Sometimes this place can feel scary, but then I think of the people that live here. The hummingbirds all around. Big prickly pears. Sometimes this place feels amazing too.
I had my first zone meeting this week. It was a blast. A missionary who is leaving in a few days gave a talk on Preach My Gospel, which I never realized until the MTC is such an amazing guide for missionaries. On the way up to the meeting in Flagstaff, I ate at 5 guys for the first time. I never realized how awesome their burgers are. Later in the week we helped a family move in who raises mini horses. Mini horses are awesome!
There is a recent convert who was baptized a few weeks ago who works at Subway. So a customer calls in one day and orders a six-foot long sandwich, gives a fake number, and then never picks it up. So he bought the whole thing for half off and gave us this huge sandwich which is no joke a foot and a half long and twice as thick as any normal sub sandwich. It was roast beef with everything on it. Best day to not have a dinner appointment ever!
This area that I have the opportunity to serve in is amazing. The members here love missionaries. We have a dinner appointment nearly every day. People love to talk with us, help us out with rides if we really need them to. But most of all the members here love missionary work. They love coming to lessons with us and helping us help people learn for themselves the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.
I also have also had the opportunity to learn something cool. There is a relationship between Faith and Obedience. And you can see this through a story about cows at https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2010/10/what-have-you-done-with-my-name?lang=eng . If a cow gets into a field it could eat itself to death. But to the cow, the field looks good. Farmers know this so they put up a fence. If the cow trusted the farmer enough to believe that the fence was there for a reason it wouldn't break the fence and get into the field and partake of a dangerous and fatal lifestyle.
It is the same with Heavenly Father. He has given us standards of living not to be a barrier or a restriction. It's to protect us from what, at the time, may seem enticing and good, but can be dangerous and spiritually fatal. We must have Faith which we have acted on and a trust that The Lord has been protecting us from dangerous things by giving us obedience. And obedience is the fence, the quality of being that allows us to follow the standards that He has placed in our path. If we have that faith, that obedience is a protection, and then we will not only be obedient but we will have a desire to do so. And thus protecting us from the dangers that are harmful to our bodies and also harmful to our spirit.
"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." Proverbs 3: 5-6
We, as the cow, may not understand what could be harmful or how harmful it may be. The Lord has been right so far. Trust that He is so now. "He shall direct thy paths."
We saw these pigs at a members house. I forgot to talk about them
because of the Great Email Deletion of Last Pday... haha!
When you worked hard all week but still have to go to a weekly planning meeting...
