The Straw the Broke the Elder's Bike Axle...and His Companion's Glasses

There are many ways to start an email. I could perhaps begin with a cordial greeting. I could begin with a joke. But today I will begin with an apology.

I'm sorry for not sending an email last week. 

Well, it has been a great couple of weeks. And my how the time has flown. 

We had exchanges on Tuesday and I was with Elder Taylor in his area. It was a fun day. I mentioned a few emails ago that I am fluent in Swahili, and now I am even more fluent. There is an English class that Elder Taylor and Elder John help with for people who speak Swahili, since Elder John speaks Swahili, but we went to the class even though Elder John wasn't there because they had committed to be there. And it was super cool. 

Also, I think I've mentioned before that I love being in a bike only area. Despite the heat, that still is true, and Elder Sellers agrees with me. So, much to our disappointment, Elder Sellers has been having a series of bike malfunctions, and the straw that broke the camel's back, was the other day when we were biking and his back axle broke. And if you know anything about bikes, you'd know that it's kind of hard to ride a bike with a broken axle. And so his bike had to be taken in to be fixed. Unfortuantely, there are no loaner bikes in his size and so we were given a cherry red Rav 4 to use for the next couple days. I already miss biking though. 

In other news, my glasses broke again. To recap the glasses breaking story, I started with two pairs of glasses. One with black plastic frames, and the other with wire half rim frames. One morning playing soccer my plastic ones broke because they made contact with another Elder's shoulder. Then a few weeks later was the one where my wire frames were utterly demolished by a basketball thrown at my face at point blank range. So after that happened I decided take initiative and solve the glasses problem by taping my black plastic glasses with scotch tape and that had been holding up really well, and I figured it was better than nothing. I kept wearing them while playing sports however, cause I guess I figured they're already broken it doesn't matter. Well a couple days ago we were playing basketball for our exercise time and I was up by the hoop, about to make a really cool looking lay up, and Elder Sellers was at about the half court line and he decided to launch the basketball at the hoop. And just so you know, that man has a rocket for an arm, and all I hear is "Elder Oswald watch out" and I turned around just in time for the basketball to yeet my already broken glasses right off my face, breaking them in yet another spot. So now I have more Scotch tape on them. I actually have an optometrist appointment tonight though, so I will be solving the problem for real this time. It'll be good, I'm an optimist about optometrists. 

On Thursday we were able to go to the temple with the Juarez family. It was an amazing time. 

For those of you who don't know, a temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints is a sacred place where members of the Church can go to feel closer to the Lord and to make other special covenants or promises to Him. Just like, we make promises when we are baptized, we can make other promises in the temple. Also, because of how essential we believe those covenants, like baptism, to be, there in the temples we can stand in the place of our ancestors who have passed away without an opportunity to accept the Gospel and make those covenants on their behalf, which gives them the opportunity to accept those and receive the same blessings we can receive when we make those promises with the Lord. Which comes back to the belief we have in life after death, and that because God loves all of His children, He has made it possible for each one of his children to have an opportunity to accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ, even if they didn't have the chance in their earthly lifetime. When the apostle Paul was testifying of the Savior's Resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15, which is a great chapter by the way, and I'd invite you to read the whole chapter to get the full context, but he said in verses 20-22:

   "But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

    For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.

    For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."

And then he goes on to talk more about why there must be a Ressurection and he says in verse 29:

"Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?"

So that's why we as members of the Church believe so strongly about temple and family history work. Because we know Jesus Christ conquered death, and that there will be a day when that "last enemy" will "be destroyed."(1 Corinthians 15:26). "For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit." (1 Peter 4:6)  That's why it's so important for everyone, living or dead, to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Because there is a life after this one, and if we accept and live Christ's Gospel, we can have the happiest, most peaceful and joyful life we can imagine, living with God and Jesus Christ and our families forever. That's why we have missionaries and that's why we have temples. Its all about proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ to God's children and helping to bring families together in this life and for eternity. 

Well, now that I just unloaded all that information, 'tis about time for me to wrap up. But if any of that didn't make sense, feel free to email me questions. 

I love you all, and I hope your week is amazing!

Sincerely,

~Elder Oswald