Is it just me, or did this week feel like two months? If it's just me, that's fine. It was still a good week, it just felt like it lasted forever. Maybe part of it was because at the beginning of the week, it was 80 degrees! We shed our tights and cardigans, but by the end of the week, it was back to the freezing, core-chilling temperatures. So it felt like several seasons.
But there were a few experiences that really defined the week. We did a lot of driving. We had a surplus of allotted miles at the end of the month that we could use, so Sister Chandler and I decided to drive out to the other cities that are technically part of our area but that we seldom make it out to. The first day, we tried to drive to Glencoe, but wound up overshooting it by several miles and wound up in a city called Pawnee. (Parks and Rec, anyone?) So by the time we made it to Glencoe, we realized we had forgotten our map and couldn't even navigate the town. So that was interesting. I'm not sure why I mentioned that. Maybe for the Parks and Rec. reference?
But the next day we drove out to Perry, which is a town we frequent a bit more often, and we were able to see a man who is the son of one of the members in our ward. He has had several strokes in his life and a past of drug and alcohol abuse so he is mostly brain dead and bed-ridden, but his mother has requested that we teach him the lessons anyway. He has chosen to allow Christ more fully into his life. Last time we were in Perry, 3 weeks ago, I slipped a bracelet that Dane sent to me on his wrist. It's red and says "Jesus" on it. This week, he tried to get his mom to help him move his arms out from underneath him so he could show us that he hadn't taken the bracelet off. It was really sweet. Every time we talk to him we have the remarkable opportunity to stoop by his bedside and speak to him in simple terms, while his eyes gleam and a smile overtakes his face. He can't do much by way of responding, but every now and then he does, and it's miraculous to see just how close to God he really is. It's touching. And the spirit always testifies to us that he is receiving the words which we are speaking.
This week we also visited a young, 9-year-old girl we've been teaching. Most of her family has stopped coming to church, but her grandmother is adamant that she be taught the lessons so she can see if she wants to be baptized anyway. I've been praying to help me see her the way God sees her, and to develop more of a desire to teach her lessons. Usually she's unfocused and distracted and kind of cold about us being there, so we try to bring visual aids, videos, and other objects to engage her. We were talking about the importance of following the prophet, and we showed her this video. She got a little sad and defensive and we asked her what was wrong. She admitted that she had been bullied at school. She told us about the problems she was facing and the names they were calling her. Many of them were normal, immature names, but some of them were incredibly harsh. Then she started to cry and her grandma came back into the room. She ran to her granddaughter and held her in her arms, and said, "you may not feel special to them, but you're special to me." My heart ached for her, and I started to get tears in my eyes. I saw the love this grandmother had for her granddaughter, and in turn I saw a portion of the love that her Heavenly Father had for her. And since then, it has been easy to be motivated to help her understand, in terms she understands, just how much her Heavenly Father loves her.
This is one of my favorite portions of missionary work. Very rarely do we meet somebody that we don't love, or can't love. We truly can learn to love anybody if we try hard enough. And sometimes it's work. Sometimes we have to "pray with all energy of heart" to be filled with charity. But it is infinitely worth it. We feel so much better about ourselves when we are filled with the spirit and filled with love for others, and we feel better about all of our dealings when we try to help others becomes better; instead of solely concerning ourselves with our own potential.
This weekend my companion and I also found a place called "Insect Adventures" which is deemed as "Oklahoma's First and Only Bug Petting Zoo". So that's pretty exciting. That's what we're planning on doing today. It's $2 to pet a tarantula...Porque no?
We also have the opportunity to go to the Temple this week, which should be amazing.
Life's good in Oklahoma! Oh, speaking of which. While we were in Perry, Brother Hogg gave me an old Oklahoma license plate, like the kind they made in the prisons, that just says "Oklahoma is OK", and the registration sticker is '93, the year I was born! It's probably one of my newest prized possessions.
I love you folks! Keep it classy! Take an account of the blessings you have and what you can do to repay the Lord for them.
Love,
Sister Best
Sorry for the lack of photos. Here's one of the only photos I took this week. Probably somewhere between Stillwater and Pawnee. Sister Chandler refused to smile, so her punishment will be this photo of her looking contemplative floating in cyber space forever.
There were a lot of valuable life lessons to be learned this week.
The first being that hard work, diligent prayer, and pleading with the Lord pays off. We prayed and prayed and prayed to find new people to teach to replenish all of our investigators who either dropped us or dropped off the face of the earth and wound up accumulating 8 new people to teach, which is miraculous in and of itself. Out faith has been supplemented, and we are incredibly grateful.
