Breakfast

This week has been pretty great! We had our mission wide zone conference because it was President and sister Lee's last one. It was very emotional and they were pretty much crying the whole time but that just brought the spirit a whole lot stronger. It was super good and there were a ton of really good musical numbers that some missionaries performed. I'm definitely gonna miss those two though! I've learned so much from the both of them and they have done so much for this area these last 3 years. I'm excited though for President and sister Wood! I've heard really good things about them so it'll be a good few months with them! They come in on Thursday which is crazy! Less than a week with the Lees. 

Anyway we also had the temple trip this last Friday! I didn't go because it was only for the departing missionaries so Elder Gibby went so we had to drive all the way up to the mission office in Jacksonville which was a lot of miles! We only have so many miles we can use a month and that trip wrecked us! It was super fun though because since it was such a far drive we couldn't drive back down and then back up when they came back so me and 2 other missionaries from our district stayed up in Arlington for the day! I used to serve there and so did one of the other Elders I was with so we spent the day visiting past people we knew there and it was so awesome! We didn't get to see everyone we wanted to but we got to see quite a bit and it was sweet! It was nice just reminiscing about the good ole days in Arlington which was about a year and a half ago which is crazy to think about! We had a good day though.

Sadly this week we dropped Tyler's baptismal date because he's just not progressing as much as he needs to so we are just gonna try and teach him as much as we can and set a date with him when he's ready. But we did set a date with Selena for July 13th! The same day as Pats! We had 2 amazing lessons this week too with Selena! We taught her more about priesthood authority and the importance of being baptized with that authority and that really helped her have the desire to be baptized! We also had a lesson with her all about the atonement of Jesus Christ and repentance. She was really emotional during the whole lesson and the spirit was very strong. She really understands now that she is never alone no matter how down or lonely she feels and that Christ knows everything she feels, has felt, and will feel. It was very powerful and she was asking all the right questions. Then in church the next day both speakers talked about the Atonement and one of them sang I Stand All Amazed and that just reconfirmed to her the love that God has for her. She is doing fantastic!
I'm excited for another week out here in the Lord's vineyard! Interlachen is completely ready to harvest! I hope you all have a great week! Love you all!

Let the Good Times Roll!

Hello everyone! This week has been interesting to say the least. So transfers happened and I'm still in interlachen which is very interesting itself and now I'm with Elder Gibby who just makes everything even more interesting haha! He's by far different than the rest of my companions lol! We are having a good time though so far and I've had to help hi  here and there with some of the normal aspects of life like how to have good manners at the dinner table but other than that we are doing good! He loves his video games and will talk my ear off about Nintendo for pretty much the whole day haha! It's been entertaining! I've been playing silent games with myself like to see how many times he says Zelda in a day or how long he go in complete silence. Just stuff like that. It keeps me entertained and I'm also learning a lot about Zelda sort of.

Aside from that the work is going pretty well! It started off pretty slow and it seemed like everyone just wasn't interested until Saturday. We found 3 new people on Saturday which was a tone compared to the 0 we found the rest of the week lol! Since then everything has been picking up and the ward already loves Elder Gibby because he served here for 6 months already and had quite a few baptisms so it's been a good happy reunion.

We are still working with Pat and trying to get her ready for her baptismal date on July 13th. She just got back from being out of town for a week and I guess got a bit sick and her house also got trashed from her grandson while she was gone so she missed church yesterday but she said she really wants to meet with us this week and come to church next week! Also the relief society president in out ward said she's been in pretty constant contact with her! This ward may be small but they are very good at fellowshipping with the people we are teaching!

Everyone else we are teaching is going through their struggles with sickness and business and laziness so please keep Tyler, Dave, Selena, and Pat in your prayers that they can overcome all of their setbacks. Also please pray for Pat that she can overcome her smoking addiction! Thank you all for all the prayers you have said so far!

Lately I've been studying a lot about the atonement of Jesus Christ because it's such an important topic for all of us to continually learn about. Recently I've read about how infinite the atonement is and how it's infinite in many different ways. One that really stuck out to me and has always really stuck out is how infinite the suffering Christ went through. It only takes someone with infinite godliness, invite power, and infinite love to take on such suffering as he did. There's a quote from the book the Infinite Atonement by Tad R. Callister that describes just part of the suffering our Savior went through. “What weight is thrown on the scales of pain when calculating the hurt of innumerable patients in countless hospitals? Now, add to that the loneliness of the elderly who are forgotten in the rest homes of society, desperately yearning for a card, a visit, a call—just some recognition from the outside world. Keep on adding the hurt of hungry children, the suffering caused by famine, drought, and pestilence. Pile on the heartache of parents who tearfully plead on a daily basis for a wayward son or daughter to come back home. Factor in the trauma of every divorce and the tragedy of every abortion. Add the remorse that comes with each child lost in the dawn of life, each spouse taken in the prime of marriage. Compound that with the misery of overflowing prisons, bulging halfway houses and institutions for the mentally disadvantaged. Multiply all this by century after century of history, and creation after creation without end. Such is but an awful glimpse of the Savior’s load. Who can bear such a burden or scale such a mountain as this? No one, absolutely no one, save Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of us all”. Having this knowledge is very useful in the times we feel like we can't get through by ourselves. The times we feel abandoned or forgotten or completely alone. I know I have felt like that many times but with the infinite love of Jesus Christ and knowing that He has felt everything that I've gone through and infinitely more I know that I'm not alone and that He has gone through all of that so that we won't need to feel alone so that we can always have Him to lean on when those times come because He is always there to lift us up because no one can fall farther than light of Christ shines. All we need to do is reach out to Him just like the prophet Alma teaches us in Alma 37:36-37, as we pray to God continually and counsel with the Lord in all our doings, we will be lifted up at the last day. And as promised to us in Hebrews 13:5, He will never forsake us.

I'm excited for this next week and for the good times ahead! Let the good times roll! I love you all! Have a fantastic week! Peace!

Also we took some sweet district pictures with the river and storm behind us!