Sixteen

 Hola todos

I'm writing this inside of Texas roadhouse actually. It is very nice to have a little taste of home, even if that just means eating a burger and being around other white people. 

This week was a hard working one. The measure of success depends on your definition of such. We are teaching a lot of people right now, and the more I come to know them the more I come to almost feel bad for them. All of these people have been indoctrinated since their birth with a lot of things. They love worshipping the Virgin Mary here. So such traditions and parts of their catholic faith they can't see a religion being one of God without it, funnily enough. It doesn't matter how much sense we make or even if they understand we're from the church of God, it's never enough to make a change. I've born my testimony to so many people begging them to find out for themselves and try to make them understand we are representatives of Jesus Christ himself, and he wants you to be apart of all that we have to offer and I do to. And it all falls on deaf ears. I understand it's what a mission is like, and we put up with it all to find those few people and diamons in the rough. I just can't help but hurt for these people who almost don't have the ability to choose for themselves.

Speaking of diamonds in the rough, I haven't talked about hermana Martha enough to everyone. She was baptized one of my first weeks here, and recently had the opportunity to go to the temple. She baptized her parents and she has been so filled with joy. She's told us dreams of her seeing her mother clothed in white, thanking her for accepting the gospel and doing her work. All because the missionaries were here. She's golden, feeds us as much as she can as frequently and is always giving us new references and trying to convert all her family. It makes it all worth it.

Randomly, we will be on the street and hear and American song. And we were walking on Thursday and passed a random house that had November rain by guns and roses full blast. I made my companion stop and wait for the next 6 minutes. You'd have to present quite the argument to me to convince me that slash isn't the best guitarist of all time. I'm gonna go convert that guy who was playing it so I can come over more.

I've been quite blessed in terms of just being happy, and living in bliss as I've been here. As far as my spiritual growth, I've reached a point where I don't think most missionaries take the opportunity to pass. We can grow close enough to see God face to face if we so desired. Meaning, all of us have quite the road ahead of us. I am doing everything right right now. Naturally thinking, I have no reason to try and do more and to work harder, and to leave a comfort zone where I have the spirit and everything I need and I can live my normal life and serve. But I know there is more to be offered, and God has so much to offer us. The question is are we willing to leave our comfort zone? Are you comfortable with life and your relationship with the lord? Or do you long for more? We're the prophets of old ever satisfied with their blessings and state of homeostasis with God? Or did they try to push their limits everyday. I hope that all of you have the courage to push past where you are. Whether you realize it or not, if you're not growing you are allowing a wall between you and the lord. He will offer us the universe, or are you satisfied with the world?

It's funny but I have read just about all of my material I have here as far as the gospel library can offer me. And I have a lot more i want to learn, I just can't get my hands on the books I want while living in cansahcab Yucatan. So, if any of you are feeling generous, and have any of the books that I'm gonna list, I would love to have them for the next almost two years haha! Even if you've got one of them please reach out and my momma can get it to me. Thank you all for reading and supporting me. Love you all

A marvelous work and Wonder- Legrand Richards

Lectures on faith: Joseph Smith

The first theough fifth thousand years series by Cleon Skousen

Any of the volumes of- Foundations of the millennial kingdom of Christ : Hyrum Andrus

Isaiah Speaks to Modern Times: Cleon Skousen

Days of the Living Christ: Cleon skousen

Mormon Doctrine: Bruce R McConkie

Doctrines of Salvation: Joseph Fielding

All these things sheall give thee experience: Neal a maxwell

(Or any book by maxwell literally)

Gospel Doctrine: Joseph F

The infinite atonement

Christ and the new Covenant: Jeffrey r Holland

Joseph Smith papers

-eb

Week 15

 Week what I believe is 15 is done.

I can't tell if that's some sort of substantial amount of time to kind of be like whoa I've been here for a while already or it's still next to nothing, probably the latter. I suppose if you do the math I'm about a sixth of the way done haha! But I'm not thinking like that. Some days you are just in a bad mood and not anything can really pull you out of feeling alone and discouraged in ways, but all of those experiences are the best ways to show the Lord your faith for him, the day to day.

