Hello again from the ever-beautiful desert hillsides of Moreno Valley California! It's been another warm week, but not as blisteringly hot as last summer. Gotta look for that silver lining!
Among the highlights of this week was being able to say hi to one of my Dad's childhood friends. I mentioned last week that I discovered the connection through my priesthood line of authority. Well, this week at church the woman who is the same age as my Aunt came up and talked to me a little bit about growing up with my aunt and uncles and dad. About how my Grandpa was a great seminary teacher. And about how my Dad sent her a Facebook message with how excited he was that I got to meet some of his old friends. I'm pretty excited, too. Call me a sentimental sap, but that kind of thing just makes me smile like crazy.
The ward support seems to be really picking up here in the Hidden Springs ward. I've discovered that some ward council meetings are more effective than others. Well, recently we had the Stake Presidency come to our ward council meeting and whip us into shape. While it hasn't been a night-and-day difference, I have noticed a bit more efficiency since then. I'm super stoked about some of the attitudes that picked up a little bit, though. And we seem to have a lot more splits lined up now. Things are definitely looking up in that department.
We got to teach our good friend "B" again, and I presented him with his own set of scriptures. Hardbound, too. I've been toting those things around since my first transfer in Jurupa. I bought them to replace my scriptures because they seemed sturdier, and because I got water all over my scriptures on my first exchange on bike. Well, I ended up supergluing my old scriptures back together instead, and I've been lugging around the extra set just waiting for somebody to need me to give them away. Well that opportunity presented itself, and "B" is so happy to have some fancy scriptures of his own. He wants to read the whole Doctrine and Covenants before he gets baptized. I want to convince him that he may not know everything, but he knows enough. He seems to want a lot more knowledge before he gets baptized, but in my opinion he's been ready since I got here. So I'm going to work on that attitude next time we're together. Hopefully kneeling down in prayer with him will help him overcome some of those fears. God won't leave us hanging if we ask him for a more certain witness that baptism is the right course for him. I call it the Bruce approach. He said he would do that a lot on his mission. If they hesitated after being taught all the lessons, then he and his companion would kneel down with the investigator and all three of them would take turns saying a prayer out loud to know if they should get baptized. Their investigators usually got wet shortly thereafter.
Oh yeah, Bruce is the high councilor over missionary work in our stake. Once a month he and his wife invite all the missionaries in the zone over for breakfast and we have a little devotional together. It's really sweet. I've come to look forward to it even though I'm always cajoled into eating more food than my body really wants to eat. They are really sweet and they love the missionaries a lot.
That reminds me... I've long held the belief that the "gifts of the spirit" passages in the scriptures overlook one of the greatest gifts given to full-time missionaries: The Gift of Stomach. Seriously, I've learned to eat far more than I did before the mission and I've kept down all kinds of things that would have caused me considerable gastric distress before I was a missionary. Now I can pound it down like a champ and we very rarely get sick despite the external evidence pointing toward the notion that perhaps I should have. If you happen to give a missionary food poisoning, that food probably should have killed them. Consider yourself an accomplished food assassin. So far it's only happened to me once and it feels like it should have happened at least a dozen times.
Well my companion has had some rough times this week that I tried to help him with. Our numbers were lower than I would have liked, but we are stoic in our desire to push onward, ever onward, in the pursuit of more baptismal statistics. Just kidding... we've declared our motto this transfer to be "DOESN'T MATTER, HAD FAITH." instead of the originally proposed "Numbers, numbers matter most; never mind the Holy Ghost." Although that one is pretty entertaining as well. But yeah, I'm in pretty good spirits now, although I really really needed the strength of the sacrament on Sunday. I'm looking forward to another good week.
Almost forgot: I gave a training on Charity at Zone Development Meeting this week and it was pretty phenomenal. I was over-prepared and had to cut a lot of content last-minute to keep us from going way over the time limit, but I think what I did manage to spit out was pretty relevant. It was very satisfying for me to prepare it, at least. I'm very glad I studied it. I don't have my notes here or I would share a lot more, but here's the piece of poetry that I memorized:
"Just give till the Master stops giving to you.""Oh no," said the angel, and her gaze pierced me through."Oh must I be giving again and again?"for giving is living," the angel said."Go spread to the needy sweet charity's bread,
my peevish and willful answer ran.
I'm so glad that we receive so bountifully from our Father in Heaven and that he lets us share the things we get and the love we feel with the people around us. 1 John 4:11 was basically the theme of my training.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
The church is true, guys, and I love how much God loves me. He loves you too! Even when you're a little bit naughty or lazy or judgmental, God will always be there for us.
Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands
Love you tons guys. Sorry for the late email! Our pday went nothing like I wanted it to.
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