Christ

My goodness ya alls I just want to pour out me soul right now but I’ll never be able to remember everything that is on my soul as of late. Its been a good week. Real up and down though. We did get some snow. And…you’ll never believe this. Well, you probably will. THEY CANCELLED CHURCH YESTERDAY!! WHAT? That’s almost like cancelling Christmas as a missionary. Actually its not at all, but it was a sad decision to hear. So we were left with a snowy Sunday morning with time to fill. Oh yea – they cancelled it because of SNOW! It was supposed to be 10-20 inches, but we only got about 6. But still, 6 inches in Hartford is pretty wild and awesome and beautiful. Its way cool so see a city like this be covered in white.

Oh man I can’t even begin to tell you all about it. SO much fun. President told us we couldn’t drive our vehicles, so we couldn’t go too far. So us, the other Hartford English Elders, and the Spanish Elders all walked. Real real far. 6 of us missionaries. It was great. The main roads were covered in snow and we’d just walk down the middle of them. We walked like 2 ½ miles to this old ladies house we shoveled out. It was great. A day I’ll remember for a long time. I love the snow. It makes the earth so wonderful!

Well winter is here. The other day was COOOOOOOLLLDD!!!! The cold here is different than home. It bites your face off! The wind isn’t like at home. The wind is like burning swords destroying everything that feels it! Aaahh!! Connecticut.

We were talking about God the other day. How everything really does point toward God. A God. Some kind of God. We were talking with Natasha, now a recent convert. She was asking some stuff about responding to people who make snooty comments like oh, you’re religious. And mean it like oh, you’re a judgmental stuck up jerk. Ya know? Its tough because religion in today’s world really is so wild. If I didn’t know the truth, if I wasn’t a part of this Church, I’d probably feel similar. Religion is crazy. If you don’t know that there is ONE way, it really makes no sense. If there isn’t one ultimate truth, one great plan of salvation, then it totally is just a crutch (as Dad used to say and probably still does). Its just something for people to cling to. If there’s not one way, then to me, it’s a huge horrible waste and a bunch of silly philosophy. If there isn’t a right way, then it really is just find what works for you and go with that. If it makes you happy, then great. I personally can’t stand that philosophy one bit. I told some investigators last week – if being an Islamic fundamentalist works for me and it makes me happy flying suicide bombers into buildings, is that cool? If it works for me? They were NO no no, no WAY! And I said I think you’re absolutely right. So it makes no sense for us to walk around saying oh, Catholicism or Buddhism or Atheism works well for me and makes me happy so as long as I live that lifestyle as best I can, I’ll be okay and go to heaven, or whatever the idea of that school of thought is about the after life. Know what I’m saying? I know I’m way way off on a tangent here but this makes such sense to me. Clinging to what is convenient or feels good cannot be acceptable. It would frustrate everything. Ha ha ah man I gotta stop this. There’s probably holes to poke in what I just said, but I’ll poke holes back!

Life is good ya all. Being a missionary gets better and better every week. Its crazy what I get to learn and what I am exposed to. Yesterday I learned so much about repentance. It was like I jumped to a new level of understanding. It’s a long long story, but it was such a blessing. In the end, I was studying repentance, looking for some solace, and realized that what I ought to be studying is the Atonement! I’ve been noticing in my Book of Mormon reading that no matter how terrible the people get, the Lord’s arm is always stretched out. He is always ready to take us back. Its so amazing and such a gift. I just can’t express how cool it is to be so involved in the gospel. At the same time it is extremely frustrating though because missionaries all have different goals and ideas and desires and reasons for being out here. We’ve all come from different places to be where we are, so sometimes we don’t line up in our…quests, I guess you could say. What is important. So thats been tough for me lately. It has been at times, it seems to cycle back around from time to time. Anyway, I considered that when I fall (when I sin and am horribly upset with myself), its almost a gift if I can recognize it and have the motivation and smarts to change. Because the fall makes me want to get back up and stand even taller kind of. Some people are able to become better by just making the choice to be better. Seems I always have to learn the hard way. But I think I learn it better that way. Something like that.

I still look forward to life all the time though. I see so many wonderful families! Awesome little kids! I just can’t wait to have a family. I read back on my experience of deciding to serve a mission the other day. Right after it all happened and I suddenly knew I needed to do this, I wrote it all down. Lucky me that I thought to do that so immediately. And since then I’ve kept a pretty serious journal. That experience is seriously more precious than gold! And many of the things I’ve recorded. It was so cool to look back and reflect on all that. The events of that day. There were some things that I had forgotten! And things I didn’t realize happened! Or didn’t realize what they were (like promptings). It was awesome and just helped me feel wonderful about being out here, knowing that it was the hand of the Lord that brought me here. I read on a little bit and my life began to be extremely blessed pretty much immediately. Gosh I’m so blessed.

This computer is about to kick me off so I gotta send this thing. Merry Christmas everyone!! What a wonderful time of year. Where did celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior even come from if there isn’t a specific way for us to follow? Corinthians 14:33 ( I think) God is not the author of confusion! I love it. Its magical. Ha. My final thought I just wanted to throw down was one I had the other day. I remember thinking at times in my life that I was extremely blessed and a very lucky person and that going on a mission would be a good way to show the Lord my gratitude and thankfulness. But I never could get myself to show my faith enough to go. I was in that frame of mind. Now I think I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to show the Lord my gratitude and thankfulness for letting me serve a mission! For this whole life changing and incredible experience I am having. Something like that. It is a blessing to be here and I thank God every day for the blessing of serving a mission.

LOVE EVERYONE TALK TO MOM AND DAD ON FRIDAY OH MY GOSH!!!
So much more to say but I guess it'll have to wait.

David