* Mom and the kids went with dad down to Gillette. They left Tuesday morning and got home Thursday night. Lots of hours spent in the pool, at the playground and relaxing in our 2 bedroom suite! It was a wonderful time!
* Worked on organizing the garage as a family
* Dad served by cleaning the Temple on Friday night
August & Ben in Nebraska...
* Arrived safely after driving 15 hours!
* All settled in at grandma and grandpa's
* August started in on his Computer course - even got a 100% on his first test!
* Ben is working with a personal trainer at the local Cross Fit gym (and is extremely sore!)
* Went down to Lincoln and spent the weekend with JR, Lori and the cousins
* Worked on the Garden
* Ben worked on his novel
* Went to the Movie - King Arthur
Seth Spotlight...
*Performed a Baptism of a recently turned 8 year old girl in the Ward
* Teaching an investigator named Angela. She has been coming to church each Sunday and after attending the Baptism of the little girl in the ward, she asked to have her baptsimal date moved to this Saturday.
* First Transfer his whole Mission where he hasn't gotten a new companion- so he and Baez will be together for another 6 weeks in San Ramon
* They are in their Rainy Season and he says that he is soaked constantly! Even with an umbrella and rain jacket - he's still always wet (and cold!)
He sent this testimony on FAITH to us that I wanted to include:
"There are just some things that we will never be able to know here in this life, and sometimes things just don´t really even make sense. But it´s not bad to have questions about the gospel. Even questions such as Does God even exist. Those are the questions that help build more faith. There is a difference between doubting and questioning. The scriptures say Doubt not Fear not. Doubts aren't of God. But Questions are. Some people put off everything, if they don´t understand something or a gospel principle - they won´t follow that commandment until they do understand it. But that takes away faith. If you have a question, the thing to do is: 1. Continue on in faith 2. Studying and immersing yourself in finding an answer. The thing is, for lots of things you just have to trust on. Even here in the Mission, you just have to keep on trusting. I don´t have a knowledge of everything. I just am putting my trust in God, because in the end that is how we will all be happiest. So yeah. I've had lots of talks with other missionaries - and sometimes we pose really hard questions, just to see what the others would think or say. While for some, those questions might bring up doubts, but if you keep up in the faith, asking to know for real, it will do nothing but help you out. If you guys ever have questions, you can do the same as me - Even if I don´t know, I put my trust in the Lord, and hey it´ll all work out well in the end!"
Spiritually Speaking...
Finding the Principles! A few weeks ago I was reading a conference talk by Elder Richard G. Scott and it was all about Revelation - and I loved it! One thing that stuck out to me was that of finding PRINCIPLES during our Scripture Study (a Principle is truth that works in any situation). As I dug further into this concept, I came across an analogy about a gold miner. It went on to explain that the rocks (that the gold veins are encompassed in) are necessary and nice but what the Miner is really there for is the GOLD - and that he has to dig deeper and chip away the rock to get to it. Same with our Scriptures - the stories that we read are nice, but what we're really after are the PRINCIPLES that they hold! This made so much sense to me and got me looking at the stories that I'm so familiar with in such a different light! I have even gone so far as to get a separate "Principles Journal" that I am writing these discovered truths in. The very first time I attempted looking for the principles, I decided to just continue reading where I was currently at - Moroni ch. 1 - which happens to be only 4 verses long. I was a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to find the principles but as I really pondered the story that was being told, I was able to chip it away and find the underlying truths that it held. Those truths that I gained from these 4 short verses were:
1. Journals are written for our posterity's benefit
2. Stand up for Christ, no matter the consequence
As I've continued incorporating this deliberate act of seeking out the Principles, my little journal is quickly filling up with beautiful truths that will help guide my life.
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