One day this week was probably the worst one I had in the mission and it was for no reason other than me being impatient and easily irritable. I spent the night with other missionaries who's house was disgusting and they were too and having no choice but to wallow in filth already makes me angry. And by now I just was angry and couldn't let the spirit work in me haha so literally everything ticked me off, we went to go play soccer in the morning for our workout time and all I could think was what a WASTE of time, we could be out looking for souls to save and I'm were doing this! I then did the math for how long a mission would be if we frontloaded all of the work and didn't leave anytime for distractions and still accumulated the same hours of service and teaching a missionary does in two years. If that was the case I'd be gone away from family for less than a year, and I was thinking about how I could bring this come into fruition like how I could get into contact with President Nelson haha. But the more I pondered I realized that everything and every single second I spend here is one in sacrifice for the lord, not just the ones on the streets, especially those moments that I feel like I could be spending in any other way. Sometimes there's no way to get us out of our pit of thinking, we just have to be doing what we know the lord wants us to be doing and lean on that faith, and the Lord wants me here .

The highlight of this week for me was teaching Spanish. We got 3 kids of like age 8 to come to our English class, all of them shy and scared to answer questions. I went about thinking how I would begin teaching Spanish to such young kids, and my comp as well because he's wanting to learn English too haha so it's just me. 

I told them their names in English and how to present themselves. Like, hi, I'm Elizabeth. And then I taught them to say, I am a child of God. And the goal was to get them to be able to say this whole sentence in English. 

Hello, I'm Elizabeth (or their name and I'm a child of God. 

All of them with their broken English and struggling to stumble through the words eventually were able to write it all down and say the sentence. At the end of the class, i told them that it was true, and did they know they had a father all the way in heaven? Such a fact just about blew their little minds. And I told all of them that he loves them. 

I looked one of them in the eyes and said, your Heavenly Father loves you, and he's your dad, and he knows your name. And I pointed right and him. 

This kid especially was really shy, too afraid to say basically anything I asked him to repeat, but after that, he had the biggest smile on his face, and seemingly was filled with the greatest confidence. And everytime I've seen him since interacting with anyone he has the same little confidence. I taught them how to say a simple prayer, and told them that Heavenly Father wants them to talk to him. We'll see if they work up the courage to do so. Such an opportunity warmed my heart, and makes me cry just writing it. Because I could feel the love Heavenly Father had for these little innocent kids, and to think he loves us the same way. I hope we never forget we are children of God, and he loves us perfectly.

During our district council this week I was asked to read the following verses for everyone in Alma 26

36 Now if this is boasting, even so will I boast; for this is my life and my light, my joy and my salvation, and my redemption from everlasting wo. Yea, blessed is the name of my God, who has been mindful of this people, who are a branch of the tree of Israel, and has been lost from its body in a strange land; yea, I say, blessed be the name of my God, who has been mindful of us, wanderers in a strange land. 

37 Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever. Amen.

I had read these verses many times before, I've read the missionary accounts in Alma numerous times. I had read those exact words before. But for some reason when I read those words out loud this week, I was overcome with the spirit. I began to sob, I could barely finish the words I was reading. The Lord is mindful of us, wanderers in a strange land. That phrase hit my heart, and I felt so much love from our Heavenly Father. It's tough being here sometimes, I feel like a wanderer in a strange land. But he's here. And the last verse is for all of us. He is mindful of ALL people, no matter where they live. He loves YOU. We are all children of him, the Most high God. He is mindful of every situation you are in, and wants to and will help you in every way he's allowed to. I can't imagine how hard it is for him to have to sit back sometimes and let us go through pain and hurt, when he wants to send us a comfort or a feeling of peace but he is restrained. Because it demeans the point of why we're here. Please, for the sake of your father in heaven, look to him in your trials and in everything you do. Because he wants to be there, and he is restrained. Invite him into your life and give him the peace of knowing you know that he is there. Because I can't imagine the pain he feels when his children feel as though he's forgotten them, when he is doing and has done all he can do, and just wants them to grow. And for that to happen he has to be far enough away. He loves us as he loves the children.

