Dear Family and Friends,
We saw some really heavy rain this week, so there was much rejoicing by me and my companion when we finally had our shoes soaked all the way through! Speaking of shoes,my funny story this week is about a shoe thief. We visited a returning less active sister this week and we left our shoes outside, when we came indie and sat down the sister flipped out and asked "did you leave your shoes outside?" we responded yes, and the sister replied "Not again!", wondering what she meant we looked outside and found that my right shoe and my companion's left shoe were gone. She then organized her family to find the shoes "before the dogs take them to the rice field!". Don't worry, the shoes were found and rescued, but other Elders have not been so lucky, one such Elder had his brand new shoes eaten down to the soles. Lesson: Take your shoes inside!
"Everything happens for a reason" is a phrase that is said too much and understood too little. We often use this for hard times that happen to everyone as part of our lifer here on Earth, but we often think of it as God's way to "toughen us up" or to "teach us a lesson", too often we think that temptations and trials the adversary give us are the result of weak faith or not doing enough. I heard this quote once from a talk I heard that says "Satan don't kick no dead dogs", this was something that Jack R. Christianson talked about in his talk titled "The Mortal Christ" (I highly recommend this). There are trials that come and go, but they are all part of out loving Heavenly Father's plan of HAPPINESS. In book of Mormon terms Lehi states: "thou knowest the greatness of God; and he shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain.' or in other words, everything that happens, good or bad, is to help us be happy in the long run of things, if we hold to the teachings of the gospel. Things do happen,and some things are so hard that only the Savior would understand, but even after the Savior finished the Atonement, we don't need to even question if Christ is happy for what He did. Happiness is the end, if we endure well.
I hope you all have a great week! Keep things as happy as Heavenly Father wants them to be!
Mahal Ko Kayo
Elder Trevor Kent Johnson (The Weirdest Missionary You Know)
We saw some really heavy rain this week, so there was much rejoicing by me and my companion when we finally had our shoes soaked all the way through! Speaking of shoes,my funny story this week is about a shoe thief. We visited a returning less active sister this week and we left our shoes outside, when we came indie and sat down the sister flipped out and asked "did you leave your shoes outside?" we responded yes, and the sister replied "Not again!", wondering what she meant we looked outside and found that my right shoe and my companion's left shoe were gone. She then organized her family to find the shoes "before the dogs take them to the rice field!". Don't worry, the shoes were found and rescued, but other Elders have not been so lucky, one such Elder had his brand new shoes eaten down to the soles. Lesson: Take your shoes inside!
"Everything happens for a reason" is a phrase that is said too much and understood too little. We often use this for hard times that happen to everyone as part of our lifer here on Earth, but we often think of it as God's way to "toughen us up" or to "teach us a lesson", too often we think that temptations and trials the adversary give us are the result of weak faith or not doing enough. I heard this quote once from a talk I heard that says "Satan don't kick no dead dogs", this was something that Jack R. Christianson talked about in his talk titled "The Mortal Christ" (I highly recommend this). There are trials that come and go, but they are all part of out loving Heavenly Father's plan of HAPPINESS. In book of Mormon terms Lehi states: "thou knowest the greatness of God; and he shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain.' or in other words, everything that happens, good or bad, is to help us be happy in the long run of things, if we hold to the teachings of the gospel. Things do happen,and some things are so hard that only the Savior would understand, but even after the Savior finished the Atonement, we don't need to even question if Christ is happy for what He did. Happiness is the end, if we endure well.
I hope you all have a great week! Keep things as happy as Heavenly Father wants them to be!
Mahal Ko Kayo
Elder Trevor Kent Johnson (The Weirdest Missionary You Know)