There
are many differences between St. Johns and Scottsdale that many might
consider to be astronomical. For instance, there are significantly less
people here, and the roads are significantly less busy. There are also
significantly more trees and significantly more farms and ranches. It is
also significantly higher in elevation and therefore there is
significantly more lower temperatures. The most literally astronomical
difference however is that because of the significant lack of light
pollution here, you can see the stars way better.
This week was really good. I'll make a quick recap of some of the events from the week:
-We went to a block party and talked to a hitchhiker
-We helped at the food bank
-We got food poisoning low key
-We visited with a ton of people as usual
Now,
Saturday was quite eventful. I've explained it before I believe, but we
have as a part of our area, a bunch of land in the middle of nowhere
both on the east and on the west of St. Johns. To the west is Concho,
where we have a small congregation. And to the east is a power plant and
"the forties" which is a whole bunch of forty acre plots of land that
people own. And a little ways north is called the "witch wells" which is
similar to the forties except for its apparently more dangerous and
we're not supposed to go there without someone going with us who knows
the area. Anyhow, now that you have that background, I can tell this
story:
So we got a text from a lady a while ago asking us to
help her with stuff on Saturday. She isn't a member of the church but
she is friends with one of the members and that's how she knew to
contact us for service. So Saturday came, and we followed her directions
to her property. And her property is in the aforementioned Forties to
the east of St. Johns. And this was farther into the middle of nowhere
than I've ever been in my life. It was crazy. But anyway, we get to her
100 acre ranch (she owns more than the typical forty acres) and she
explained to us that she wants us to put in a septic tank for one of her
trailer homes. And it was surprisingly simple instructions: dig a hole,
put the 55 gallon plastic drum in the hole, and cut a hole in the top
of it. But digging the hole was way harder than I expected, for in my
experience with hole digging, it always took place in the soft layer of
topsoil of my vegetable garden in Michigan, and it only went about a
foot deep, and I was 10. In this case however, the dirt was dry and
hard, and we had to get it big enough to fit a 55 gallon drum, but even
worse was that it was mostly hardened clay that we were digging through,
which is pretty much just a step below trying to dig through concrete.
It was challenging, but we did it and it only took 3 hours and a few
sore muscles. It was just like that movie Holes, except for we only had
to dig one hole and we never discovered an intriguing plot about hidden
treasure or our ancestors stealing pigs from each other.
The
lady, who we'll call Valerie, she also prepared lunch for us which was
super nice. And she also invited all her "neighbors" over for lunch. I
say neighbors in quotations because I'm used to that being a word which
means a person living close by, and they don't actually live close to
her, they're just the closest people that live to her. They still hang
out all the time though I guess. The first to arrive were the two
identical looking men who introduced themselves as "Dave and Dave." They
were the same height, had the same work boots, the same blue jeans, the
same bushy gray beards, and the same "Trump 2020" hats. The only
distinctions were that the first Dave had sunglasses and a green
sweatshirt and the second Dave had normal glasses and a green jacket.
The rest of the neighbors that came were pretty normal. There was the
older single guy, the middle aged single guy, and the older married
couple. It was fun to have lunch with them. However the conversation
soon became very political, and as missionaries we are supposed to
remain politically neutral, so we did our best just to nod our heads,
except for at that point we ourselves were wearing Trump hats since they
were given to us to protect us from the sun while digging the hole, and
so I'm not actually sure how successful we were at appearing
politically neutral.
But after that, we were taken to the top
of her property where she showed us all the pottery shards from the
Anasazi Native American tribe that once lived there and we got to
collect some. So that was cool. Then she took us to where she thought
were some Anasazi cave drawings except for she couldn't find them.
But yeah, that was our fun adventure on Saturday.
Well
I'm gonna have to get going, but I spoke at Church yesterday and I
wanted to share with you now, one of the scriptures I shared then. It's
in the Old Testament, Isaiah chapter 1 verse 18.
"Come
now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as
scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like
crimson, they shall be as wool."
I love
this scripture because it is very simple and straightforward. And I know
it's true. I know that whatever we've done, we can be forgiven. Through
Jesus Christ we can become clean and we can have peace and we can be
happy. I love this knowledge I have about the Savior and His Gospel, and
I love continuing to learn about it and I love teaching others about it
as well.
I hope you all have an enjoyable week!
Cordially,
~Elder Oswald
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