So
Happy New Year everyone! Also, congratulations to my cousin, Savannah, for getting married. Wish I
could have been there. Well, my dream
winter is coming to an end. The
temperatures were in the low 40s this week, but luckily we have the car until
transfers. I am currently in a trio, last
week and this coming week. One of the Elders
in the other area of our ward went home to straighten some things out, but is
planning on coming back out soon. It was
sad. So other than that, the week has
gone well. My ponderize scripture this
week is James 4: 10, "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he
shall lift you up." I have recently been trying to humble myself more. I know that when we are humble, the Lord can
mold us and shape us into who He NEEDS us to be. I love the quote in The Restoration movie when
a man is sick and he says to Joseph, "My pride has brought me very
low." Joseph responds with,
"Now the Lord can lift you higher." I just love that line because he humbled
himself and the Lord was able to bless him. I know that by being humble I can surrender
myself to the Lord and do whatever it is that He needs me to do.
Monday
actually started late Sunday night. We had to drive to Springfield at 11:15pm and
didn’t get to sleep until 3:45am.
We had to get up at the usual time so we only got like 3 hours of sleep.
We stayed in White House for P-day and did some service. We helped a member pull out some of her concrete
frames. Then we had a really good Family
Home Evening at the Cousin's.
Tuesday,
because our District Leader went home, his companion became the new one. I got to go on an exchange to Gallatin with Elder
Blackburn. He is from Layton, Utah. We worked at the Bishop’s Storehouse for a
while and later found two “potentials” during tracting. We had a lesson on the Plan of Salvation with
a pretty cool guy. We even set up a
baptismal date with him.
Wednesday
I stayed in Gallatin and we did service for a lady. We trimmed her flowers and shrubs and then
asked if she would be interested in hearing our message. We set up a return appointment. Nothing really happened during the day, but we
had an awesome lesson with a member. We
taught the Restoration and it went really well. They liked our message, except the man has
trouble with believing in modern day prophets. We had a good discussion though.
Thursday
we exchanged back. We had interviews
with President Anderson, which were good. For some reason, for the first time ever, I
teared up when he asked me to bear my testimony on the Book of Mormon. I could have said more, but it was hard to go
on after saying just a few things. (I
will expound on it later). So we got
back and went tracting and found a “potential.” We had to be in by 6pm though because of all
the crazy New Year’s people driving on the roads. So since we were on our property, we went over
to our landlord’s home and played a game. They had a football game on, which I didn't
mind too much -haha. We stayed up and
did our New Year’s count down.
Friday
we got the whole day off. We call it Super
P-day. We were able to watch certain
approved movies. A member, the one who
took us to Nashville, brought us a 63" TV and DVD player so we could watch
in our apartment. The Gallatin Elders came over as well and we watched 6 movies
throughout the day. We watched Minions,
Catching Faith, Inside Out, Cars, an old western, and Ratatouille. If I wasn't a missionary, I probably would
have had more fun just staring at the ceiling than watching movies all day, but
since this was a once-a-year thing, and I never get to watch TV, it was good. We had a blast. It was nice being able to relax for the whole
day.
Saturday
we were back to work and we tried a couple people, but we were only able to
teach one less-active member. Later that
night, I think it was a mixture of tiredness and a slice of key lime pie, we
made some awesome video clips with a nerf gun.
Sunday we
went to church at our new time – 11am. Afterwards,
we drove to Springfield to spend a couple days there since now we have to cover
two areas temporarily. We will return to
White House Thursday morning. We tried a
lot of people, but were only able to make contact with a few. We taught the Restoration to three ladies,
which went well. We met with a less-active
and talked with him for a bit too. We
set up a few return appointments.
So
that was our week. I mentioned earlier that I
would expound on my testimony of the Book of Mormon: I know
that this book is true. As I read it
every day and study it, which is the real key, I am learning so much. I am currently reading about Captain Moroni
and some of the war chapters and I am noticing all of the missionary verses
that are in those chapters that I never saw before. I also have a desire to change as I read it. It makes me just think about my home life and
how I want to change some things when I get home. One of them being, reading this book everyday.
I wasn't the best at it and I want to
change that. This book is changing me
and my life. I love Joseph Smith's comment in
the Introduction about how a man will get nearer to God by abiding by it’s
precepts, than by any other book. I know
that statement to be true. I cannot
express how grateful I am for this book. I KNOW this
book to be true. I know this book
changes lives for the better. If you are
not reading this book, then start now. If
you are reading the scriptures and not this book, that is great, but your
learning, studies, and knowledge will be enhanced tremendously if you include
the Book of Mormon. I just read a
wonderful talk in the January Ensign entitled Were My Studies Sufficient? It talks about how important the Book of
Mormon is. I hope you all add this to
your resolutions to read it every day from now on. I can promise you that you will find more joy
in your life, understand more things spiritually, changes for the better will
occur, and so much more. I love each and
every one of you. I hope you all have a
great 2016. And I leave y'all with this
in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen.
Elder
Ellison
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| Back-Breaking Work at the Bishop's Storehouse. They are heavier than they look! |
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