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| Homeboy McKellar |
But it sounds like you all have had some good days! Arizona sounds super nice right now. So in the past two weeks the weather has been crazy here. two weeks ago Tuesday it snowed. And the snow stuck around until Wednesday then it all melted. Then it snowed another 4 inches last Sunday. It was so ridiculously cold, we were only supposed to leave the house if we could get to where we were going in 20 minutes. And we were not allowed to use the car.
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| Don't try this in Kansas |
A few missionaries got frostbite. It was not fun at all. It really was only like 7 degrees, but here in Kansas with a 20 mile hour wind, the wind chill gets -30. Too cold. I hate the cold. Then it was a little cold this week after all the snow left. And yesterday and today we are in short sleeve shirts and the temperature is in the 75-80. so its super nice now. Much better.
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| Crazy Ecuadorian Companion |
So two Saturdays ago, Elder Martino, from the second quorum of the seventy came down to speak to the missionaries in our zone. He spoke a lot about good stuff. How we can better do our missionary work. Especially how to work with less actives. IT was really good, and we all enjoyed it a lot. He was really cool. From the us, but he served as area seventy for 17 years in Guatemala, and Columbia? Not sure but he spoke really good Spanish. Then later that night we stayed in Wichita to watch a Spanish devotional that he gave to the Spanish members and investigators in the Wichita area. I understood everything he said, save one word. My Spanish is pretty good now.
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| Elder Martino |
Then on Friday, I had one of the most cool experiences ever! Elder Bednar came to our mission and we had a 31/2 hour meeting! It was so cool. All missionaries in the whole mission came it. So I got to see everyone. Elder McKellar, Budge, Stopper, and Maki. Just everyone. It was just awesome. We took a picture with all the missionaries, so hopefully they send it to me, so I can send it to you. (see above)
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| Elder Bednar |
Then Elder Bednar came, and I just learned so many things.
First of all he is a super funny guy. He was more funny than I expected. He said some super funny things. But basically what he did, is we have question asking session with him for almost 4 hours. He had asked all the missionaries to read three of his talks a few weeks prior of him coming. And we discussed them, and then talked about all sorts of stuff. It was so cool. I will send you the talks so you can read them too. He spoke about all things in the universe being objects or agents. That we need to make things happen instead of things happening around us. He talked a lot about how we just need to do what we know is right. That too many people wonder and worry about being led by the spirit, or fulfilling gods will, but we just need to do what we know. Do everything our mission president says, what our leaders say, and what preach my gospel says, and then we will be led by the spirit without even knowing it. I thought that was interesting. And he also talked about how faith means action. And is grown through action as well. For me it put a lot of emphasis on the fact that we basically decide how things go in our lives. The power of agency means that we can just change anything and everything around us. He spoke about prayer and what a prayer even is. He spoke about "stupid traditions" that the Mormons have. One being meaningless prayers. He gave the example of when people say in sacrament meeting " Please bless those of us who aren't here today, that they will make it next time". He said that it was a very "stupid" prayer. He said the prayer really should sound like "help every one of us to go visit someone that is not here, to love them, and help them get back to church." And then if everyone actually did that, 25% of the people that weren't there would come the next week, but with the first prayer, absolutely nothing would happen. So everything we pray for needs to be followed up with action. Or it is a hollow prayer, and means absolutely nothing. He talks about it in the talk i will send today.
I learned a ton of cool things. To many too write. One of the most interesting things he said though, was at the end when he commented that the time--our 4 hours together-- had gone so quickly. He said that that's because Time is only relative to mortality. Time does not exist in eternity. So when are close with the spirit, or closer to eternity than mortality, time has no effect on us. He said that we humans are very uncomfortable in mortality, being eternal beings. Which is why we scrapbook and take pictures. I thought that was super cool.
The other cool thing that happened this week is a sweet lesson that we had last night with some investigators. Mike and Lisa. We taught them the restoration, and it was super strong and good, and they committed to being baptized in the beginning of April. Its going to be a long road to get there but they are awesome investigators. We did really good in our area this week.
Thanks for the package! Those oranges are soooo goood!!(Thank you Pam Jones ) I miss the Arizona spring a ton. Wish I could smell the orange blossoms. But are delicious.
Elder Perry talks about " The spiritual blessings from living a simple life". That trip to Colorado we went on with the scouts 2 years ago was really spiritual for some reason, and know I know why. You need to listen to the talk, "Let Him do it with Simplicity" by L. Tom Perry. Sweet talk. https://www.lds.org/ensign/2008/11/let-him-do-it-with-simplicity
Love Ethan
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