Hey!!
I love the mission!! Another eventful week has come and
gone!
This past week, I was able to go with one of the District
Leaders in the zone out to Wendover for a 24-hour companion exchange! Let me
tell you… Wendover is an interesting place! It kinda has the feel of Globe, AZ if you have
ever been there. It’s just a super small
Hispanic desert town. The elders out there are both Spanish and English speaking
elders, so I spent the day contacting Spanish referrals. One of the things that the elders told me was
that unfortunately, there are so many people who are pretty much slaves to the
casinos in Wendover. A lot of Hispanics go out there for work and end up never
being able to leave because of their circumstances. So they are stuck working
at the casinos, with really crappy working environment and hours. Along with
that, the casinos destroy families and create horrible lives for the people
that get caught in the snare of gambling.
"Wendover Will"
It just goes to show how important it is that we so closely
follow the council of our modern day Prophets. We can't even get close to the
edge. As President Kimball says it,
"We must never even flirt with temptation." It's just not worth it. We have to stay so close to the Lord in our
everyday lives. Life's a battle, but if
we stay on the winning side without falter, we'll be taken care of.
This past week my companion and I were able to give training
on "Our Purpose" as missionaries, for our Zone Conference. Our
purpose as missionaries is "To invite others to come unto Christ by
helping them receive the Restored Gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His
Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and
enduring to the end". I am blessed to be able to preach this wonderful
Gospel and joy that I know comes from it. I am so grateful for the opportunity that we
have as missionaries to learn from one another, as well as the Spirit.
With Elder Arnold of the 1st Quorum of the 70, coming to
visit our mission last week, he decided he wanted to have individual PPI's
(Personal Priesthood Interviews) with my companion, myself, and the other zone
leaders that attended the conference. Towards the end of the interview, he
informed me that I would be helping him train the missionaries during the
conference on some idea and methods that we have effectively been using in our
area. Boy did that catch me by surprise!
haha The conference went great and everything went smooth! :)
This past weekend, we had Stake Conference in our stake. It
was a great meeting altogether, but one of the talks particularly stood out to
me. One of the councilors in the Stake
Presidency gave a great talk on our baptism covenant we made at the waters of
baptism. Mosiah 18:8-9 says: "..And now, as ye are desirous to come into
the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one
another’s burdens, that they may be light;
Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort
those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all
times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death,
that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection,
that ye may have eternal life—"
Are we, brother and sisters, desirous and willing to obey
our loving Father in Heaven? Are we desirous and willing to magnify our church
callings? To faithfully attend our
church meetings? The Temple? Go home/visiting teaching? Pay our tithes and fast
offerings? Are we desirous and willing? Or do we do some things grudgingly? Or
just out of pure assignment? Do we have a desire and willingness to serve our
Lord full heartedly? Well if we don’t, we should! We covenanted with Him that we would be! Do we love him? If we do, we should do our
best to obey him with. We should commit ourselves to the Lord and to His
ways. I know that as we serve with a desirous and willing heart, we will be
blessed. And I know that if for some reason or another we do not have a
desirous and willing heart at this moment, that the Lord can help us with that.
He can bless us with that gift. We just must be meek and humble enough to ask
Him for His divine help. Oh the joy that can come from serving our great Lord
willingly in all things that he requires of us. I love it.
One last thing I would like to mention is the love I have
for the Spirit that comes with music. In our Stake Conference on Saturday,
there were 2 high school kids who played a special musically number--"If
You Could Hie To Kolob". One played
piano and the other switched off mid-song from flute to the piccolo. It was the
most beautiful arrangement I had ever heard in my entire life. The Spirit was
there in such abundance. It was quite amazing. Music is amazing and I am
eternally grateful for our Fathers love in blessing his children with the
ability to create it.
This is NOT the performance that Elder Carroll
refers to, but it is the song.
D&C 25:12 - " For my soul delighteth in the song of
the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be
answered with a blessing upon their heads."
Loving it out here, hope you all as well are enjoying where
you are at this moment :) Stay busy, stay safe, and stay close to the Lord!! :)
Love,
Elder Carroll
My favorite scripture this week: Mormon 3:22 - "And I would that I could persuade all ye
ends of the earth to repent and prepare to stand before the judgment-seat of
Christ."
Please write me at:
1535 S Edison St.
Salt Lake City, UT 84115
Typical P-day!
Missionary Humor!
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