May 7, 2018

So excited for a change. I'm staying here in Waterloo but got a new companion. He actually just got here from Turkey! So what happened is because of the church being concerned for the missionaries safety in Turkey they pulled them all out of the area. They all got reassigned to different places all over the world. So four of them showed up here about a week ago. Its crazy! He was only able to be there for 10 weeks and then he got pulled and now he is here. Im so excited to show him how amazing the CTM (Canada Toronto Mission) is and get him out working here! It will be so cool to hear of the crazy experiences he had over there for the short period he was there. He is from Lehi, Utah so he should be a pretty decent English speaker ahahha. It will be good to have a baptism this month with him here so he can get pumped to serve here ahah. Anyway we had a pretty solid week and spent some really solid time finding new people. We as a mission this week talked to over 5000 thousand people as we set a goal to do so and achieved it! It was to prepare for President Ballard and we sure all prepared as it was a very powerful and spiritual meeting. I was able to shake his hand and look him in his eyes. I love how ethusastic he was, he truly brought a very special spirit that was very powerful. Two of the big topics he touched on were to open our mouths and talk to everyone, as well as smile and be happy haha. Many of the missionaries don't smile even though they love the gospel. Sometimes, because of all the reject we get, it gets to them. But we need to understand others have agency and they can say no. Are we happy about that ourselves? No because we know it can help others lives so much. But we can't do anymore than invite or else it isn't up to them which it needs to be. I am for sure not perfect at smiling and being happy all the time but it sure does help when I am, so that's one thing I'm going to focus on, smiling more haha. I know President Ballard was called of God and is an amazing leader and advocate for Christs church here on earth. What a blessing it is to have such amazing and strong leaders to help guide us and teach us. They truly help us strive to be more like our Savior Jesus Christ, by the example they set and I'm trying to do the same. I was reading a talk the other day called "The balancing act of endurance" by Elder Michael John U. Teh. There were a couple things that really clicked with me and I wanted to share them with you. First was about choosing from right and wrong. He says "Some people think that it is becoming harder and harder to distinguish right from wrong. There appears to be more and more gray areas. Many of the incorrect but popular opinions of the day appear to make sense when viewed solely through a narrow lens. But old garbage covered with new packaging and backed by creative advertising is still garbage! Discerning between right and wrong need not be complicated. Even before we receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, we are blessed with the Light of Christ". I love this great visual! You can create in your head a bag of garbage that you rapped up like a present. When you open it.... Its still garbage. It doesnt change. This is how easily Satan can deceive many people. We all have the light of Christ he talked about, no matter who we are. So we all know good from evil but many times we get so use to evil,  we justify and convince ourselves that what we are doing is fine. We need to make sure we are staying away from that bag of garbage rapped up like a present. It may please you for a short time but in the eternity this will never bring you the happiness that can be felt by choosing good and doing good. I know we all have things we do that maybe is making that garbage look like a present. Stop them hahah! Change and become a better person and move on. There are so many things I need to do to become better at, but as you and I work on them, one by one, we CAN slowly become so much better . It goes along with another thing he said which was "Enduring to the end is not about completing a gospel checklist and then saying: “I’m good. All I have to do now is coast along and maintain it.” Rather, it is about continually learning and growing. The gospel of Jesus Christ is about constant repentance and change—it is an uphill climb rather than a stroll in the park. King Benjamin said, “See that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength” (Mosiah 4:27).". Like he said, its not a checklist. It takes work and will do so for the rest of your life. So just do it!  I believe in you, our Heavenly Father believes in you haha. Well this is getting pretty long so I'll end it by saying it's getting so nice here holy cow. Calgary hot and Waterloo hot are on a different level haha. You get like legit wet because the humidity, kinda nasty but it feels so good to have the warm weather back and get tanned ahah. Well I love you all and keep being sick as heck .