Today I am Grateful For...

 Well, today was the first time since I have been in Worland that snow has stuck on the ground. Which is what I am thankful for. The snow to some may think is a silly thankful but, I enjoy the snow. Last fall I was in Missoula and that was the longest amount of time I had ever spent in the snow. There were times when I became very tired if the snow, I fell 8 times last year, but it was a wonderful change from just the boring gray deadness that we have back home. The snow becomes a cover for the ugly dead ground, which in the spring the snow will help bring the ground the needed moisture it needs to sustain life. This reminds me a lot of what our Savior Jesus Christ does for each of us. We all get to the point in our lifes where we are beginning to die spiritually and we would love to have someone come cover up the mistakes we have made. Thats exactly what the atonement does, it covers the things we have done wrong. There is a scripture in Isaiah 1:18 that says: "... Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made white as snow...". He knows that we have all done wrong things in our life but He is willing to make all of those go away if we come to Him. True there are times when the snow gets dirty and ugly, but then when a new layer of snow comes and covers it, it become pure again. This is what can happen to us if we keep turning to the Savior and asking for forgiveness. Then when its spring time again, when you have made it through the long winter, the repentance process, and the new life begins to grow then people can begin to see how the Lord has blessed you in you life.

What I am Thankful for today is...

 Well, recently I was given a quote from a member of one of the local wards here. I have really enjoyed it, so I thought I would share that with all of you. So, I was talking about some of the not so fun things I have experienced on my mission. I know that way more people that I could even imagine have gone through FAR worse things than I have and this quote was just a nice piece of humble pie you can say.  Elder Orson F. Whitney wrote: “No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God” (quoted in Spencer W. Kimball, Faith Precedes the Miracle [1972], 98).
  What a great quote! As we all take time to look back on hard times that we have gone through we can see lessons that we learned from those hard things. That is part of our Heavenly Fathers plan. He loves us, He loves everyone on this whole planet and He wants us to help each other. The trails that we face that cause us to wonder, "What could I possible learn from this?!" Sometimes these are answers to other peoples prayers. Not that we suffer, but that there is someone else out there that knows what they are going through. Once you have gained these experiences you could help someone going through similar troubles, you will be able to make true friendships with people who need it most. It will bring the people you help a great deal of joy and it will also bring you joy because you helped someone. So now, I challenge all of you to reflect on some of your own trials that you have experienced and think of someone you know that could use your help, be the friendly voice that you were searching for when you were struggling and help them.

Transfers

So, as missionaries at times it is like we live out of suit cases because of these transfers. They come every 6 weeks with the possibility of having to move to a new area. We can be in an area anywhere from 6 weeks up to 6 or more months. They come on Friday morning of week 6 of the 6 week cycles. So on these days we continue on with our normal morning routine, which on Fridays after we study we plan for the next week. We will look over our week talk about the people we visited , talk about how the appointment went, talk about what they may be struggling with and how we can help them. Then we come up with a list of people to see the next week. This usually takes a good hour. So then we eat lunch and wait for the calls and be out of the house by 1pm. As missionaries we like to try and guess where we will go or if we will go and its a lot of fun to see if we are right or not. The way the decision is made if we leave or not is between the mission president and the Lord. The mission president puts in a lot of prayerful pondering on if we should go and where. This Friday is when we, Elder Goff and I, got the call. We found out we are both staying in Worland and we have the great chance to keep teaching the wonderful people of Worland, Wyoming. We will have the chance to keep working with the people we have tried so hard to find and spent so much time praying over and trying to help. We are both very excited for this chance we have to keep work here.