#PRINCEofPEACE
Hey!
Okay... Let me tell you, it was a WEEK. I was thinking about it all this morning and realized that a WHOLE lot has happened in the past week. So, it should make for a fun letter.
Glad to hear you all had a great week. Conference was absolutely amazing, as always. Very grateful for the prophets and apostles we have. I really loved hearing President Monson talk about the Book of Mormon, and charity! I also really enjoyed Elder Rasband's talk about the Holy Ghost. Everything was just so spot on.
Mom, I would love to go to Nauvoo! That would be sweet. As for school, I really don't know what is going to happen. There is way too many options going through my mind. Provo, Rexburg, Lethbridge, Kingston..... UGH. Honestly, it gives me a headache to think about it. BUT. I know I need to make some decisions in the near future. So, I've been praying about it and such. Brought the question to Conference. And, naturally, the answer I got was from Elder Clayton. Something along the lines of "If you trust and follow in the Lord, He will transform your life." Just like my Patriarchal Blessing, it's VERY general. Which is a good and "bad" thing. I guess no matter what I choose, I can't go wrong! So, we will see. I think going to Provo would be fun because I could work at the MTC. Lethbridge would be great because it's in Canada and there are a lot of members there. Kingston would be good because I could do online schooling for a little bit and save some money. And really, I don't know of any benefits for me in Rexburg... Other than a lot of people are going there from the mission. People are trying to pressure me into Rexburg, as if it's the be all end all choice and I HAVE to go there in September. So that's starting to really turn me off from there. Anyways, we will have to see. I'm even thinking about just applying to places and seeing if I can even get into Provo. I think I could! We will see....
Anyways. My week:
Monday. Nothing fun really happened at all. We just did our Zone Evaluations that night.
Tuesday. We had Zone Conference in San Luis Obispo. It was a great meeting! We learned about the Book of Mormon, and were introduced to the new Easter initiative, #PRINCEofPEACE. Great video. It is all focusing on the Peace that the Savior brings into our lives, focusing on eight specific attributes that can help us do so. Amazing website, go to mormon.org to check it out some more! We also learned about our five areas of focus as the Great California Ventura Mission! They are:
1) We begin with the end in mind
2) We are consecrated servants of Jesus Christ
3) We strive to serve the Lord through our obedience
4) We are led by the Spirit as we find and teach
5) We desire the salvation of souls.
Elder Davis and I gave a presentation on the second one. It was fun! A lot of people got a lot of things from what we said, so I am glad the Spirit was there to testify to them of all of it :) After Conference, we went and taught Alex and James about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Law of Chastity. It went well. They are definitely giving it some thought though. We had dinner with the Hursts that night, went to Pho with John and Ida. It was good stuff. Then, that night we had exchanges with Elder Matthews and Elder DeGraw. But, it definitely wasn't without any problems.....
9:30 Tuesday Night- Elder Davis and I hear a beep go off. Sounded like our smoke/CO detector. But, it only went off once and then stopped. Weird. Ignored it, and then the Elders showed up.
10:30- Elder Matthews, Elder DeGraw, and I hear the beep again. Does the same thing. Just once. Opened up the windows in the apartment and went to bed...
12:30 Wednesday Morning- The alarm wakes me up. It's going off constantly now. I wake everyone up, and we get out of the apartment. Nothing on fire, and the other smoke detectors weren't going off. So, we decide to leave the apartment and go to Santa Maria to sleep. We call President Felix, left a message, and then drive 15 minutes at 1:00am... Definitely a mission first!
Wednesday. We come back to the apartment at about 8:30. The Senior Missionary over the apartments asked us to call the fire department and have them come and check things out. So, we did! First time I had ever called 9-1-1. I told them it was a non-emergency... But the fire truck came with sirens blaring, AND THEY HAD THE AMBULANCE COME TOO. It was funny, the one firefighter started beaking the paramedic. "This is our turf! You shouldn't be here!" Anyways, they said that we were very smart in leaving the apartment, because there very well could have been some CO there, but we did so well at airing out the apartment and such that they weren't able to tell. They told us that they appreciated us letting them sleep too! After all that was over with, I was with Elder Matthews for half of the day, because Elder Davis was feeling sick. Elder Matthews is from Taber. We taught Margarita the Plan of Salvation, and it went over well. She understood it pretty well! Then, Elder Davis took a nap for the afternoon, and we had dinner with the Wyett's! I knew the family really well before, and so it was fun to reconnect with them.
Thursday. Brother Rust took us out to New Cuyama! It was awesome. Went and saw Sister Salazar, a member that lives out there. New Cuyama is about an hour and 15 minutes from our church building, and she lives 20 minutes away from a different building... So she goes to the other ward, which is out of the mission. But it's better for her! We talked about faith, and she asked us to bless her home. It was a great experience. We got home around 3:30, and tried to see some people, and then had dinner with the Nally's. After that, we did our Weekly Planning.
Friday. Most of our appointments cancelled. We tried to go by some people in the morning, and then helped a member in the Pismo Beach ward move! And then we helped a member of our ward move too! Fun times, and nothing else really happened that day.
Saturday and Sunday was Conference. Nothing too amazing happened. Except for Conference of course :)
But yeah! It's been a really great week. Elder Davis and I are fantastic, the ankle is getting worse, the grace is getting greater! Seriously, I was thinking about it the other day, and I've pretty much piggy-backed my whole mission on Christ. Here is the quote from Elder L. Whitney Clayton:
"When we decide to do “whatsoever [God] saith unto” us, we earnestly commit to align our everyday behavior with God’s will. Such simple acts of faith as studying the scriptures daily, fasting regularly, and praying with real intent deepen our well of spiritual capacity to meet the demands of mortality. Over time, simple habits of belief lead to miraculous results. They transform our faith from a seedling into a dynamic power for good in our lives. Then, when challenges come our way, our rootedness in Christ provides steadfastness for our souls."
BE ALL IN. I love what Elder Maxwell says too:
"In pondering and pursuing consecration, understandably we tremble inwardly at what may be required. Yet the Lord has said consolingly, “My grace is sufficient for you” (D&C 17:8). Do we really believe Him? He has also promised to make weak things strong (see Ether 12:27). Are we really willing to submit to that process? Yet if we desire fulness, we cannot hold back part!"
Let's go to work!
Love you all! Transfers are next week!
Love,
Elder California Harvey
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