WEEK 1 OKEMOS (WEEK 61 OF MISSION)

Let's start with a few Pics from the area Parker just left, before we move on.

Basketball in church clothes! Gotta love it

Barbara Pawson and her two sons.  She's so amazing! Thanks for everything Barb!

Check out this Pizza Feast and how they each have their own box of Wings, Pizza, and Breadsticks!

Not really sure what is happening here, haha

Hey everyone!

Meridian is great! it is a super unique area. we live in the rich part of our area called Okemos (named after Indians). it is really wealthy. REALLY WEALTHY. then, a 15 minute drive away, is south lansing, the other half of our area. which is really not wealthy at all. a giant corn field separates the two places. it is crazy and it is awesome haha. we are finding a lot right now and trying to talk to everyone we can to build up a teaching pool. the ward is incredible and things are going to be awesome here. also, there are two sets of elders in this ward and the other set is elder tuua and elder Norton! my trainee! cool huh? and we drive a black mini van. its safe to say we are the only two white guys, in shirts and ties, driving a black minivan through the middle of south lansing.

this week was good. we talked to some people in the ghetto who had a pet monkey, so that was a first. the monkey had his own room and cost about $7,500 dollars haha. we are finding a lot of potential investigators so hopefully this week we will turn all of them into investigators!

There is a quote from the Incredibles that is so deep and so true. at one point, the supervillian.. whats his name... umm... voltron? no... frozone? no... its umm... SYNDROME!! haha I just had to ask like 4 people to find it. ok anyway, he says, "when everyone's super, nobody will be." or something like that. well this week, we have met many people who are agnostic. about everything. to them, there is no falsehood. every religion is right. God is in everything and everything happens for a reason. God leads you to everything. none of these things are true because God never leads us to sin or do evil, but these people don't always agree. here is the catch: when everyone is right, nobody will be. or when everything is true, nothing is. EVERYTHING CANT BE TRUE. there either is a God, or there is not. He either has a perfected and glorified body, or He does not. We either must live His commandments, or we must not. The bottom line is, satan is good at what he does. and he is only getting better. he confuses people and twists and bends the truth. he gets us caught up in popular culture and blinds us subtly until we are entangled in his worldly mess. he does it through lyrics to our favorite songs, movies, magazines, tv shows, clothing, and anything else that can distract us and dull our spiritual sensitivity. people all around us go through life as if they were in a dream. they never think about how they got here, or what they are to do here. they only live for the weekend or for the moment, or whatever it may be. I have so many thoughts right now and they are all coming out very scattered haha sorry. the reality of our situation is that we exist, so each of us must come to grips with how we got here. was it by divine design or was it not? once we have answered that question, we must find why we are here. God wants us to be happy. He wants us to know the truth. He has created all these things for a purpose. That is what we know as members of His Church. We must study and then share God's purpose with the world. then we must live accordingly. Who knows what God's purpose in creating the world was? Why did He put us here? write me back your answers! find the answers! these are things we ALL must answer for ourselves.

I love you all so much! have a great week!