Hey, so I don’t know about the package. The secretaries are in my zone so I’ll talk to them and tell them to just pay any taxes. I’ll figure it out right now. That’s pretty sweet about Sheldon winning the meet. Great job bud. Good luck in state, just live it up. Brigg, sorry bud if you’re losing that bad and Sheldon winning like that…. you have no right to say swimmers are gay. I think he looks pretty manly in that Speedo =)! Nice car, what jealousy… that’s quite the eventful weekend there at the cabin, don’t be stupid and do things the right way. Dad as you always said, “don’t do things half a--“… doing things redneck style is doing things that way.
Mom talking about having to get rid of bad feelings for others, I was reading Miracle of Forgiveness when it mentions that someone who can’t forgive someone else isn’t worthy to partake of the sacrament… he [Spencer W. Kimball] usually goes a bit far with some things but it’s true. Jesus taught, go fix things with your brother then come follow me. (something like that, that’s how the Catholics say it anyway… hahaha such apostasy here). In fact, I had quite the lesson here this week with that. We had a companionship here in the zone that just did not want to let stupid things go. They fought like crazy and no counsel or advice would be taken. One would run from the house and leave his comp alone and it was just bitter, no respect, no love, nothing good. I felt bad because all my attention was directed to them this week and I couldn’t put much attention on the rest of the elders. On Saturday, things got worse, after talking with them for about an hour after English classes they fought again and one of them disappeared. I called the assistants and asked them to stop ignoring the problem, so finally they decided to come and after looking for the elder for a while they found him. That elder would rather go home than be with his companion. Well, we knew that little piece of information beforehand, and in fact, in the zone leader council on Thursday that was a big theme that the president talked about. Laman and Lemuel were in the same situation, they would rather die than continue on in the desert and listening to their brother and father. What a hopeless situation! Giving up is never the answer and never resolves anything. Finally, the elder was convinced to stay and they just had special changes.
Something else I really enjoyed from the council. Running from our fears is going to find them. The president told a story; see if I can translate it good. There once was a man who had an intense fear of death. He couldn’t sleep for the fear of not waking up. He never got married nor had kids because someday he would have to die. Never worked cuz that would increase the risk of death. Basically, he lived a life controlled by this fear. One day a person from the town where he lived told him there would be an old wise person near the town and maybe the wise guy could help him with his problem so he went looking. After a few days he found the old man sitting and meditating. When he ended the fearful man got near him and asked him what he could do to get away from his fear. The old man looked at him and began to tell him a story. He said ‘once there was a man with a servant and he told the servant to go get some food and materials from the market he needed, so the servant left and in the market he found the death all black hooded with his sickle [grim reaper]. The servant became so frightened he dropped all he had bought and ran to his master. He pleaded the master to let him flee to Tarsa because he had seen the death [grim reaper] and was frightened. The master told him to talk his fastest horse and he would arrive before midnight at Tarsa. He left, and the master became angered and went to the market. He found the death [grim reaper] there in the same spot and asked him why he had frightened his servant. The death replied that he had not meant to scare him, in fact, he was surprised to see him there since he was supposed to pick up the servant at midnight in Tarsa.’ “I got it!” said the man who had such a fear of death. “Running from your fears is going to find them. Thank you so much for helping me.” He turned to go away but the old man spoke again. “You have learned but from today, there will be no more tomorrows.” He turned into the death [grim reaper] and there took the fearful man.
This little story tells a good point. I’ve found usually when I’m afraid of getting a bad companion it happens; when I think someone isn’t going to show up to church it’ll happen. If you think you’ll lose you are probably right. We must live our lives as the late Elder Wirthlin said, “come what may and love it.” If we let fear in our lives there is a good chance it may control our lives. Don’t run away from your fears. Look them straight on and ask yourself some questions. Is this something really worth fearing? If it happens will it help me? Can I get over this fear? Is the worry and pressure creating more problems than the actual problem? And a lot of self exam questions. Fight your fears. We are the only ones who put limits. Remember, Satan doesn’t want to scare anyone; his key indicators aren’t how many people killed by heart attack. He wants us to worship him. And worshipping anything except the One True God is worshiping him.
We had a wonderful week in the area. When we were here there was plenty of work. It’s really weird having a white companion, and weird being in a threesome. And we are squeezed into our tiny apartment. We had three baptisms this week. One on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Maria de Jesus, friend of Sister Guadalupe who finally after 6 weeks got baptized. Hilda, sister of a recent convert Eulalia, and Pamela, 9 year old daughter of Paula a less active who has come back to church. It was wonderful having baptisms three days in a row. My favorite was on Sunday, Pamela’s. Me and Penelope, a returned sister missionary, sang the primary song I like to look for rainbows while Elder Roylance played the piano. It was a so cool I love that song and it’s very pretty in Spanish.
Well, congratulate Erin for me. And everyone else. Holy cow… babies all over the place. I decided here I want 7 but we’ll see what the senior companion says when I get married ;)
Thanks for who you are. Don’t wreck the mustang please… walk to school it’ll do you good. Oh, ya, another bit of advice from President Fuentes. A while ago he said to take a cold shower every morning cuz it fortifies the defenses and wakes you up and some other stuff. I only tried it once and every time the gas runs out. But the new advice is a spoonful of pure, raw bee’s honey. It gives all the necessary vitamins and minerals plus energy that lasts all day. Just a spoonful and then eat whatever you want. Me and Roylance have been doing it and it sure helped on Saturday. Hahaha who knows but I like the flavor. I don’t like cold showers.
Love you all so much. Take care. Mom, just send the package to the offices. I’ll leave money with the secretaries and make sure it gets through.
-ELDER SOLOMON
Ps Brighton fill those papers out ya baby.
