Jesus Christ, and we trusted that through him we'd be able to make it across the "water" and to the "promised land". Life is hard. Fierce winds are painful...although they often push us along our path closer to the promised land. The Prophet, who sees much bad and pain in the world, is optimistic about the future and he is RIGHT when he says, "we can feel joy regardless of what is happening—or not happening—in our lives". Through Jesus Christ there is always hope and there is always joy. The hardest waves and fiercest winds can be hitting you, but as you focus on HIM there will always be happiness. That is some of the greatest news of the gospel. That's a huge reason why I am grateulf the Savior was born. So I have have JOY no matter what. "joy to the world, the Lord is come".
Pictures:
-shout out to the Wallentines for the gingerbread house
-we drink way too many polar pops
-found this weird sculpture and it scares me
-doodle
-do I really look like Jimmy Neutron?
Comments
Post a Comment