June 15, 2009

Hey, this week has been going well. Nothing spectacular happened except its been spectacularly hot! Its been in the 90s since about Wednesday and with the humidity here the heat index as I've heard it called is about 102-105. So it's felt like it's been in the hundreds most of the week. It's crazy; we open the door to our apartment and you can feel a wall of heat blast you! Luckily though our apartment is insulated quite well and we have a good AC unit that keeps the apartment cool. Its still a little weird to me to go out after an 8:00 pm appointment and have it still feel like 100 degrees outside. When the sun goes down out here the temperature doesn't drop for another few hours. Its all good though, in Hendersonville I decided that I needed a smaller backpack for bike week and I got one with a camel back in it on clearance for like 15 bucks. Its a 2 Lt bladder and I fill it up and drain it about 3 times a day so I'm drinking plenty of water.

We actually had a really good lesson with Thomas last week too. We brought over Brother Stepanick, who is a completely inactive member. We felt like he'd be a really good fellowshipper for Thomas, so we asked him to come with us on Saturday morning. Brother and Sister Stepanick don't come to church because they have been 'offended' by members before. They also really hate mothers day and fathers day because they had a child who died as an infant and Sister Stepanick couldn't have any more children due to health reasons. During our appointment Brother Stepanick mentioned that they usually don't go to church on either of those two days and Thomas was outraged. He totally called Brother Stepanick to repentance saying things like "You know the church is true! That's just an excuse not to go!" it was pretty sweet. Then yesterday Brother Stepanick was at church! Thomas also agreed in that lesson that he knew that this church was the most correct church out there and that he needs to get baptized. So we've made plans and set goals to have him at church next week, to have him quit smoking, and he wanted to set a goal to stop swearing, and then to get him baptized. He doesn't have a date yet on baptism, but he knows what he needs to do and he's willing to accept help with it.

Then the songs of the Savior thing is really powerful. Its great; its got a lot of music with it that could be used for the youth but the real power comes from combining the music, the words, and the pictures together. They have a really good arrangement of "I Stand All Amazed" its a solo arrangement of only the first verse and its written in a melodic minor key. Then right before the song there's a paragraph thats recited about the ten lepers and how Christ healed them. Then it goes on to explain that each of us has a form of spiritual leprosy. Sins have blotted, defaced, and dacayed at our spiritual well being, and there's no hope for a chance healing, or a self-induced cleansing. Cleansing can only come by the power of the Atoning One, Jesus Christ. Then the song starts and pictures of the Atonement are displayed. Its super powerful, but you really need all three things to get the full effect. My favorite part is the end though. We teach about the Apostasy and the two sister missionaries then start talking about how the Book of Mormon has prophets that testify of Christ for they knew Him. Then the other elder and myself start quoting prophets. Starting with Nephi, I can't remember the first one but the second one is "He is the Light and the Life of the world, yea a light that is endless, that there can be no more darkness, yea, and also a life that is endless, that there can be no more death." and we keep exchanging back and forth different testimonies of prophets including, "Remember, remember my sons, it is upon the rock of our redeemer.." and "Because of their hatred they put to death every Nephite that will not deny the Christ, and I Moroni will not deny the Christ, therefore I wander, withersoever I can for the safety of mine own life." and wrapping up with "O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart. That I may go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth and cry repentance unto every soul... that every soul should repent, and come unto our God." its a really sweet program that has a LOT of power. As I was singing in it on Saturday night and looking around at a room full of people who are starting to feel God's love for them part of my patriarchal blessing came to mind where it says that I've been blessed with the great gift of music and that through the gift of music I can bless many many lives. I thought that was really cool. It's been an opportunity for me to fulfill the promises made to me. The greatest blessings I have ever received is the opportunity to bless others.

I'm really excited because we've got another temple trip coming up in July. I love being able to go to the temple. Thats one of the first things that I want to do when I get home is go to the Draper and Oquirrh Mountain temples.

So one of my goals for studying is that I want to read the standard works before I hit my year mark. I've already finished the New Testament, the Book of Mormon, and the Pearl of Great Price, and I'm on D&C 101 and I'm working my way through Deuteronomy. Anyways I've really grown to love the Doctrine and Covenants and the Old Testament, because the language used is very similar I think. The way the Moses writes when he's declaring the word of the Lord and the way that Joseph Smith wrote when he was declaring the word of the Lord is very very similar. Makes sense because the instruction was coming from the same person. Temples reminded me of this because I read something yesterday, I wish I knew the reference, it was somewhere in the 90s section of the Doctrine and Covenants where they're given a command to sacrifice in order to build a temple. The command is that it would be pleasing unto the Lord to have a house built, and the language of it makes it sound like He wants the house built for Himself and He didn't quite say why they needed to do it. Then I thought, a lot of times that's the way commandments work. We're told to do something and we don't really understand entirely why, we just know that its been asked of us by God. Then after we do it we realize that we weren't sacrificing because He needed us to, or they we weren't building a house of God because He needed the house, but we're doing these things so He can bless us, and so we can return to Him. Every commandment, every action of our Father in Heaven is directed towards the same thing. To bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of men. To bring us home to Him.

Thanks for the advice, I love you lots and appreciate your support. Soon a camera card will be coming I promise!