Jan 31, 2011 ...Dear Family,
This last week was really busy! Monday was a successful day. Elder Hammond and I found a few new investigators that night. Tuesday was a super busy day. I went to Jacksonville again for a Leadership Training Meeting. It was really great. I really love going to those meetings because everyone there is really focused and it's super spiritual. The only down side is that we were there literally all day. I left Gainesville at 6:30AM and got back to Gainesville at 8:30PM. The unfortunate thing is that a lot of that time wasn't very productive. We rode up to Jacksonville with the Zone Leaders and they had some stuff they had to do on their laptop after the meeting and it took for-ev-er! Elder Hammond and I were still able to get in a lesson when we got home. It went pretty well. The rest of the week was great things mixed with not so great things. I don't know why, but it's like I hit a wall for a few days there. I just didn't have any energy and felt really distracted. There are probably a lot of different reasons, but I honestly think a lot of it is because I hadn't been eating very well or exercising. Another disappointing thing is that we rescheduled Bob's date. We moved it to the 19th of this month. That isn't really all that disappointing. The really disappointing thing is that he has been acting really shady lately. I don't know what's going on with him. I think part of it is nerves, but there seems to be more to it. We set another date with an investigator. His name is Robert and we set his date as the 19th too. It's actually going to have to change because he didn't make it to church this week, but we're going to reset it this Wednesday.
That website that I put in the subject head is for my mormon.org profile. You should all check it out and create your own too! It's a really great way to share the gospel with others without really doing anything.
So there are a few really cool scriptures I noticed during the last week of studies. One of them is in Moses 4:25. It talks about work and it really hit home that work is so essential to all we do. When we really work hard and put effort into all that we do great things can come about. It's a concept that way too many people just don't understand. We expect things to be handed to us, or seem to think we're entitled to things we didn't earn. If more people really understood what it means to truly work there would be much more happiness in life. Especially when it comes to living righteously. If we think we can go to church for three hours a week and then just return to whatever it is we're doing without continuing to work to stay spiritually focused throughout the week we are wrong. We must work to keep the Spirit with us. It's often through small and simple things (Alma 37:6) that we can find great and lasting happiness. However, those small and simple things do require work! As I've learned this concept it's brought so much more joy to my life and it's filled voids that I didn't even know existed. I love working hard.
Another scripture that really stood out to me is Alma 60:16. It's a pretty long verse, but the end is what really hit me. It says, "...if we had gone forth against them in the strength of the Lord, we should have dispersed our enemies, for it would have been done, according to the cfulfilling of his word." I thought about it and if we are unified in a righteous cause then we will be able to defeat any of our enemies. While we may not have literal enemies there are things that we have to deal with everyday that could be deemed "enemies." It's such a wonderful and simple concept. This especially applies to families. If we're united as a family, "in the strength of the Lord" we can do all things! It can be applied in so many different ways. It's beautiful how the gospel can be applied to our lives in such simple ways.
I've gotta go now.
Love Always, Zach
http://www.mormon.org/me/2K0M-eng/
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