Families

 So I keep having the plan to have my journal open next to me whole I make the email. But we're out bowling right now and we're gonna be at a church house till 6(pday ends at 6) 

So we're going from Areabook and memory again lol.

So. We had our last zone and district council(transfers are tomorrow) and that was kinda tough because I love all these guys so much. Elder prestwich gave a life changing training on forgiveness. He really focused on the idea of forgiving ourselves and that hit me really hard because I finally was able to let go of things I was holding and take those barbs outta my heart. I felt so much peace and it's the strongest I've felt the spirit in a while. 

So- you need to forgive others, but you also really need to forgive yourself(all men[d&c section 64 something something{verse 10 I think}] includes yourself, you are part of "all men"). The atonement works for everybody including you. It's ok to feel bad about stuff you've done or haven't done, but you should not be punishing yourself. Notice the mistake, and fix something in your life and then you don't have to beat yourself up about it anymore. Jesus and Heavenly Father will always love you.

Other super cool thing- we were walking around and we saw a good looking guy, probably like 23.

He came up to us, grinning- turns out him and his wife JUST moved into the ward the previous day. They are from Boise! Ada county!(Thas where I'm from)

Later after some proselyting around the hood, we went to their house and they invited us in and 

BOOOM.

Wham!

It was like smacked in the face with the spirit. Their house felt like the temple. Thid young couple, probably going through plenty of trials of just moving to California, and being newly married, and whatever else- have strikingly let God prevail in their lives. Their covenant keeping ness made their home feel like a temple. (Thus the Facebook post this morning)[yo, if you've got Facebook and you're not my friend what are you even doing?]

Anyways, read about Temples in the Bible dictionary, it's pretty good.

Also, I had the incredible privilege to go on exchanges with one of our wonderful zone leaders. Elder Call. He's going home next week. We had a service project and Elder Call taught me alot about keeping "what would the savior do" in my attitude. It got to the point where we were pretty much ready to go home but Elder Call was just like "what do you think Jesus would be doing elder?" (We were helping two disabled people, a mom and son who were both in wheelchairs, move their stuff to a storage facility) so ofc first I'm like "well, He would prolly heal them so they could walk"

And Elder Call was just like "he would continue to help them."

They are not members, they're actually quite catholic. But we stayed until the project was done. They were very very grateful for it.

We also got hard-core bashed multiple times. First real life actual hard core bashes I had. It hurt alot more than I thought it would. 

We stayed calm the entire time and nothing we said or did deserved the contention and brutality we received. Elder Call started bearing testimony of Jesus and the book of Mormon and this guy interested him and said "Elder Call- you don't actually know that. There is no way you can know anything you're saying. You have no clue what you're even talking about." It hurt so much. He also gave us these cool book marks, it's a 1,000,000 dollar bill that basically says that we are sinners and heretics and we will go to "an awful place called hell."

His wife, (this hurt the most) his wife actually wanted to learn from us. She wanted a book of mormon. She wanted to meet with us again.

The guy turned turned to her and said something in another language that really really hurt her feelings. She spoke up again later and he said "honey, you don't even understand what's going on" 

That was one of the most ugliest, awful, and just plain stupid things I've ever seen in my entire life.

I know we maintained the spirit with us because I was able to feel it through the whole thing. I know I was strengthened through this ridiculous encounter. I know that Jesus still loves those guys and I should really try to change my perception of him. 

Anyways. I was able to bear testimony of families and I know that it at least affected the wife. 

Also

Transfers dang it.

My trainer is leaving me. Elder Prestwich is gonna go be Zone leader is Saratoga. I'm staying here. So please pray for my new companion to have patience with me cuz I got no clue what I'm doing.

Anyways. Sacrifice and Obedience bring blessings. God loves you no matter what you've done. The atonement is literally infinite. The Book of Mormon is true and will bless your life IF you read it. 

Go on a mission if you can. Do not let anything rob you of the blessings that come from missionary service.

Love and miss you all.

Get on the shared albuuummmmm

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