Learning with the Spirit

Making sure the new rain gear is really water-proof

Well, talk about an awesome week. Elder L. is awesome. We are like two nerdy peas in a geek pod. I think part of the reason we get along so well is because he is a lot like Sam...  He is super obedient and really supportive of any righteous desire, and so am I. It's fun being with a companion who is willing to be brave and try new things with me! It's kinda nerve racking but it's still awesome!

Fairbanks is awesome! It's so stinking warm though. I thought the benefit of serving in Alaska was that it was gonna be nice and cool. I thought wrong. Well the missionary work is improving drastically as we are getting more and more settled in and being more and more obedient. There really is this crazy correlation with the amount of missionary work a missionary has and how obedient they are about all the little rules... which is good because it helps keep me motivated to do all those little things. I'm still far from perfect, but Heavenly Father knows I'm trying and He loves and blesses me for it.

Still Far From Perfect...

I am glad to hear that my brothers are still playing hard without me. One of the biggest trials of obedience on my mission is having to stifle my urge to go out and do all of the awesome, fun, crazy things that I would normally do. Sometimes I slip... :) but I keep trying to be good.

I love missionary work. I love the feeling that I get when the spirit guides my companion to where we need to go, then lets us know what questions to ask and what to say, and how the spirit is there workin-it the whole time we are working.

The other day we were out trying to contact an investigator and there were all of these 20-somethings chilling out on the front porch of this apartment complex and they were all drinking and talking. We walked up to the apartment where our investigator lives and this one dude was just being totally belligerent; swearing, cussing and being crude... like really messed-up crude. His language made the worst x-box live lobbies seem clean and wholesome by comparison. Anyways he kept trying to get a rouse out of us and his friends were just sitting back and watching him and they looked ashamed of him. I started a conversation with one of his friends and we were able to talk, unfazed by the moron to our left, about the gospel. The guy seemed genuinely interested. Anyways he asked for our phone number and said that he would contact us later... hasn't contacted us yet, but it was amazing that we were able to stand there and testify in spite of the adversary being present and trying to break us down. I didn't get mad, irritated, or flustered and neither did my companion. I've never had that strength before, and I know looking back at the situation our examples stood out to those other guys our age. Even after we left, my companion and I were completely unfazed by the entire situation. I felt like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego standing in the fire but remaining unconsumed by the furnace. It must have strengthened their testimony as it did mine, but the Bible also teaches us how it impacted the other people who saw that happen...

27 And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king’s counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the ^afire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats ^bchanged, nor the smell of fire had passed on them.

  28 Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who hath sent his ^aangel, and delivered his servants that ^btrusted in him, and ^chave changed the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God.

  29 Therefore I make a decree, That every people, nation, and language, which speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, shall be ^acut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill: because there is no other God that can ^bdeliver after this sort. 

I got the business cards, they look awesome! I love 'em! Also tell Poot thanks for the post card, I got it today! Sounds like he had a pretty exciting time doing the Zip Lines!!

If the concert is Tech-Nine then No... definitely not a place you would want to let Poot and M. go at their age. Yeah No... Ha ha maybe when they can drive themselves.

I'm kinda freaking out though because I just realized M. is gonna be driving come December......... whoa. Not to mention how big he and D. are getting! I always thought you were just teasing me when you said that they were gonna end up taller than me... Now I'm beginning to fear that you may be right!

Well I hope you are all having a delightful summer and I hope you have fun! Love, Elder Winterrose!

PS. I really hope you didn't turn my room into a sewing room...