I feel like I have so much to tell that is funnker and lighthearted, but I suppose I'll have to wait for later emails as this one is quite long. Thank you everyone that reads these and supports me. Who write back and cheers me on. I feel so loved and blessed. Let us all remember the lord in our lives this week, I hope you all too when you kneel to pray talk to him like he's your father, and allow him to be in this life he has given you, because the only way to make the most of it is to allow him mold us and let him finish the gift he has given of us life! You could probably think of quite the analogy to go along with this, ill think on it. Hes not done making it, you just have to allow him to make more out of it than you ever could and be patient while he does so. Nothing else is of more importance

I love you all!

-eb

Week 14

 What a week! I can easily say this was the hardest working week I have had here, and that is because I determined how much we worked haha! Because I know the area and the people here and my trainer doesn't, but because he knows spanish, we cancel out to a perfect even of helping eachother, planning and growing. Whereas before being a trainee who knew nothing, I felt like a puppy with little to no say on what we did. And if I had a say, I didn't know how to say it haha! So I feel fulfilled and happy 

We worked tirelessly to hit our goals this week of new people, among other goals. Having a goal in mind and working towards it and leanings on the lord was a lesson I learned that I think we all should. Whether we met our goal this week doesn't matter if we did all we could and leaned on the lord, and we did a lot of good work setting up this next week. Many people took a huge step in progressing this week. In much part was due to the high counselor accompanying us for a full day. This guy was a temple president for years, has met with general authorities, and was a gospel doctrine teacher for almost 30 years too. Need less to say, people are more receptive to his authority and his asking for commitments. 

That day in Dzilam de Bravo I has the freshest fish I had ever had. This fish was literally swimmimg in the ocean maybe 3 hours before the time I was eating it, definitely a funny thought especially when I'm not the biggest fish guy, but a perk of being in mexico long enough and adapting to the food palate here is that everything tastes good now haha! Things I would have thought were gross before are the norm and I can enjoy my food, another blessing.

We actually had a few Bible bashers try to convince us we were crazy. The more I learn about the gospel and the Bible, the more I see how blind people are. In the Bible it's prophesies talk about people being blind and deaf to prophesies and teachings and wow is it true. Being knowledgeable in scripture and the gospel also comes in handy because there was never a single point or scripture that they brought up that we couldn't counter with an answer and a logical explanation. One lady fighting us had told us that Peter holds the keys to God's church, and in hearing this, in my head I thought we had her right where she STOOD. I told her that these keys had been restored to Joseph Smith who we were telling her about, and the Priesthood and all these things. The funny thing was her admitting that her church didn't have these keys but somehow she feels justified and an allegiance to believing her catholic faith is the church of God. She said her Bible doesn't talk about a Joseph Smith and even to that we were like, yeah it does, read THIS scripture and she reads a prophesy of Joseph Smith right out of her Bible that she said was different than ours because ours wasn't true. Obviously nothing comes of these discussions, and people will be stuck in their ways, if everyone had logic there would be no prophesies. There wouldn't have to be books of scripture to hold our hands and testify of things over and over again to get it through our skulls, and also, everyone would be a member of the church of God. This church.

I have been losing weight, not for any bad reason, I'm just active and eat when I can, it's how things go here. But the Yucatecan women in my branch who have given themselves the title of my mission mother, have taken it upon themselves to change it because I am what they deem way too skinny. They load my plates with food piled high to try and Fatten me up. The fact of the matter is, here in Yucatan, if you don't have a belly, you're not Yucatecan HAHA. The members here are amazing and so loving, whether or not i become a true yucatecan by the time I go home remains to be seen.

