Real. - November 5, 2018

Hello again dear friends! 

First off, I want to apologize for the quality of my last few letters. For a variety of reasons, we have found ourselves with no time to email for the last few weeks. I'm sorry. 

This week has been pretty crazy, we've had a lot of fun, but also some very trying experiences in the lives of those around us. It has caused me to reflect a lot on my purpose and on the meaning of life. As a missionary, I spend an awful lot of time talking about the simple truths of the gospel, like why we are here. When you talk about something that much, it often becomes commonplace, and you forget the meanings and applications of those principles. 

And then things get real. 

A 12 year old girl asks you what will happen to her if she doesn't get baptized. 

You interview two people for their baptism. 

One of them gets baptized. 

The other has to decide if they are willing to be baptized, even if it means being disowned by their family. 

Someone tells you that they don't have much desire to live. 

Another person tells you they don't want anything to do with the church. 

And then you testify by the spirit. 

And that person comes to church.

Someone else tells you that they don't even want to believe in an eternity. 

Then you participate in giving someone the priesthood, so he can baptize his wife.

It's in moments like these, moments which this week has been filled with, that the importance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ becomes real. When all the fleeting, fake, frivolous solutions of the world fall flat in the face of reality, and we are left to grapple with vanity and with eternity, that is when the Atonement of Jesus Christ becomes real to us. Because after all is said and done, nothing else is real when compared to infinite love, to infinite compassion, to an infinitely painful and equally glorious triumph. He is real. 

I hope you each can take some time this week to feel or to do something real. Strive to follow the spirit and partake of the reality of His Atonement. 

I love you all! Hope this wasn't too spiritual for y'all. Pics are incoming. 

Godspeed! 



 Mopping up my boi E. Harvath (s/o)

Merica Herky ft. the squad

After repairing an octagonal barn for service.

Elder Anderson and Sister Langston killing each other. RIP.

Halloween with the Hunts and Perry's

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