Dear Family and Friends,
This week was really hectic, being the acting senior of the companionship as I helped Elder Craig learn the ropes of being a zone leader. With all the changes we weren't able to coordinate everything and there were some bitter setbacks as we brought the lowest number of people to church since I've been zone leader and the zone also didn't baptize. But we learned some important lessons, so we'll keep going.
It is beginning to become very hot, so we are using lots of sunblock, but I still feel like I have been so burnt I have turned red. Not very pleasant, but we are also learning how to enter new houses while asking for water. Our area has been slower because we were doing interviews last week, but none of the people passed. To help the zone out we changed a few directives to help everyone have more focus on how to get people to church, teaching the Day of the Lord, going with a member and planning with the member to pass by and go with the investigator to church. So we are excited to see it go into place. Tomorrow we will have the leadership meeting of the zone.
Our house has several trees that are pretty overgrown, so I bought a machete (in Portuguese facao) and so I was pruning this morning. I love pruning with a machete, it is like therapy.
I was reading in the Book of Mormon about King Noah, in Mosiah 11 and about how he led everyone right into apostasy. In verse 6 there was a verse that really grabbed my attention with the last phrase "thus did the people labor exceedingly to support iniquity". I was thinking about how much effort is spent in our days as well. How many billions of dollars and hours of labor is put into companies of cigarettes, alcohol, pornography/sexual promiscuity, illegal drugs, gambling, television/films, music, etc. Our entire society has evolved into a form of work to achieve a level where you can acquire more of these things. You work, get paid, spend money and then go work again to be able to do it all again. You can get so sucked into it where it's the only thing you think about, your next level of pleasure. Luckily our Heavenly Father loves His children, so to break this suicidal cycle of decay He sent Abinadi (in our day, President Monson) and starts to break the cycle by repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. Some follow and receive blessings, others are chastised until they change as well. Both suffer, but one group has the comfort of the gospel, the other has to wait.
All of my BYU stuff is in, so if you want to look at it and double check. I am not finding how to make sure it all goes, but I hope we get the letter sooner than later.
I expect emails from each brother about Nauvoo, with details, pictures, etc. next week. Failure to send lots of pictures and details will result in a widespread Elder strike (aka no letter next week). To comply with the rule that I have to send an email, I'll send a blank email-hehehehe. And don't think I won't!
Love,
Elder Barton
No comments:
Post a Comment