I had a breakthrough in thinking this week that I would like to share. And it is about having faith in all aspects of our lives. And being humble enough to accept where the lord wants us to put our faith in him. I pray for my faith to be strengthened everyday, to come to find out after much pondering and time of not acknowledging this, that there were many things in my own life that I could put my faith in, that I was not. Even if it's one thing that we are worried about, do we not have faith that the lord will help us? You can break it down to such a level to measure your faith by realizing that if anything in your life worries you, If any trial hurts you, or you are worried about how some things will play out in your life and can't let go of wanting to control it, you don't have enough faith. Not at all to act as though I am anywhere near such a level, no one can achieve such a perfect faith. The fact of the matter is that if we are humble and moldable enough, we will realize everything that happens, and will happen, is completely in the Lord's hand, and is the best for us. He knows best, he knows how you need to grow, and every trial and everything you ever go through was tailor made to teach you something. Being true disciples of the lord is increasing this faith, and seeing the grass for the trees. Seeing the bigger perspective, and knowing with a fulness of heart every feeling and trial is temporary, and is for your bettering. I hope some of you can apply this into your own lives.

I am so blessed, I'm in one of the most beautiful places in the world teaching the word of God, growing everyday. The sunsets here have been so beautiful, that I had the thought that God is always happy here haha. Because he paints the sky so beautifully every night. I miss you all and hope you all have a great week.

Elder B

Week 13

 Another week down!

A LOT has changed since my last email, including actually my companion. They changed my trainer after my first transfer, usually that is never the case. But because so many people are leaving this transfer, they needed him for a leadership position higher than trainer. My new comp does not speak a lick of English!! And honestly the more I think about the whole situation, I feel so tremendously blessed.

My first comp we basically spoke in English all the time, with my limited Spanish knowledge, and a better way to communicate, we just couldn't keep speaking spanish all the time it was almost impossible. But, because he could speak English, I learned how to be a missionary very fast. As in learning to use an area book and contact people and how to get around and everything I needed to do and could do without knowing the language. And in the lessons I was able to sit back and observe and learn. I was starting to become a little impatient though, just because I felt like I couldn't do much, but I knew enough to where if I could just speak to people I could just grow exponentially, like I didn't need any other training. And that was starting to become a problem with me and my trainer because I felt ready to do more but he had authority over me and I didn't see a reason for it. I thought it was just another thing to teach me patience but the lord has better things in mind for me.

So this last week I've spoken almost NO English and I've already gotten so much better at spanish and can talk to people and converse and ask if someone's home and stuff and all the things my other comp just did. I've been astounded thinking about the fact that I came here the only transfer where they would have to do something like take my trainer, and be given the oldest trainer that had to be taken for another position. And that he was also speaking English so I could learn everything to the best of my ability without hindrance and then to have my next trainer be completely spanish speaking to just supercharge my growth and missionary ability here. It seems as though the lord has plans for me. And is keenly aware of me, and what I need and how I need to grow. And acknowledges the same as I did that all I need now is the language help. Such an absolute blessing, and the coolest thing is that I called it before the transfers. I knew the best thing for me would be exactly what happened and it all fell into place so divine. I feel as though I'm sitting back and just watching the ball game that is my life, and the lord is the one in control and I'm just enjoying it. 

One thing I miss about my other comp is his guitar. I was actually starting to get good again because most nights it was either, read more scriptures, or play guitar HAHA. So I got good at guitar. It's never been an instrument I've been able to just commit to everyday for weeks at a time, but here sometimes I would speed walk home because I wanted to play guitar. Funny how Satan uses whatever he can to try and tempt you haha, whatever you allow him to do so with. 

I had my first baptism for myself yesterday! We had two last transfer but this was the first time I've been able to do the baptizing. A lot had to fall into place to make it happen but it all came through, and Hermano Gabriel is now a member of the church. I just feel so much joy hearing things like, "they've never felt so clean before" and seeing the smiles on their faces. 

Obviously there's a lot of details that are in an entire week that I'm forgetting but I'll leave it there. The lesson this week was just seeing how if your will is aligned with the Lord's, he will bless you with your desires. That is promised time and again. And also how influential he is in everything in our lives. It's so much that influential isn't even an accurate word to describe it. The Lord's hand in my life hasn't changed since I've come out here, and his hand isn't in my life more than any of you guys. I've just been able to grow and see it more and I wish you all the same joy of finding that truth for yourself, and feeling the love of your father in everything that happens to you. 

