Thankya Jesus

The Book of Mormon is crazy! I finished Alma this week and my gosh! I love those war chapters! The Lord has been teaching me so much, its such a blessing. I read with questions and gain insight. I ponder on issues, and things come to mind. Personal revelation through the Book of Mormon. This will be the third time I have legitimately sat down and read it cover to cover, and there is SO much to learn and observe and understand in reading it that way. I need to read it a hundred times! I'm slowly starting to see the incredible potential that book has. I think I'm gaining a slight bit more of a vision of what it really has to offer us and what we can perhaps really apply. Its crazy, its really just incredible.

I have had several insights that certainly helped me this week, but lately I've just found that the general reading of the Book completely feeds my spirit. Its just a book!, yet it makes me feel sooo good. I really feel the peace. Its beautiful. Whatever it is I'm reading about; it fills me up! Perhaps this is old news to some, its not exactly new to me, but its a blessing to be reminded.

Ether 12:27. The first line - "If men come unto me..." Coming to Christ is something we are always talking about. And its something I think we assume is going to be a good thing that will bring us peace. But this verse says, "If men come unto me, I will show into them their weakness..." This verse came to my mind this week and I read it and thought, well gosh, that doesn't actually sound especialy appealing. I already feel like I have a billion weaknesses, and now, the closer I come to my Savior, He's just going to show me more! Great. I am a weak man. But of course the verse comes with this great promise that if we come to Christ (with humility and faith), He will make our weak things become strengths. I can't think of too many better things than that. Ether 12:27 is a very famous, common verse, but it just occured to me that it makes a lot of sense that the closer we try to grow to Christ, the more we are going to come to recognize our complete dependence on Him for everything. The importance of humility. Really the importance of weakness! Crazy.

Among about a hundred other things I've been reading, most of Alma 58 put a smile in my heart. Verses 7-12, and then some. Basically these people are in a really rough situation where they can't do a whole lot. They're just waiting for help, but also kinda waiting to potentially get massacred by the Lamanites. In a nutshell, they ask the Lord for some serious help, He comforts them, and then they end up pulling off this insane strategy and they overtake a whole city when they are COMPLETELY outnumbered. They do the impossible. What a neat thing to read about when you're feeling inadequate or unsure, or wondering how on earth you might accomplish the task before you, whatever it might be. I remember thinking, how in the heck did they come up with that?? They were inspired from on high. We can all experience similar things. That's nice.

I could go on and on. The Book of Mormon man. Even beyond all the fun little insights...there's so many themes and patterns as you read. Prophets, repentence, preparations for greater things to come. It really blows my mind some days how plain it is shown to us. How much there is to learn. And especially how quickly we forget these things! Or how much we don't notice the last time we read it! Know what I mean? Okay I'm done.

I went on an exchange with another brand new missionary this week. He's trying to learn Portuguese down in Bridgeport. Its hard, he's just a kid from Utah, and he'll never be immersed. Hopefully he'll figure it out. He sure is new though. Green. Very very green. Green is good, but we do have a lot to figure out then as well. You know one thing I really don't like? When you ask someone to do something they need to do (like knock on a door) and they ask you WHY. Like somehow if they don't do it, it will go away. I'm sure I'm guilty of this in my own ways, but gosh, missionary work is hard and if you don't do it, you're not going to learn how to do it. Profound huh. Anyway, this kid will do fine, but it was funny to spend some time with him. Still learning how to present things. There's this whole thing I call "logic and reason." Like trying to explain how logical and reasonable it is that the Book of Mormon is legit. "If God called prophets in Jerusalem, don't you think he'd call them in America?" You know what I mean? I've never liked it. It sounds too "salesman". I don't mean to rant. In my experience this "logic and reason" approach doesn't get a person very far. Greenies man. I totally used to be there, and I was probably just like this Elder. It was fun. We actually had a pretty good day.

This really nice old born again christian couple actually let us in after talking with them at the door for a few minutes. I'll spare the details of the conversation, but we had a great chat with them, and he wanted to pray over us before we left. We wanted to pray anyway, so we were happy for him to say the prayer. We stood and held hands with them and he started saying this sweet prayer, loud like a baptist or something, and during it his wife is all saying "Oh thank you Lord, oh thank you Jesus, Praise Jesus" etc etc. I was grinning ear to ear. It was awesome though, this couple has great testimonies of Christ. They might have the plan a little skewed, but they love their Savior. I like to see that regardless of the sect. Anyway, it was a lot of fun. Praise the Lord Christ Jesus!

So the reason I had an exchange with this Elder was because his companion went to the Temple, because President takes us at the very end of our missions. My companion went too. Its crazy to see Elders go home! Its especialy crazy to be serving with one who is going home! It just brings it to the front of your mind that this will actually come to an end one day. Yikes! Honestly I've been thinking about a lot of things related to heading home here soon. I don't think its distracting me, but its there. Its pretty hard not to if you ask me. Lots of decisions to make, and I need to mentally prepare myself for some of those decisions, especially those pertaining to staying faithful. Its gonna be crazy. Totally crazy. I already picture myself sitting on the couch at home feeling depressed, wanting to be in Connecticut. I hope its not like that!

Ya know, Elder Rogers and I had a pretty good week. Based on the numbers we reported you'd think it was garbage. But it shows that the digits aint everything in missionary work. I try to remember that when I look at others. Sometimes days and weeks just feel good. That is a blessing.

I'm still on the rollercoaster, which is a pain oft times, but I guess that's the nature of the beast. I really really really hope I'm more consistent when I get home! I'm looking forward to this last transfer. Its gonna be a wild one! Lots of trainings and travels, and a new companion, and LOTS of responsibility that I'm a little afraid of! But I have seen in the Book of Mormon again and again that the Lord is there for us! And that miracles go down. We had a great visit with Rob yesterday, and it was a miracle. He was telling us how he was having a real bad day and that normally he'd of turned to drugs. He's of course been trying to get away from that, as far away as he can. Basically, he just being there with us for a lesson, and having not relapsed on whatever he used to use, was a serious miracle. This guy's countenace has just changed! Its amazing. He told us that he was at ropes end a few weeks ago. He was done with life. Over it. But every time we even call him, he's got his cheerfulness in his voice. Its excellent. We'll see how things progress with him, I just love the guy. Some of these people you just want to hang out all day with. I love it. Missions. Nothing like it!

Snap, well I guess I'll call that good. Hope all's well, happy new year, I love love love ya all! We may not always be happy, but we can always have peace.