Email treinta cuatro: una nueva época

April 3, 2017 

Howdy folks!

Monday after getting back to Jonesboro and getting settled in, we went to an FHE with the R family. Last transfer, my very first day in Jonesboro, we had dinner with the R family. I had mentioned during the dinner that I went to BYU before the mission and Brother R went off about how much he hates BYU. I thought to myself: "really, I thought I left all the BYU hate behind in Utah." Afterwards, he said: "I hope you didn't take that personally." If I'm honest, I definitely took it

personally!  But I decided to get over myself and go into the FHE with an open mind. We had a good lesson, and he ended up giving us a referral.  The moral of the story is sometimes people say things that tempt you to instantly judge them, but always keep an open mind, and as that jewelry commercial says, an open heart, and love will always find it's way inside.

 We left the R family with an invitation to invite someone to watch General Conference, and then their 13 year old daughter dropped an invitation of her own on us to not say anything negative for a week. We didn't do so well on that, haha.  I'm going to keep trying though, and also (my parents will love this) I'm trying to eliminate all fake swear words such as dang it, shoot, freak, frick, fetch, and crap from my vocabulary. It's so hard dang it!

 Wednesday, we hit the pavement, and had a good long day of finding. It was pretty awesome, because we found an apartment building of almost all Hispanics.  We talked to a white guy named Scroggin (no joke), taught an awesome guy named Martrell and talked about the Book of Mormon and season three of The Flash. That night we went to Book of Mormon class and had a homeless guy walk in during the middle of the class and start eating McDonalds.

 One morning during personal study I felt inspired to read Like a Broken Vessel by Elder Holland, and I don't think I've cried that much during personal study before. Elder Holland talks about those who suffer from major depression, but I felt that talk was speaking directly to me. There have been times on the mission where I have literally felt hopeless. After reading that talk, I felt Heavenly Father's love so powerfully. This is my favorite paragraph:

• "So how do you best respond when mental or emotional challenges confront you or those you love? Above all, never lose faith in your Father in Heaven, who loves you more than you can comprehend. As President Monson said to the Relief Society sisters so movingly last Saturday evening: “That love never changes. … It is there for you when you are sad or happy,  discouraged or hopeful. God’s love is there for you whether or not you feel you deserve [it]. It is simply always there.” Never, ever doubt that, and never harden your heart. Faithfully pursue the time-tested devotional practices that bring the Spirit of the Lord into your life. Seek the counsel of those who hold keys for your spiritual well-being. Ask for and cherish priesthood blessings. Take the sacrament every week, and hold fast to the perfecting promises of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Believe in miracles. I have seen so many of them come when every other indication would say that hope was lost. Hope is never lost. If those miracles do not come soon, or fully, or seemingly at all, remember the Savior’s own anguished example: if the bitter cup does not pass, drink it and be strong, trusting in happier days ahead." 

If any of you feel hopeless or unloved, I invite you to read the rest of this talk. I bear witness that God loves us, even enough to let us hurt from time to time, because he knows what we can become if we turn to His perfect Son.

 On Friday we had weekly planning, and we weekly planned until FIVE PM!  It took almost all the day, but it was probably the best weekly planning session I've ever been in because we talked so in depth about our investigators and how we can help them, and also how we can improve our comp unity.  Elder Giles and I talked to each other for a while, neither of us have any problems with Elder Barron yet because he's new, haha.  Last transfer I chastised Elder Giles a lot over a lot of little things, and that caused a lot of tension.  I decided that I need to change and increase my love and humility so that I can be a better companion.

All three of us are very motivated to work our tails off this transfer. We all decided that we are going to to change the Spanish companionship to pure Spanish, not English and Spanish, so we dropped or referred all of our English speaking investigators. Ahora vamos a llegar a la calle y trabajar durísimo por el Señor.

 General Conference deserves it's own email. There's something about Saturday morning sessions that make me bawl my eyes out. What really touched me was how Elder Renlund compared sin to a disease afflicting a sheep. The Savior, our Good Shepherd does not hate us because we sin, but because He loves us so perfectly He wants to rid us of that sin so that we can be whole. 

I hope you all feel just how perfectly God loves you, because when you feel His love, you will never be the same. The Church is true, the Book is blue, never forget that your Savior loves you!