I love you all and I'll talk next week 

-eb

Week 12

 Hola amigos!

Week 12 is down. It was actually probably my quickest week here. It was hot! I don't want to complain about the heat too much because I feel like I bring It up every email, but there was some natural phenomenon happening all week where there was some sort of invisible dome over México that was trapping the heat. So everyday was 110-120 throughout my mission. The coolest part honestly is the fact I'm able to withstand it so well, I'm actually quite proud.

I want to apologize before I say anything else about my typos and bad punctuation in my letters thus far. I type on a Spanish keyboard that autocorrects half of everything I say wrong and things that I assume will autocorrect to english, it doesn't because it's spanish. And then I'm doing it on a lagging phone so I cant catch all the mistakes as I go. And I'm always in such a rush I can't read through it again haha! One mistake was last week when I was talking about the spanish rhyming, I meant to say that my companions said, rhyming and poems in spanish is CHEATING and that made me laugh because everything rhymes. I know it changed to a different word and made my already not so funny joke make no sense.

Some things from this week:

I might have mentioned this, but I hate flan. I can not stomach it. And the members found out and now think it's funny to make it at every event they know I'll be at. My patience has never been so strained

You guys won't BELIEVE this but yesterday when I was at church, I was helping clean up and i went into the kitchen to see if anyone needed help and I came across the elders quorum president putting away the sacrament stuff. I didn't think much of it until I taried a little and watched him before I left, come to find out this man was wiping out all of the used sacrament cups... and putting them BACK IN THE BAG TO USE FOR NEXT WEEK. I almost threw up, it was good I didn't know spanish enough to chew him out. When he left I chucked the cups in the trash can and went to go get more. The members acted as though they were so disgusted but in my head I was like, give me a break because I have not eaten anything sanitary in 7 weeks haha. I don't want to know how long that was going on.

I realized that I can understand Spanish now basically, and that my holdup has been understanding the accent within my little Pueblo I serve in. Because nobody leaves, everybody grows up within city limits and everyone is family and friends, they all have almost their own dialect of speed talking and word slurring. I thought this was how everyone spoke until I had a Day with a Spanish comp without an accent and I was able to speak to him perfectly all day. 

I have learned a big lesson in humble prayer. Never in my life have I prayed so intently, earnestly and unselfishly. I'm embarrassed to admit the before here, prayers much of the time were I vain, times of need, and for my own benefit. I had heard the term humble prayer before, heard it explained as well. But never felt it applied to me and the thought to change never came to mind. But wow is it beautiful, to talk to your father in heaven without any expectations, without asking for a miracle or your gain or in haste because you need something. To be on your knees and truly talk to your father with nothing more than the desire to grow and to grow closer to him. I would challenge all of you to truly pray. Humbly pray to grow, soften your heart and truly repent and try to feel the spirit, and try to do so expressing your love for Heavenly Father. It has been a peaceful realization for me on how our relationships with the lord ought to be.

Last thing, we had a baptism this week. Hermana Clara was amazing and was another golden investigator, and she made a comment the night before that she got baptized that blew me away. She has really bad eyesight, and she said because of this she has been stuck in cansahcab, if this wasn't the case she would have moved years ago but she really has no choice. She told us that she had come to the realization, if she didn't have her terrible eyesight, she would have moved out of the city without meeting us and becoming baptized. And how it was a blessing that she was borderline blind. I am such a baby, but I began to cry. So much faith, from someone so new to the gospel. Often times we get complacent, we can't see our immense blessings from the lord, and even sometimes when we don't have enough faith to get through our trials, we don't see why we had them in the first place and how we could have grown and what the lord wanted for us. And here is clara, finding blessings from the lord where most wouldn't. 

I love this gospel and this church. I know it's true. That's my testimony and I can't wait to keep sharing it. I miss you all and I'll touch base next week.

