December 5, 2016

Like I promised, I said I'd share the spiritual thought I gave in my white handbook. But don't think too much of it, like I said, it was on the spot and I just opened it up and read a sentence... "Like all callings in the Church, each assignment has its own importance; an assistant to the president is no more important than any other missionary." Most of us (myself especially) look at people with leadership callings with the thought that they are more important or have a higher calling that we must achieve. The gospel isn't made up of promotions, you're not climbing a ladder to get to the "highest" ranked calling. The ladder we should climb is the one to salvation. We can't look at our sides and compare ourselves because we are all at the bottom of the ladder trying to achieve exaltation. We must look up. Like in a race, turning our heads to the sides and looking at the person next to us slows us down.  A leader is not a leader if he doesn't have anyone to lead. Leaders aren't in control, they are just called to set examples. I know that being a In a leadership calling means nothing when it comes to proving how "righteous" or "worthy" or "awesome" you are. Everyone is just as important as the leader, the leaders are just the ones that are seen.  **then I look up at the clock** It's like that clock. The leaders are the hands on the clock. That's the part everyone sees and uses, but that are completely useless without the gears behind them. If even one gear is missing then it deems the leader pointless. A leader is as strong as those he works with and needs every part to be working in order to be effective and as accurate as a clock is.  When all the parts don't work in unity there is no accuracy in the direction of the hands on the clock (leaders). Without every missionary or ward member doing their part there really is no point for leadership positions. A leader is no more important than everyone else. Just as the hands on the clock are no more important than the gears. Alma 1:26 ...the priest, not esteeming himself above his hearers, for the preacher was no better than the hearer, neither was the teacher any better than the learner; and thus they were all equal, and they did all labor, every man according to his strength. Wednesday:  Holy moly. I was in heaven today. We had a cataclysmic storm. We were in a tornado warning A tornado touched down a few miles south of us. I drove for the first time again in months when it hit. First it was raining pretty heavy, then the wall came...it hit us so hard and it got so stinkin windy. Then another wall hit us and I felt like I was in a tornado. It was so rainy and windy that I couldn't see the road 30 feet ahead of me and there was just leaves and sticks flying all over the place. The road filled up with water in literally less than a minute and the wind was just wicked, I guess that's what happens when a tornado touches down a few mikes away. It was soooo awesooome. Then it just as fast as it came it stopped. It just rained pretty consistently for the rest of the day and was kinda windy. By the time the storm hit us it had already produced 9 tornadoes! I'm stoked for tornado season. I'm gonna put a picture of the warning on here just cuz I'm a nerd. And I also got my new companion today. He seems like a good guy, we get along well. He's from the factory and his name is Elder Wiecks. Another thing. We visited a lady today whose son died and was a "good kid but got into the wrong stuff." Her preacher as a child said that if you die and you're unrighteousness that you're going to hell and burning essentially. She said as a child she would be scared out of her mind and get nightmares about that stuff. It pathetic and sad that churches use that to scare people into staying. That is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel of Jesus Christ promotes good feelings of comfort. In the scriptures it says that what promotes fear is of the devil. So many of these churches are literally teaching the gospel of the devil for their gain and using Jesus' name for gain and justification. Anyways...She whole heartedly believes that her son is burning in hell. We told her that he's not and so have past missionaries. She said that even though she feels like he's not (even though the spirit is testifying that God isn't anxious to thrust us into torment) that she will never believe that he's being taught the gospel and can repent because he's already dead. So what'd we do? We gave her scriptures out of the Bible that blatantly say that the dead will receive the gospel and can repent. She said she found comfort in that but still will never believe it (even though she believes in the Bible). Her preacher traumatized her so much as a kid that she now thinks her own son is burning. That is called the devil at his finest. That is what is prophesied when it talks about false teachers and people who sneakily deceive you while talking about Christ. Apostasy! Blasphemy! Hypocrisy! Read 2 Nephi 28. It's a killer chapter. Thursday: Friday: Saturday: Sorry it's been such a dead week. But I've been leading out the area, pretty hard. My companion and I get along, he's just quiet and monotone and I am very not so it kills me a bit. It almost puts me down, he's just so unexcited so it makes me unexcited which has made this week a drag, but it's all good cuz we get along just fine and he cracks a joke here and there. I'll just have to learn how to crank up the charisma by the end of this six weeks to pick up the slack.  Sunday: WOWZA! Crazy day. It has been raining and heavy misting consistently all day long. It's also freezing cold (I'm sure it was near snowing), windy, and dark during prime proselyting time. So even through my gloves, hat and snow coat I was sopping wet with the cold wind blowing on me as I biked for the last 4 hours of the day trying to visit people. But! We went to a member's home for dinner that we go to every Sunday and they're the best. They are very loving and love missionaries to death, and they're recent converts of about a year and a half. Anyways, we go in and they realized we were biking. They gave us new shirts (and ultimately let us keep them), threw our coats in the dryer, fed us an awesome dinner, then gave us our warm cozy coats back. Lemme tell ya, when you're about to die of frostbite and you're soaked, that is an awesome welcoming. I feel blessed to have people like that. Also a cool little story. As we were biking in the dark, cold, lone and dreary world we stopped by a less active on the way that I just wanted to meet. They open the door and the kid was crying because he was sick. But only for a second, then he started eating some food. Seeing that we were dying the mom let us in but warned us that her kid is very sick and didn't want us to catch anything. But then he started getting energized. We offered to give him a blessing, but instead we said a prayer because he was getting way hyped. So I said the prayer and blessed him with a speedy recovery. By the end of our visit he ate all his food and was running around, playing with toys, and talking with us. The mom and dad said that the last couple days he hasn't been eating or doing anything. He was crying and refusing to eat until the second we walked in the door, then he just purked up. Pretty neat.