Obedience is it's Own Reward

Wowza. Hello again! I can't believe it's only been a week. I feel like it's been at least a month since Monday. It's been an excellent week though, even if it took forever! 

Last Monday was pretty typical. Basketball, volleyball, nerf wars... Yup. 

Tuesday was a great day though! We were able to give a lot of service, started our new member lessons with Randy, and we were able to do work in Jefferson for the first time! Jefferson is about 30 minutes from Carroll, and is on the edge of our area. An awesome member family, the Coffins, invited us out there for dinner. So we went up a little early to do some finding. We had a really cool experience being led by the Spirit to someone who needed us. Missionary work is so awesome! 

Wednesday was one of the best days of my life. For starters, it was 60 degrees outside!!!! I just love spring! We had to head to Boone in the afternoon, so we really only had 3 hours to work. It would've been really easy to fill that time with busy work, but we decided that we couldn't pass up the beautiful weather. So we started walking to the nearest apartments! Those apartments were just packed with miracles! We taught 4-6 lessons, taught my first African, and found three new investigators! That's about as many as we've found in the whole time I've been here! AND ALL BEFORE LUNCH!!! The biggest miracle was one lady, Jenn. We knocked on her door, and she seemed nice enough, but then her boyfriend started yelling about Mormons and told us to get lost. About 10 minutes later, as we were knocking the last door in that building, she came down the hall and apologized for his behavior and told us that she has some questions. What followed can only be described as having our mouths filled. It was beautiful, and by the end of the lesson SHE ASKED us if she could be baptized. It was amazing. 

Anyway, then we got to hang out with the Boone Elders for the evening. It was great. 

Thursday we had Elder Joaquin E. Costa of the 70 tour our mission! That was really neat. He talked a lot about love and how important love is in missionary work. There was also a lot said about obedience, a topic that confuses me. The subject for this email is a quote from President Badger, that really clarified that concept. We shouldn't be obedient in order to have more baptisms or to have the Holy Ghost more... We should do it because we love the Lord, and in so doing we receive our reward naturally. 

Friday we had more freezing rain... Thank goodness we were doing weekly planning. That made the day bearable. 

Saturday was one of those days... We had 5 lessons planned, and all of them cancelled. Thankfully the one with Jenn ended up happening. It was a great experience. 

Sunday was awesome. Jenn had some medical stuff come up, so she didn't make it to church. But church was great! Afterwords we helped some recent converts with their family history and dedicated a home. It was a great day! 

There ya go folks! Sorry if that was a little long. Here's a poem. 

Oft'times I feel, that import lost, 

Truths, in platitudes are tossed,

When Christ my Lord said, "come and see"

I forget, He was speaking to me. 

So how can I, so full of sin, 

Try to follow, to hearken to Him? 

Such a pure, pristine, perfect goal,

Is vastly far from my flawed soul. 

Yet, o'er this chasm comes the call,

"Faithfully follow, don't fear the fall."

So I step, not asking why, 

And though I falter, at least I try! 

 

I love you all! Godspeed!

At the Mission Tour with the MTC Squad (and half our trainers... and Sister Badger running past)

This Branch will never get my name right...