-eb

Week 11

Hola everyone

This week was tough as far as missionary work! We had a really good progressing family drop us this week. I was sure they'd be baptized, we were met by the father at their door when we went to see them for that week and I couldn't quite understand him but I could infer. I wanted to say more but I didn't know the context or if it was only this week, I wanted to say just one more lesson please, but before I knew it we were walking away. I began to cry in the middle of that dirt road. I couldn't hold back my tears. I felt so much sorrow and pain, how could they not see it? I can only imagine the pain the Lord feels. We also had a day where we didn't teach a single lesson, every place we knocked didn't have time for us. We hit all four corners of our city and walked for 4 hours with no success. But that's the work I suppose.

Some highlights though made this week fun. We teach an English class on Saturdays to the natives here and It is the craziest thing to see people try to pronounce English words when they have never once made those sounds in their life. Like the sound of TH and the sound of a U saying uhhh they can't do it! We laughed so hard when I tried to get them to say it right! It reminded me of friends when Phoebe is teaching Joey French and she breaks every word down to syllables correctly and when they put it together Joey says a completely different word haha! Another thing, which might not be funny to you guys but it made my day. I was reading this mug in a restaurant we were eating at, and when I read I automatically just say the words in English in my head, and this was a rhyming little phrase and I didn't even realize it because I read the Spanish phrase in English. I made the off remark to my companion about it, and he said I don't like Spanish rhymes. And I said why? And he replies, I feel like it's just kidding. I laughed SO hard that coke came out of my nose haha! Because everything in Spanish has the same endings, most basically with an o and a so everything rhymes. Anyway, that made my day.

Two crazy stories from this week. We were walking to a family home evening at a member's house but we had some time to kill so we went to a store on the way. Then on the way to the party, we walked through the central park in the middle of the Pueblo. I was eating chips and looking around when my comp says, watch your pockets. I immediately cover my left pocket and look back to see a kid with his arm reaching out at me, snap his arm back, and run away. It was not only a blessing that it wasn't stolen for obvious reasons, but if I caught him I don't know if I would be able to restrain myself. The other story was looking up from my nightly prayer to see a huge tarantula on my wall. I gasped so loud haha! I don't think I have ever seen one in real life before, it gave me the Willys!

Being a trainee is hard because everyone here bosses you around, and because they've been here longer than me, they're inclined to think they're more spiritually advanced or knowledgeable than I am naturally. And if I have a problem with the authority, I need to humble myself and the lord just hasn't "worked on me enough yet" For a guy like me I've had a hard time conforming and being teachable while being demeaned and made to feel like having a problem with how people respect me makes me less Christ-like but just another thing to test my patience. I know full well I can humble myself to the point where such things are not a bother, I can confidently say I am not at such a level quite yet. 

I love you all and hope you have a great week, I'm doing great and I love it here!

-Elder Paxy

Week 10

Another week down!

This week was tough, I won't lie. I pray for trials, things to help me grow, so my faith can grow. Which in the moment, always seems like a noble thing to do, but in hindsight sometimes you wonder what you were thinking asking for trials. It was the challenge of the week to clear my mind and focus, I feel as though Lucifer knows he can not tempt me, so my mind is the primary target and Heavenly Father is allowing me to grow, and find his light on my own. Just another level of my growing faith! The lord wants me to be humble, and that even comes down to my spiritual progression, and realizing I'm just starting down the road of a lifelong journey. Double hindsight, thanks the lord for trials, and I hope you guys seek to grow your faith and find him when you feel like he's not there. Maybe that's 40 40 vision jaja.

My favorite thing here is the sky. It's the clearest sky I've ever been blessed to be under! No pollution, anything of the sort. I'm in a little town in the middle of nowhere, and when I'm walking around in the dark after a long day and I look up at the sky, I can see every star. Every constellation, and the brightest moon I've ever seen. When what would make most people feel so small, to see something so vast, I feel so grand, knowing that the Lord loves me perfectly, in the midst of all those stars, and everything under them. And he loves you all the same too.

