12/14/2020
Today was probably the busiest Pday I’ve ever had. Somehow we had five lessons with members tonight, and still managed to eat dinner, which we should not have been able to do. Our planner highlights lessons that we have in yellow, and our night was pure yellow. I also made a Christmas tree ornament rather hastily tonight. We need them for our Zone Conference, and I put off the making of mine until 9:30 tonight. It turned out pretty well, though.
12/15/2020
Today was our Zone Conference! It went really well, we had a long time to talk as a District, which was unusual, and heard a couple of trainings. I think people have gotten sick of hearing my voice, since I wasn’t asked to do anything for this Conference. That’s okay, though, I really liked the thoughts that were shared, and I got to talk to my district which was a lot of fun. Afterwards we went to Chick-Fil-A, which was the best lunch ever, except that the guy who took my order somehow got everything wrong. I wish my Sister had been taking my order, she would have done it right, or that the worker had just given me the IPad and let me fill out my order myself. I could have done it a lot faster, and a lot better… We also got to wrap presents for a family that didn’t have much today. It was a really fun service, and I got taught how to actually wrap the presents, which means that I’m prepared for Christmas as a dad now. Presents look deceptively easy to wrap, but are actually quite difficult. Hopefully the early ones that I wrapped don’t end up ruining Christmas for this family.
12/16/2020
Today we spent our time running around to a couple different service projects. At one of the projects they asked if we could also come back to help build their massive model train track (this thing took up the bigger half of a good sized room), which would have been my little brother Matthew’s dream come true. Unfortunately we can’t go inside for service right now, but hopefully that ban gets lifted soon because that would be an incredible service to get to be a part of. The other notable event today happened tonight; It was the birthday of one of our members, in fact, the member that made me a cake and a feast for my birthday. We went over to wish her a happy birthday, we didn’t go with any gifts or any treats, just our testimonies of God’s love for her. The Spirit was so strong, it was incredible. She and I both started crying when I shared my testimony of how God sees her. It was really cool to see that was the most worthwhile gift we could have given her, nothing else could have compared to the joy that came from that.
12/17/2020
Well, today was kind of disappointing. For the last couple of days I’ve been learning and growing a lot, especially with Collins. Our Zone instituted a daily accountability program where our District Leader would give us a call to check up on a daily goal that we had set for ourselves, and see how it was going. Well, Collins and I always made really big goals, we were taking an extended amount of time to talk about how our goals were helping us. Some of our District members would say stuff like, “my goal for today was to drink more water”, an important goal for sure, but not one that really helps you progress. Collins and I were doing some amazing work together, as every night McKasson, Collins, Gomez and I would call each other and help each other to continue to grow. This has been one of the best weeks ever, but tonight our districts got rearranged. There was only one change, Monument 2 (us) was removed from the Redlands District (Collins’ District) and put into the Fruita District (Not Collins’ District). I’m pretty sad about that change. We got to give a widow a blessing today, though, which was a really cool experience.
12/18/2020
Today was a really emotional day. We spent a long time talking to the widow we talked to yesterday, and saw several miracles happen today. Her sister passed through the veil, and yet, the widow was completely fine with it, she was full of peace, instead of the emotional stress that normally comes from the passing of a loved one. That widow really does have an incredible testimony. We also got to participate in our nightly devotional tonight. We were asked to talk about a symbol of Christmas and spoke about the evergreen tree. We referenced the part of Hosea 14:8 that talks about the ‘fruit of the fir tree’ and talked about how the fruit of our evergreen tree is the everlasting life and joy that Christ offers to all of us.
12/19/2020
Today was a lot of fun. We had some productive roleplays with some of our District members today. We got to use them as an opportunity to share our expertise with those around us. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and people were very surprised when I whipped out Moroni 8:25-26 and the five big points of the Gospel were recorded there. I felt bad because they requested for me to share my notes with them, but my notes are in Portuguese, so I’m the only one who can read them. I’ve considered trying to translate them and made a couple of attempts at it, but it is a very slow and unfulfilling work, so I tend to lose motivation quickly. Guess that means I should study patience tomorrow. If I study patience though, I’ll start adding to that section, and that seems counterproductive if my goal is to translate my notes as fast as possible.
12/20/2020
Today was a good day. We had a service project today where we went around taping up fliers on people’s doors for Christmas carolers; The carolers are going to walk in the middle of the street, so the people who want to hear them just have to poke their heads out their door. I’m not sure how Christmas caroling became a thing, of all the things that you could do to show Christmas Spirit, knocking on someone’s door and breaking into song seems like one of the most uncomfortable things you could do. It is quite beautiful, though, so I’m glad that it’s a tradition. We had a lot of member lessons today. The coolest thing though was when Braeden Pope called up Elder Gomez and I and told us we had an assignment from our Zone Leaders. Today we were asked to be the Facebook “Hype” Specialists, which means we get to help our missionaries to be engaged. Our first episode debuts this Friday, a Christmas special, and we have some pretty great ideas for it.
Today for a spiritual thought I wanted to share a scripture from Ether 2:13: And now I proceed with my record; for behold, it came to pass that the Lord did bring Jared and his brethren forth even to that great sea which divideth the lands. And as they came to the sea they pitched their tents; and they called the name of the place Moriancumer; and they dwelt in tents, and dwelt in tents upon the seashore for the space of four years.
The chapter of Ether 2 describes how the Brother of Jared went forth being guided by the Lord in His glory, then, in this verse we see something really important: The Brother of Jared and his family stayed by the seashore for four years; They stopped progressing because they stopped praying. When we cease to humble ourselves before the Lord we lose our ability to progress spiritually. Every day we have to choose to turn to Him, but we can have the sure knowledge that as we do, every day, we will see the Lord leading us.
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