But there was also a lot of revelation received and connections made that strengthened my faith and made me grateful.
This week I've been reading about the people of Limhi in Mosiah, and how in order to avoid contention they agreed to give one half of everything they had to the Lamanites. And that the people of Limhi were obedient and righteous to do so, even though it was unfair.And they lived peacefully for years. Then some wicked men came and stole the Lamanites' daughters. And the Lamanites completely overreacted. Before they tried to investigate the situation, they sought to attack the people of Limhi.
This made me think, how do we master ourselves? How can we control our anger or fear and react in calm and loving manners, always? That's not easy to do! I have a tendency to snap on people. Never yell, but just get kind of passive-aggressive, or sarcastic. And it's never very nice. So how do we overcome that?
We need to learn to be, as Jorg Klebingat says, really, really good at forgiving others quickly. Including ourselves! Limhi responds in a pretty perfect way. Limhi's people find the king of the Lamanites and request to kill him, which would have been incredibly easy, but Limhi refuses and has him brought into him to voice his side. The king explains that they were upset because some of his people had stolen their daughters. And instead of getting defensive and exploding, going to blame it on anyone else, Limhi first points the finger at himself...
"And now Limhi had heard nothing concerning this matter; therefore he said: I will search among my people and whosoever has done this thing shall perish. Therefore he caused a search to be made among his people."
We need to be willing to look inside of ourselves and see if it is actually us that is at fault instead of those that we are judging/exploding on. Because it almost always is. Whenever we are struggling or annoyed, it is always because we are being impatient, or aren't doing everything that we can to develop love and charity instead of annoyance and vengeance. But when we resolve issues within ourselves before we seek to destroy others it is a process of bettering ourselves instead of tearing down others.
Yesterday in Sacrament, one of the members gave a talk on how there are a lot of things we can do in life that are "Spiritual Fruit Loops," so to speak. They may taste good, and not actually harm us, but they gives us no nutritional value. I thought that analogy was so wise. Because it's true. It's east to fill out lives with things that have no value. Maybe they're not harming us, but they're not necessarily helping us either.
We ought to fill our lives with things that make us happy both temporally and spiritually. Family is a really, really good example of this. The more time with spend with our family and those we love, the more satisfaction we get, and there is growth in the process. Anything that does not allow us to grow, we ought to evaluate whether or not it is worth our time.
I apologize if this is incredibly preachy. I think I've forgetting how to be anything else in a setting like this. Yet I have no problem making jokes when I probably ought now to. In any case, I just know how much the Gospel blesses us to reach our potential. And it allows us to find joy in the day to day instead of waiting and waiting for our lives to be better. We master ourselves. And if we want something to be better, we need to change our attitude, and then change our course of action.
And I also know that I love all y'all. And am incredibly grateful for you.
Oh! Here's a story. So a couple months ago we stopped at a gas station to get something to drink and I talked to the cashier and gave him a Pass-Along card. It was a very surface approach and I felt bad as we walked out of the store that I hadn't been more specific or really went into too much depth by way of teaching restored truths.
A few weeks later, the Elders gave us a referral for a guy named James. He lives in an apartment complex that we don't make it out to often because it's quite far away, but every time we were in that area we tried him. Including the time we went to the gas station. When he wasn't there that time, we wound up leaving a Book of Mormon on his porch. Last week, we finally met James and set a return appointment.
Then this week we went back and knocked. No one came to the door until we knocked a third time. Finally someone opens the door wrapped in a comforter, looking like he just woke up (mind you, it's 4 in the afternoon....). He smiles really big and welcomes us inside. We're a little confused because this guy is definitely NOT James. But he tells us to sit down and we all look around awkwardly until finally I say, "Um...do we know you?" Turns out it was Matthew! The cashier from the Conoco. And what are the stinking odds that he was James' roommate?! He said he thought we were stalking him because the day we met him was the same day we left a Book of Mormon on his porch. It was pretty awesome. He let us sit down with him and teach him the Restoration and we're planning on going back next week.
That night we wanted to knock one more door at 8:55 PM so we went into a random neighborhood we'd never really been to before and knocked the only house with lights on. When he opened the door, once again, I said "do we know you?" and he said, "yeah, I'm the cashier at the gas station up there. You gave me a book a few weeks ago." Dang. We need to frequent the gas stations more often.
