Week 61

To respond to your motherly concerns :)
i am eating TONS of veggies, they are the base of my diet easily, I am
eating plenty, brushing my teeth 3 or 4 times a day and flossing
occasionally, i have been heathly, and I may be buying a sweater or
something here to stay warm because all I got is on the continent but
elder broderick also offered to lend me a coat if needed.  dont worry
about sending anything too big or bulky I dont have much space and do
not need much of anything that little alarm clock could be nice though
and your famous christmas cookies.

Nice to hear the good news for the football realm of things.  is is
bad that i am glad that Travis took down twin?  Also good to know that
not that much changes.  also that is some real sweet news for the
spartans.  Always good to hear A school like Michigan suffering. haha
also gus looks great.  that should last now for how many years?  and I
didnt know that the motorhome and the boat were side by side like
that.  That is super nice.

This week as a mission we began a study of the 4th chapter of preach
my Gospel that is all about recognizing the spirit.  That has been a
wonderful blessing to me and as a companionship so that we can get
passed all doubts though seeking to do what the Lord wants us to do..

I am grateful for all the occasions in my life that the Lord has given
me to learn how to be patient and how to help those that are not the
easiest people to deal with.  I can think of countless times in
sports, school, church, scouting, and many more times were I have been
put with people that I needed to be able to be patient to get by.  I
understand a little better really what is the purpose of life when I
get to see people that are in situations that I have passed through or
people that may be on the next steps in front of me and how much I can
learn from their examples.  I really get now how this life is so
amazingly set up for our growth and development and I am glad that I
was introduced to the Lord's vision and plan for this life so that I
can understand that and be able to look at every obstacle or downfall
as well as every success and happy moment with a more complete
perspective.   Jeffery R. Holland once said that, "We teach, we teach
and we teach, and then we are released".  That is basically applied to
every day of life and that is how we learn.

Os desifios que Elder Pickrell está a passar ainda nao sao muito
facies mas pouco a pouco acho eu ele está a sentir mais a proposito
desta trabalho e a papel chave que ele tomou sobre se.  Agora a
nessisidade é para motiviar ele a participar responder mais em
portugues, focalizar nas liçoes e começar a procurar para o espírito.
 A medida que consigiremos ter ele com mais desejo para fazer a
differencia e tocar a vida de alguem ao discutir e falar com eles, ele
esquecerá os pensamentos de inadequecidade e necesidade de voltar a
casa juntos com a falta de testemunho na igreja e começará ter desejo
para trabalhar e ser obediente e ver que realmente estas coisas sao
verdadeiras e tem significancia eterna.  Vou fazer tudo que o Senhor
quer para que Eu posso reconhecer o Espirito melhor e guiar meu colege
para ver tambem.

I have been really getting stressed out as I have to get the sacrament
talks all ready to go and then having people cancel on the last minute
with me leaving me hanging high and dry. Unfortunately the replacement
that i had to get when one speaker had fallen through Saturday morning
did not follow the topic like I had asked and used up way too much
time taking the time away from the principle speaker of the day who
had a wonderful talk to give.  But I guess that is just live and learn
and with practice things will begin to run more smoothly.

Our ward mission leader this week revealed to us that his wife has
been taking the discussions from Jehovah Witnesses and that she is now
going there and wanting to convert. She has been a member of the
church for about 3 years and is the gospel principles teacher.  It
basically just started as her liking the pictures they have and a
curiosity of the bible wanting to profound her knowledge of the bible
chatting with one of her students (since she is a teacher).  That
unfortunately escalated quickly and now our ward mission leader is
just trying to convince her to keep the goal that they have to go and
get sealed in the temple before she does anything rash.  it is really
hard to see and it just goes to show that no matter how solid someone
may see we always need to continue to do the little things and give no
heed to the temptations in our path neither should we fraternize with
the the devil nor any of his traps.   Many times we are so willing to
ignore the promptings that we receive to stand up for righteousness
and do something that we do not think is all that bad of a thing just
because we think "that wont hurt anything"or it is just for a second,
or that may even seem like a good thing at first, or it is their
choice and i do not want to impose on them (even though you are
including yourself in it as well) and then it all gets out of hand and
we are all the sudden lost and confused and we feel like there is no
way back.  It is really sad that basically just because of some
interesting graphics of biblical scenes have led to allowing herself
to accept things like not voting or giving blood, and not celebrating
Christmas and how she is forgetting or ignoring basic truths like the
book of Mormon and the importance of eternal family and marriage and
priesthood in the home.  So remember to be careful where we stick our
fingers and then noses and then our heads to get a better look and
then all the sudden we are sucked in and cant remember where the whole
was that took us from light and safety into darkness and confusion.
But we are working with her to keep her safe.  her husband is using
the footnotes in the bible to bring her back into the other standard
works of the church in her studies which is helping,  i took advantage
of her class on eternal marriage that she taught on Sunday to share 1
timothy 4 with her which came truly as inspiration to share.   so i
think that she will with lots of love and attention be brought back
but in our lives it sure is much easier to just keep out of the dark
holes in the first place.