Monday, August 4, 2014

Week 6 - Under the Palm Trees


P.S. You should show the palm tree pic to Brother Poor and Sister Norton; they'll know what it's for ;)


Ready, Aim...


Hey family!

Just wanted you to know I've been thinking about you. Everything here is going pretty well. The work is a bit slow in the ward that I'm serving, but we're doing our best to make our time efficient. We just got a new ward mission leader. He's pretty awesome, so I think that I got here just in time. (On a side note, he has a 1955 Chevy Bel Air. He took us to church in it; I will try to get a picture of it this week, so when you get it, show it to Grandpa. He'd think it was awesome.)

Elder Tillotson and I have gotten to meet some really cool people this week. I don't know what it is, but it seems as though the people who talk to us are either Hispanic or Latino. Anyway, we were out contacting and we met a man named Francisco who was doing some work on a house. We asked him if we could talk to him. He said yes, and so we taught him about Joseph Smith and the Restoration. The Spirit was so ridiculously strong as we did so, and everything that we taught made sense to him. At the end of the lesson, I invited him to baptism. He told me that he needed to read the Book of Mormon, then ask God if it was true; and if he received an answer then he would. Sadly, however, he doesn't live in this mission, so if he were to ever get baptized, I probably won't be involved. Even so, I am grateful for the experience.

It's probably obvious, but missionary work involves lots of study :) I love having an hour of personal study every morning. I've learned so much in the past several weeks. I was reading in Alma 39 this morning. Verse 9 is a scripture mastery, but I never quite understood to what extent it meant. It says "Now my son, I would that ye should repent and forsake your sins, and go no more after the lusts of your eyes, but cross yourself in all these things; for except ye do this ye can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God. Oh, remember, and take it upon you, and cross yourself in these things."

I never quite got what cross yourself meant, but after searching the scriptures, I found out that it actually means to deny yourselves of all ungodliness, like it says in Moroni 10:32. The scripture really means to become as Christ is, to be "perfected", as it were. It really means to be a true disciple of the Savior! I don't quite know how I am going to use that today, but I know that it was an important thought anyway.

I love all of you! Like you said, it's crazy that a month has already gone by, but hey, time flies when you're having fun. Be safe and keep in touch.

Love,

Zach

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