The Lord has a sense of humor. I believe it.
Anyway, I love you guys. Say your prayers. ;)
If anyone's looking for a way to help, pray at 7:00 pm every night for a guy named Myron German. We're trying to help him stop swearing. He's 86 years old and my best friend. He signed this contract, so it's pretty legitimate.
Love,
Sister Best
Good morning!
I'll try to make this snappy, seeing as it's MLKj. Day and we're sharing the computers in the Family History Center with the other missionaries, but writing a snappy letter usually turns into a novel anyway. So we'll see about that.
This week was so random. I don't really know what else to say. And I only remember bits and pieces of it. I remember doing a lot of finding. On Wednesday we tracted door to door for six hours straight and didn't really realize it until it was time for dinner. We got dropped... again... by even more investigators. Only leaving us with a couple. So this week we spent a lot of time, actually, almost all of our time on our knees praying for prepared people to teach. And we found quite a few. We've set up appointments all of which are for this upcoming week. So this week should exceed last week by far. All the days we didn't spend searching and trying to salvage that which is left of our area were spent ministering and going on emergency/planned exchanges with sisters who needed help.
I have to say, in the most selfish way I'm sure, that I am incredibly grateful to be in the position that I am. Each time I have a desire to be stressed or overwhelmed or feel inadequate, the Lord gives Sister Chandler and I the opportunity to minister to somebody who is suffering worse, which immediately allows us to forget our present troubles and seek guidance on how we can better serve them. It almost doesn't seem fair. But I guess I won't complain. We are consistently forced to turn outward, and it is the best possible solution to getting lazy or prideful.
I had a question earlier this week. Wondering why, if the Gospel's purpose is to bring us infinite happiness, why are there days that are so difficult? Not just as a missionary, but ever! Why do we allow ourselves to fall into the dumps? I learned pretty quickly that it has to do with our own perspective. I've tried to shift my outlook and be... happier. Pray for it, seek for it, just choose to do it. And it happens. Choosing to be happy doesn't mean just smiling and laughing and pretending to enjoy the world. It means working a little bit harder to receive more lasting joy. Being a little bit more patient, trying a little bit harder, pushing yourself a little bit further, studying a little bit longer.
Speaking of studying, yesterday we had an incredible sacrament meeting on Prayer and Scripture Study, and Brother Monson gave a terrific talk. (No, he's not related to the Prophet. And when I asked he winked and said, 'oh, yeah! Uncle Tom!') He talked about how we all have the same amount of time in the day, so we need to stop kidding ourselves. Of course we have time to study the scriptures. I pondered on that. Then he brought up the point of feasting upon the scriptures.
Here's a personal confession: I've never doubted that the scriptures are the word of God, but I have doubted, and sometimes still do, that they can answer every single question that we have... Some things just feel too temporal. Brother Monson, in his talk, confessed that he's had similar feelings before, but then he squashed that fear with a scripture:
"Feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do."
Nephi!? What?! Explain yourself!
"If ye cannot understand them it will be because ye ask not, neither do ye knock... if ye will enter in by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all thing what ye should do."
Okay. So if we diligently study the scriptures, we will be more able to feel the Holy Ghost in our lives, and he will help us make decisions, and we will be more in tune with him.
So there you go. There's my novel. I apologize if it was boring. Here's an awkward moment on what we would call the Double Door Approach.
Sister Chandler and I were knocking doors at an apartment complex. We knocked once, no answer, we knocked again, no answer, so I reached into my bag to grab a pass-along card while my companion turned around to knock the door behind us. As she did, the door in front of me opened so Sister Chandler joined me at the door and we introduced ourselves to a Muslim guy who was definitely not interested. Then the door she had knocked opened and they yelled "NO" and slammed the door. And we stood in the center of two doors who had rejected us at the same time, and we shrugged our shoulders, and we moved right along. And for some reason, it was hilarious.
Well, y'all. That's my time. I hope you had a remarkable time. Don't neglect your prayers. No matter what you're going through, or who you are, or what you believe, prayer is the way we cope with our present trials. And the first step to resolving conflict.
Um... here's the only photo I have from this week. We made Horchata with lactose-free milk. It tasted like sugar.
