Interesting because on top
of recovering from being sick, as this week's catchy title suggests, we
ran out of food, and money to buy more food with. And we also ran out of
our allotted miles for the month and so we were on bike all week. It's
also been like 90 degrees and sunny. And so I learned quickly the
importance of being hydrated while biking. Especially when trying to
recover from being sick. I do like to think I am getting a nice tan
though. It's probably more like a burn cause it's kind of got a red tint
to it and it doesn't feel super great, but I'm gonna say it's a tan.
That's the other thing, sunscreen is also important.
So yeah. Many good lessons learned.
It
was a good week though. We didn't teach a ton of people this week
unfortunately, but we did meet with Ron a couple of times. Ron is just
so great. He always has these really funny and surprisingly profound
comments. We might be the ones teaching him the principles and the
doctrine and stuff. But he has so much wisdom just from life experience
that he's constantly teaching us almost as much as we're teaching him.
He gets baptized in about two weeks now, so that's really exciting. He's
super excited about it.
A lot of our week was spent biking
and trying to contact people to set up lessons. There are a couple of
mystery people we have as well, for example James and Maria, who seem
like super solid people, but their address doesn't exist. Fun stuff like
that.
Well, as I mentioned, I learned many
valuable lessons about budgeting and planning and being prepared. Last
month I wasn't prepared and I didn't plan grocery lists or anything
which led to impulse buys like cheese balls and a box of 56 taquitos,
which came in really handy this week actually. Similarly with our miles,
we really just didn't pay a whole lot of attention to it, and so we
went over.
Well as I thought of this, I figured that there is
probably a spiritual lesson in here too. And I think you can look at
that kind of planning and preparation in a spiritual sense. We need to
be spiritually prepared for the trials and hardships that come our way
in life. And we do that by building ourselves on a strong foundation.
And the only truly strong foundation we can have is Jesus Christ. In the
Book of Mormon, in Helaman chapter 5 verse 11 it says, "And
now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our
Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your
foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea,
his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm
shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down
to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye
are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build
they cannot fall."
This scripture also reminds me of the
story in the New Testament when Peter goes out onto the water towards
the Savior. It's because of his faith in Christ that he is able to walk
on the water. But it's when he takes his focus off of the Savior and he
starts worrying about the storm around him that he begins to sink.
We
all have our own winds and storms in life that come at us. And they
could be things like fears, doubts, worldly things, heartache, and other
challenges we face. But no matter what it is that the devil sends forth
at us, if we have our faith firmly centered on Jesus Christ, not on
anyone or on anything else but Him, then "we cannot fall." No matter
what happens, we cannot fall if our faith is in Jesus Christ.
I
promise you that that is true. And that you can find out it is true for
yourself if you really put it to the test. If you honestly seek to
develop your own faith in the Savior, and you do what is necessary to
help that faith grow, then it will grow. I've been able to see that in
people that I've taught and also in myself as I am constantly trying to
strengthen my faith in Jesus Christ.
I hope you all have another fantastic week,
~Elder Oswald
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