hey everybody!
hope all is well wherever you are!
things are
great in Michigan. the weather has been about as up and down as ever. it was
soo nice most of last week, then two days ago we woke up to a blizzard
outside..? anyway, it rained a lot yesterday and today looks like it will be
nice!
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| Parker with one of his great friends from Bingham and from the baseball team, Devon Petersen. They got to spend all day together on splits this past week :) |
this past week
we taught some really awesome new people! we have been blessed to find some
incredible investigators lately. one of them, Delorean (or D-Lo for short), is
doing so well! We found D-Lo a month or two ago and just started teaching her a
few weeks back. She is so great! She feels like she has distanced herself from
God while in college and she really wants to get back. We have had some
incredible lessons with her and she came to Church for the first time
yesterday. She currently has a baptismal date for April 25th.
We get away
from God by small and simple steps. you dont usually keep all the commandments
one day, and then the next wake up and decide to commit extremely serious sins
you had never before thought of committing. it doesnt happen that way. just
like most other changes in life, it is a process of small and simple steps. its
not reading the scriptures one day, not praying for a few days, skipping church
meetings one week, and pretty soon you are in a place you never thought you
would be a few months ago. The frustrating part for most of us is not that we
let ourselves get so far away, but that it is hard to find the strength to come
back. It seems like such a long road, and rightfully so.
"It would
be so nice if I could just wake up and be back where I was 6 months ago before
I made these decisions and got in these habits."
But that isn't
how you got away from the good habits, remember? you didnt just wake up one day
and do a 180 away from the light of the Gospel. So why would that be how you
get back? no... how you get back is the same way you got away: small and simple
steps. This is the key! by doing those small and simple steps, you gain the
strength, faith, and hope to make it not only all the way back to where you
were, but to go even beyond that point in your spiritual progression. but if we
do not do those things, then we remain exactly where we are now. an object at
rest will stay at rest until acted upon. sometimes we refuse to move if we cant
move a long distance in a short amount of time, and by refusing to do small and
simple things to improve, we greatly limit ourselves.
here is one
short example: lots of missionaries dont like to door knock (i dont know why,
dont ask me. i like it). But it is a necessary evil for them because we need to
find people to teach. if you have lots of people to teach, then you never have
time to door knock. so what do missionaries need to do? they need to work on
door knocking and do it a lot so then they can get people to teach and not have
to do it anymore! but what do missionaries do? we drag our feet about door
knocking because we dont like it, we dont get any better, so we dont find any
new investigators, and then we have to keep door knocking because we arent
finding any body!
the principle:
if we would just get some righteous inertia, then we would get on a spiritual
roll! but if we refuse to do the things that would get us moving toward where
we want to be, all the while complaining about not being where we want to be,
then we have no one to blame but ourselves.
Sorry about the
extremely long email! love you all!
oh and ps we
just called Elder Norton as the new Assistant to the President! I will be
getting moved this next week (its transfer planning week now). we picked him up
yesterday and it has been great!
love,
Elder Green