Hi! I think I just spent way too long writing a letter to the President about every crazy thing that's going on over here in StillwaterLand. So I apologize if this is short. But it's been a hectic week! Every companionship in Stillwater changed except myself and Sister Chandler. And every sister companionship that the two of us cover changed except one. So we've been doing a lot of...ministering. ;) And drawing maps with boundaries and labels, and having mini comfort pow-wows, and planning trainings... oh my. You never know what type of missionary work you're going to be doing, but the principle is generally the same... in everything we do we're helping others put their faith in Jesus Christ. Whether they have a perfect knowledge of who he is and what he has to offer, or if they barely understand his nature, it is the same.
But then it's funny. Because sometime we think we understand the Gospel. (I mean, it's all we teach all day long, for crying out loud!) But then sometimes we forget to apply it to our own lives. We think we're the exception. We think we can make excuses. Or we think we can solve our problems on our own. But I'm here to tell you, from my own personal experience, that that's just silly. Maybe we can figure it out on our own, but more likely we're just going to take the long route. The route that is neither scenic nor efficient. It's just harder. And windier. And bumpier. And there are nails on the road. So that's my opinion. And my really vague way of saying that this week I learned a lot about humility and how next time I think my way is better than God's way, I should probably do as King Benjamin says and "always retain in remembrance the greatness of God, and your own nothingness".
That's something I studied this week: King Benjamin's address in the book of Mosiah. He was so wise. Because he didn't just stand in front of a multitude and tell them how to live their lives... He lived his life as an example, just as Christ had. He labored his whole life serving and helping others prosper in the land, inspiring them to be better. THEN he stood in front of the multitude and told them how to live their lives. ;) Because he had seen the blessings that had come from it. And he wanted them to receive those same blessings. But he knew that it wasn't without sacrifice. No one can coast through life and expect to be perfect. We have to fall down and scrape our knees and whine and make really, really stupid decisions. Then we have to make a conscious effort to... get over it. And move on. But repentance isn't just one moment where we turn from sin to obedience. It's a consistent process of being a little bit better than we were the day before until we finally feel comfortable in our own skin. Then we stretch ourselves a little bit further, knowing full well that our potential grows when we do.
We met a really amazing man this week. His name is Dan. I accidentally wrote "Dan the Man" on his record, because he really is the man. We met him while we were walking through a nicer neighborhood, and he had told us that he had just started reading the bible. We went back and sat down with him and taught him the Restoration, all the while he was asking us questions that were guiding us through the whole lesson. Things like, "Well then if there used to be prophets, shouldn't there still be one today?" "Dan! There is!" "No way!"
and,
"I was recently studying the organization of God's church and wondering why churches today didn't follow that same pattern!"
So prepared.
Dan owns a cute little boutique and gave us each necklaces with our abbreviations on them, then he invited us back over to teach him the Plan of Salvation and to eat salmon with a couple from our ward. But it won't be for a little while because he's going out of town... Pray for Dan, Okay?
Anyway, we have to go drive to Enid now, but I love you guys!
Here are some photos:
This fellas name is Myron German and I'm convinced we were best friends in the Pre-Earth Life.
This is our cold faces after tracting for three hours in the Oklahoma wind. It's freezing out here!
This is Layla, a cute lil' girl, doing my makeup. She put lipstick on my eyebrows...
Happy New Year!
It was another great week here in Stillwater. Last night we got "transfer doctrine" meaning that we found out where all the other missionaries are going, and every other companionship in our District is changing but Sister Chandler and myself. It should be very interesting. Lots of new people! We're excited!
All the days just blend together... let's see...
If you're wondering what we did for New Year's Eve... We had permission to stay out until 10:30 instead of 9, and I'm sure we could have gone to a party or something, but we wound up teaching an awesome lesson to Larry about Joseph Smith and modern day prophets until 10:20, and afterwards he prayed, "I know they don't believe in female prophets, but to me, they're prophets. Future prophets!" So... we may have to go back and reevaluate.
We also got a lot of texts this week from people telling us to leave them alone. And that we need to stop harassing them. And that they're comfortable where they're at. You name it, we heard it. So it's been interesting. We've been sorting through everyone we're teaching and trying to focus on those who are sincerely interested and working toward progression. It's hard to do!
"Gee, Sister Best, I thought you said this week was really good?"
Oh! It was. It definitely was. We were able to go on exchanges with the Spanish Sisters that we live with, adn that was so fun for me. I adore Spanish. Speaking it, listening to it, singing it in the shower, eavesdropping on people in Walmart speaking it. It's just the best. So that was the selfish side of things, but then I was able to be with Sister Haddock and we saw so many miracles together. People promising for the first time that they would come to church, and seeing people have a spirit of repentance and a desire to change. Feeling the spirit in their home as we spoke to them in our broken Spanish. There's something so humbling about teaching basic truths with basic vocabulary. We have to rely on the Spirit much more to teach. And it's always a wonderful experience.