This week has been a week of animals haha! We bought two little baby chickens. If you were to ask us why, we'd tell you that they're to eat, for eggs too every week, seems like a logical investment for a missionary. Come to find out these chickens don't lay eggs, and were going to be transferred out of here before they're big enough to eat, so now our house just smells. But, I made a comment to one of the members, I said, 

"Did Elder Cline tell you guys? We bought 2 little chicks"

Well in my limited Spanish vocabulary I forgot chicas means girls in Spanish. And my actual sentence was, nosotros compramos dos pequeña chicas, or what they understood, we purchased two little girls. They started dying laughing and my comp told me what I had said then I couldn't stop laughing. Now I say it to all the members and they all have the same reaction and now my comp hates me cuz he has to explain everytime I say it again with confidence.

 There was also this dog this week that I fell In love with, and I'm devising a plan to bring her home. She's a little puppy who started following us and never stopped. We're not allowed to have pets so we don't bring her home, and to get away from her we have to run around a corner and hide to get home. Her only frame of reference for where we will come back to is the church, so she visits there until we take her on a walk while we are looking for people to teach.

There was one family this week, who we felt was progressing well enough to be invited to baptism. When we did, there was suddenly a lot of hesitation, questions, about the book of Mormon. And where it says in short terms, thou art a fool if you believe there would only be the Bible. My comp said he had never been so confident to share it because it's very blunt, and I was a little worried too. But they were very receptive and they're all continuing to read.

 Speaking of the book of Mormon, we met a man last night who spoke English too. He was deported from the states haha, born and raised in Texas and had the accent to show for it. Guy has many problems, might have killed someone for all I know, but he seemed very level headed, and he is very well read. He acknowledges God is there and believes the Bible, has read every word of multiple bibles, he just knows he's doing, and has done wrong. But is confident there's a day where he gets his head screwed on straight and he's getting there. He talked about how the Jehovah's witnesses tried to talk to them, and he hated it because he knew their Bible had changed words, and were trying to tell him things he knew were not true. I took the opportunity to hand him the Book of Mormon, and I told him what it was. How it works with the Bible and expands our knowledge on all Bible principles and more. He said there is so much in the Bible he has wanted clarified forever, and he had never been given such a book. He looked at how many pages there were and said, give me a week. And was all smiles and excited to read and learn more. Again an example of how people with any sort of knowledge, and logic, willing to learn, is who the spirit can work on the most. And who the gospel makes all the sense to. If it doesn't make sense to you, may I be so bold as to say you lack knowledge and logic. But if you have an open heart at the very least, the lord will open your eyes with the rest. It just so happens to be the fact that these people who are most willing to hear the message of the church, are those who have been around, are well read, and are searching for truth. 

Lastly, we met another American man. This guy lives in a beautiful big red house that doesn't belong with the houses around it. He spoke English too, and he was a nice guy, but his arrogance exuded from him like he had sprayed it on like a powerful cologne. He acted as though we were like him, almost better than the rest here. He said if we need anything, they've got connections so we can get away from this place a little. Normally, I wouldn't have had anything to think about it, but his arrogance, even the slightest just because he had some money, left such a bad taste in my mouth. He laughed when we offered a lesson and said he was alright. I was so scared that I had ever come off that way to anyone in my life before, because he had no idea. In reality, he's probably a great guy. But I couldn't shake the arrogance. I wrote something about it I'll share and then I'll end this email. I love you all, thanks for supporting me and reading my unnecessarily long emails.

The red home

Owned by those whom everything has been shown

That live in a state of abundance

Where blessings are solely that of substance

When those who have it all

Are the ones who worship none at all

You might begin to wonder

Why there are those who live asunder

But the eyes of the observer know

That blessings are things you don't always have proof of to show

It is harder to convince a man of fortune now

That it took more, than the sweat of his own brow

While the humble man can see

Without Him, he would not be

So then the question might arise

Who holds the blessing of greater size

And are blessings the finding of treasure

Or something of a greater measure 

As light shines brighter in the valley

There are some who are too blinded to see reality

But those who were born without the light

Learned to appreciate the little they had with all their might

And thus we can see

It is the man who knows the Lord made him be

Who looks toward of the light

No matter how bright

That can melt his heart of ice 

He, is who holds the Pearl of Great Price

-eb