Oh my goodness... I love this mission more and more everyday. It's so awesome. We saw a car driving next to us that had LEGIT bullet holes and we were like "OHMYGOSH HE'S GONNA GET OUT AND SHOOT OUR CAR!!!" haha joking but FOR REALZ!!! Crazy... The ghetto here is... strange... You think you'd be scared but as a missionary you're just like "oh you're shooting at someone? want to hear a message of hope and love all centered on Jesus Christ?" haha well... We aren't in the area that has all the shootings but some of the missionaries I've talked to have had their investigators or investigators neighbors killed! D: so sad!
So! Teaira (the black single lady) Is AWESOME! We haven't met with her much this week but she's not losing interest which is great! Lisa is our primary focus right now. She's progressing like none other! She wanted to be baptized before we even extended the invitation! CRAZY! And she's even been Anti'd and STILL wants to be baptized! WHAT?! So cool. That never happens. Usually when an investigator gets pounded with anti mormon philosophy they stop talking to us. But she's just like "my daughter and her husband are being stubborn. They won't accept this message!" And we're all thinking "she's gonna be a great missionary :)" We took her to dinner at the ward mission leaders house and taught her an in depth version of the plan of salvation. She is determined to quit smoking and knows that she can with the Lord's help so she's determined to get baptized on Feb 22 :D so happy for her! We're meeting with her all the time so it's great :)
hmmm..... OH! I'm the driver now :P I kinda don't like it cuz it's boring and you don't get to do anything but pay attention to the road :P not like I'd be doing anything else in shotgun but still! I don't like driving :P we're actually in a car share so we only get the car every other week which I kinda like because it allows us to see those people that are far away but it also lets us use bikes which make it SUPER easy to stop and talk to/help people that you pass on the way to appointments.
OKAY! I am SO excited for the iPads! They're actual iPads and each person is getting their own personal iPad! AAAHH!!! The leaders in the mission already got theirs so I've gotten to play with theirs :) it'll be so nice and people take you so much more seriously when you pull out an iPad to schedule an appointment rather than a warped paper planner :P
I feel like I'm getting fat but in good shape at the same time... they feed us WELL. We don't have a meal every night but when we do have a meal it's a BIG meal and we went to this one family's house right after dinner and they gave us MORE food! NOOO! I'm going to get fat! It was this delicious spaghetti and MAN! so good........... I just want to go into a food coma after we get fed...
Sad story :( we went to this house next to a member's home and they said they didn't really want to talk. We found out that this lady's sister had just had her home burn down. They lost EVERYTHING! The house was just a black shell when they found it. So we have spent the last two weeks just getting her family clothes so they have something to actually WEAR. So sad seeing how so many people are having these losses and it's even more sad when they won't accept the help, temporal AND spiritual, that we have to offer them.
Spiritual Thought
Well! for the thought this week I want to talk about 2 Nephi 2. There is much wisdom and knowledge to be learned in this chapter which is frequently overlooked.
In v. 11 "it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness..." continues in v. 13 that God would cease to be God if there was not this opposition. So we learn that this opposition is NECESSARY.
In reference to the Garden of Eden v. 15 states " it must needs be that there was an opposition; even the forbidden fruit in opposition to the tree of life;" God HAD to give Adam and Eve a choice: to stay in His presence forever or to be cast out and bring children into the world. They could not do both. They had to be enticed by one or the other as it says in v.16 "Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other."
Yes, the fall was necessary because, as it says in v. 23, "they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin." It was requisite of them to fall and for the world to fall. If not so, they could not experience the things which God has experienced. God was once as we were and wishes us to become as He IS, however, we cannot do this until we experience what He has experienced. He has had His mortal experience so we must have ours. And in order for all this to take place we must be "free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death."
I would exhort every single person reading this to, as they continue throughout their daily lives, to always choose liberty, always choose eternal life; because, although it may be difficult, it will always be worth it. This gospel is meant to help us and there is no aspect of it meant to restrict us or hold us back in any way. So, if you or someone you know is thinking that they are being held back by the will of God know what it says in v. 30 and remember that "whether by the mine own voice or the voice of my servants it is the same". To close this chapter he says "I have none other object save it be the everlasting welfare of your souls."
I know without a shadow of a doubt that there is nothing God has commanded us to do that is not to help us and bring us blessings. He wants us to become strong and experience joy, and that is why we must experience misery and be pushed to our very limits. When we think we cannot walk this path or we say that our burden is too great to bear understand that Jesus tells each of us "I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you."
This is the testimony I leave with each of you in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Until next week,
Love,
Elder Aaron Russell
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Anyway, the black guy is an investigator. GUESS WHO HIS DOPPLEGANGER IS!!! Yeah. That's right. A flipping black vampire in Twilight. It's CRAZY how much they look alike! But that guy is SO AWESOME! He works at a retirement kinda place. It's a lot like Stonehenge in Orem, UT. It's one of those rehab centers. Anyway, he's an amazing flute player (like... BETTER than Jessy which is cray-cray) and I he's super metro which is funny :)
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| the first two are this beautiful angel statue that someone had that I had to take a pic of. SO MANY ANGELS OUT HERE!!! I'm kinda freaking out! Anyone who doesn't understand WHY I'm freaking out should go watch the Doctor Who episode Blink... *shudder* |
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| Me and my Comp. |
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| Eating dinner at the Bradleys |
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