We also had a cool experience where we were helping a recent convert with her Doctrine & Covenants seminary packet so she could graduate seminary, and we were answering her questions with ease, things I'm sure I never knew before my mission, and it took me back to studying before my mission. And how I was so lost and really struggling to grasp simple concepts. Now I can hardly believe it. My faith and understanding of this Gospel have grown ten-fold. I feel as though I understand my purpose in this life. And I have such a strong desire to change and come closer to my potential. Change is something I've been studying a lot lately.
I've been reading the Book of Mormon through and really delving into it, studying Jacob and Enos this week. I found a lot of similarities between the two that were really helpful.
Sherem is a man who come into town and starts persuading the people to not believe in Christ. Jacob tells Sherem that his blasphemy needs to stop and stands boldly against him, helping Sherem see what he really believes and what he really wants for himsel. Then Sherem acknowledges that Jacob was right, and apologizes to all those he had led astrat. This is a great display of Sherem's character. Enos has a similar story. He heards of his potential-Eternal Life-and recognizes that he wants that for himself, so he relies on this Father in Heaven and forsakes his sins and pours out his soul to him. Then his heart is turned outward, like Sherem's was, to reach out to his brethren and strengthen them. All of this has testified to me that people can change. No metter how far they've slipped, they can turn around. And when they.we do, it is our responsibility to strengthen those around us.
We are not our faults, our flaws, or our inadequacies. We have agency to choose to be better and prayer as a lifeline to help us achieve it. We are not bound in negativity, or bogged down by anything we can't change, we are empowered in Christ to be and do anything that we want! The strong, beautiful people that we fantasize about!
I know that's true. I know that prayer is the first step to change, to happiness, to solving problems, to New Year Resolutions... to everything. And I know it's possible because God never wanted us to feel alone, or like we've reached the point of no return.
I stinking LOVE you guys!
Love, Sister Best
Photos: Our district, minus Sister Haddock who was too slow getting into the picture.
Proof that even though it doesn't snow, it is SO COLD. It might as well say "20 degrees, feels like, negative 15"
This week was so great! For obvious reasons (Christmas Eve + Christmas Day, Talking to the family, all were super terrific!) But by the end of the week we started feeling a bit selfish because we'd spent so much time just house hopping and didn't feel like we were really uplifting or strengthening anyone! So by the 27th we decided we were going to go visit everyone who told us to come back after Christmas. There were a lot of them. As we were making the list, we write down the name "Steve" and it really stuck out to me. Steve was not exactly someone who told us to come by after Christmas. We met him in passing as he was storming up the stairs cursing. We asked him if he was doing alright, and he told us he had just lost his job, only a couple days before Christmas. We asked him if we could talk with him about Christ and he essentially said no, so we told him we'd stop by later and he shrugged his shoulders.
So obviously, he was really interested in what we were saying, right?
On the 27th, we trudged up the stairs with Michael Whatley and knocked on his door. Steve opened the door and said, "come on in, Sisters!" We were rather baffled at his warming welcome but we went inside and met his wife Alyssa and their adorable little red-headed son. "We knew you were going through a rough time and we wanted to help make your life easier," I said. He allowed us to sit down and talk to them, and they both were so friendly and loving as we shared the Restoration with them. They seem so eager to change and draw closer to Christ, They both expressed that they were just looking for something stable in their lives. We asked them if they wanted to come to church, and they agreed. We got them a ride. But they didn't come. We called them after and Alyssa apologized profusely, saying, "I'm so sorry. We really want to start coming every week we just had a bunch of stuff come up yesterday morning."
It's so refreshing to see people who are so sincere in their desire. They both said they want to be baptized and they want to read their scriptures.
It's a Christmas miracle. ;)
Leroy is doing really well! He's feeling clean being dip free, and has even said that he's trying to stop drinking Pepsi MAX because he doesn't like feeling like a slave to the caffeine. I love seeing the change in people! It makes everything worth it!
Funny Christmas Eve story. Sooo we had just pulled up to a member's for lunch and as I was getting out of the car, I hear, "Sister Best! Catch!" I drop the papers in my hand to catch... a dead mouse that Elder Wilcox threw at me. Bleck. I sanitized my hands a dozen times before we ate.
