This week was pretty stinking great. for one, we were able to play ultimate frisbee, and this time it was with the Old folks in our family ward!!! it's kinda weird being in the ysa so long and having all those obviously athletic people that can out run, out catch, and out maneuver you, and you can justify it because they're young, and i'm a missionary, so it's not a big deal. it's way harder to justify when it's 40 year old fellers whoopin' ya... but hey!!! still dang fun! and if i'm more motivated to make good use of my morning exercise time, win win win:)
Other than discovering the extent to which i'm out of shape, we saw a ton of miracles!!! Just another quick fasting miracle: it's 9 on saturday, meaning we're done tracting an apartment complex, heading home before curfew, it's dark, rainy, and a wee bit spooky. when out of the darkness: a voice! saying "could you use an umbrella?" hahahaha we look around and barely see a lady from her balcony! we come closer and tell her we're fine, and it's not even raining THAT hard. haha we continue talking and discover she'd actually grown up in utah, and knows all about the church! Pretty cool! we asked to come up and meet her whole family, and she has an adorable little daughter who is 7 and draws very good elephants and penguins. i have proof. super amazing family, and cannot wait to go back again and meet em!!! i know that the only reason we were blessed to find them was because of the trust we've put in the Lord by the way we've been fasting. we found them legits less than 3 hours after we started the fast, and i know that the series of events that lead up to us being there at that moment were truly inspired!
other miracles, a little 11 year old boy got baptized this week! he is being taught by the sister missionaries, but 3 weeks ago, he approached me and in the most hilarious way asked if I'd do "the dunkin' stuff" at his baptism! his 11 year old way of asking if i'd baptize him! what a miraculous day!!!:) he didn't wanna stand up for the picture though... so... that explains that.
I absolutely love the book of second nephi. time and time again, it uses imagery of sleepiness/alertness. it's pretty amazing to read and recognize these symbols in my own life, with the people around me, and more often, in myself. Sleep is probably my greatest weakness ever. back home it'd take nothing shy of a game of ultimate frisbee to get me out of bed before 7. of course, on the mission, i've learned to sacrifice the comfort of sleeping in, and recently it feels like sleeping at all, 6:30 comes awful early. anyway. To be asleep is to be content, comfortable, and, in short, more a less a symbol of the natural man. again and again, Nephi, Lehi, and Isaiah command, beg, and advise us to "awake, awake!" what does this mean? to awake spiritually? this week, we met many people who knew full well what they were doing was wrong. and knew full well we could help them. they probably even knew full well that they should accept our help, because it would bring them greater happiness. why then did we not bring dozens of people into the safety of covenants this week? because of the simple truth that changing is a lot like waking up really early in the morning. it takes work, and honestly sorta stinks. it takes a great amount of foresight, a lot of trust, and probably a little bit of craziness the first couple of times to truly believe it's worth it. i highly doubt very many people even read this far into these dang emails anymore, but if you've made it this far, i can promise you, waking up to what the Lord has in store for you will NEVER be easy. It will never come as or when you expect, sort of like our alarm clocks in the morning, but just like every new day, Christ's call to change, to awake, to become better comes. and if you head it, I can promise you one more thing, that you will never be disappointed to follow the call of the Savior, and even if it comes as two goofy fellers in white shirts drenched in sweat knocking on your door. listen. it could be the Lord.
Anyway. love y'all!
Elder Roberts
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| David and us! |
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| Katy District meeting! Elder Hill, my little bear cub, is the district leader!!!:') they grow up so fast. |
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| Exchange. |
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| Temple trip!:) |
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| The other exchange |
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| Matching with this strapping young man! |
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