It was a blessing to see some of your faces! Thank you for the cards and gifts. It really was an amazing Christmas. We were able to spend it with members of our ward who were so loving. The spirit of Christmas was in their homes as they sought to serve others and focus their Christmas season on the birth of Christ.
There was a talk given in sacrament yesterday that was so powerful. Brother Dean spoke on New Year Resolutions and how as we try to become better, we are doing so to be able to serve others. We should all try to develop new talents that we can use to help others. Because we don't all need to know how to do everything if we each know how to do something. He talked about how it is a way of being prepared. If we saw a friend get into a car accident, we wouldn't just stand and watch. We would run to help them. Do everything we can. It's that way with the knowledge that we have. We should be eager to help others with our knowledge of them Gospel, with our talents and abilities, and with any other God-given gift that we possess.
I love you all so very much! I'm learning, over and over and over again, that when things get tough, blaming God is never the answer. It is vital that we depend on him through prayer and ask him to strengthen us to deal with the cards we've been dealt.
I hope you have a terrific week and a happy New Year!
Love,
Sister Best
1.A hilarious sign we found in one of the member's homes.
2. A super sleepy Christmas morning photo
3. Busted! All the missionaries eating cake between Sacrament Meeting and Sunday School.
It's a Christmas Miracle!
FENTON "LEROY" TALBOTT JR. GOT BAPTIZED. Goodness gracious. So good. So much heart and energy and prayer poured into that man. So many packs of gum and Vitamin C pills bought to keep him from dipping. I love him with my soul. Let me tell you a story:
Michael Whatley was baptized when he was young. He went to church with a friend for a while and decided he wanted to be baptized. He was maybe 11. Fast forward FORTY YEARS. He went inactive in the church shortly after his baptism and then had the craziest life ever. So a few months ago the missionaries were teaching his neighbor, and she said, "I think my friend Michael would really like what you've been teaching me". So the missionaries found him, found out he's a member, and reactivated him, Right before I got here, he got the Melchizedek Priesthood, and on Saturday he got to baptize Leroy. It was one of the most powerful experiences I've ever witnessed.
When Leroy got changed and returned, he whispered to me, "I feel so clean! I just feel so great!"
Then we all fervently prayed and pleaded with the Lord that he wouldn't have to work Sundays, and he got them off! So he was able to get confirmed on Sunday! Hallelujah!
So that was the highlight of the week. Among many, many, many others. The lowlight was definitely the day before. There's a sickness being passed around the missionaries and I caught it on Friday so I tried to get up and work through it, but I kept pretty much falling over in public places, so Hermana Anderson stayed home with me while our companions worked our areas for a couple of hours. I tried to sleep but wound up too antsy and made four million phone calls to organize the baptism. After much stress, the work was done. I'm still trying to fight this yucky virus. Lowlight number two was being dropped by four of our investigators yesterday. But I'm going to choose not to talk about that. but enough about me...
IT'S CHRISTMAS.
And the Savior has manifested himself to everyone around us in such an evident way. Any time people complain to us about the commercialization of Christmas, their stress and anxiety, their distaste of individual family members, et cetera. The cure is always the Savior. The cure is always drawing closer to the Lord and trying to understand WHY they're facing the difficulties that they are. This is my favorite part of missionary work. Being able to feel the love our Father and Heaven has for his children, and then trying to help them feel the same thing. It's odd because sometimes you meet people, and you know exactly what would help them, exactly what would fix their problems. We stand so aware of what element of the Gospel would improve the quality of their lives. And to them, we're just a stranger, another vacuum salesman. It's. So. Frustrating.
So here's what you need to do, go tell somebody that God loves them.
The Spirit of Christmas is literally the Spirit of Christ. That spirit that everyone loves so much as a child is whimsical because it is founded in something that is simple and stress-free. The spirit of Christmas is giving and serving selflessly, not getting wrapped up in making sure you're doing enough. Focus your Christmas season on improving your relationships with others, including your Savior, and you will be able to carry on the Christmas spirit for the rest of the year.
I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It has the ability to provide lasting change, the kind of change that isn't broken by January 15th, like every other New Years Resolution.
I love you all. I hope I get a chance to talk to some of you via Skype! I'm planning on calling between 10:30-12:00 Utah time. Stay by the computer! Love you all. Missing you to the moon.
Leroy's on the left, Michael's on the right!
Lookin' way cool on a Big Wheel, waiting for someone to show up to an appointment.
