Lots of Liver. LOL

This was a good week here in the Almaden Valley. We were really focusing on finding more people to teach for our SLC visit on Tuesday. It should be a really cool visit! We are really looking forward to it. It’s a little intimidating but we are excited to learn. Our hard work has really paid off! We found a few more people to teach with Brother Donaldson. It just goes to show you how the Lord will bless you in your efforts. It ended on a good note as well because Joseph was baptized! It was a really cool week.

Spiritual: This week we have focused a lot on goals and what we want to become. Goals are the landmarks in our life that enable us to look back and see what we have accomplished and how far we have come. It’s been fun to come into member’s houses and teach them about setting goals for the new year. This week though I saw a principal of goal setting come up multiple times throughout the week. The Lord was really trying to tell me something. The theme of this message was "Remember Lots Wife." It came up a "Lot" this week. The concept of remembering Lots wife comes from the story of Lot being told to leave Sodom and Gomorra and as he left, the command came from the Lord to not look back. Lots wife couldn’t take it though and looked back. She was then turned into a pillar of salt. The moral of the story from this sad tale, is to look forward and not look back. Have faith that the Lord has something better in store for you than what He has given to you so far. Yesterday Joseph was able to be baptized. It was a special day. It was cool for us to see how much he had changed. It was amazing. He had cut his hair, and took out his piercings. It was incredible. The first time I met him, he looked depressed and looked like a thug. Wow. Now it would be an absolute tragedy if after he got baptized he looked in the mirror and saw the holes from the piercings or remembered some of the things that he had done, and then decided that the baptism didn’t work. The beauty of the Atonement is that our past sins, transgressions, and mistakes are all made clean through the blood and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It’s our job to not be like Lots wife and to not look back. We don’t need to look back on our past life with any sense of bemoaning past sins full of regret because through the Atonement we can be forgiven. When we are baptized and make sacred covenants we also promise to not look back with longing to the things that we once did. I promise that the gospel path is the path of happiness. There is no room for looking back with longing for sins of the past or beating ourselves up by letting past mistakes gnaw at our soul. Look back and take the good. The learning and the powerful spiritual experiences. These will edify and uplift you in times of trial. The negative and mistakes will only drag you down. I know that this is what will make us happy. I love this gospel and the improvement it makes possible. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. 

Funny: It was a little cold in Almaden this week but we still needed to contact people to find more people to teach. There is a lake trail in Almaden. It’s absolutely a beautiful place, but you can’t eat anything you catch in the lake because it’s full of mercury. Haha we were walking along and there was no one around. There would be no one who would want to come outside in frigid 50 degree temperatures. We were still walking in faith and we saw a group of men, probably of Middle Eastern decent. They were the only people there so we walked over and asked what they were doing. Yep. BBQ in the cold! They were super cool literally and figuratively and they asked us if we wanted some food. We said sure! We went over and they handed Elder Fisher some red chicken and they handed me some gray hunk of meat. Elder Fisher took a bite and said that it was really good. I took a bite of mine and just about gagged. Yep. He had gotten the chicken and I had gotten the liver. Lesson learned. I Do Not Like Liver. Especially cold liver. Yuck. But what did I say? "This is delicious!" It’s just polite to not be rude when Iranian offer you food. They turned to each other and said a couple of things and then got a huge tortilla looking piece of bread and put a few more hunks of liver on it and handed it to me and asked me to eat. Oh boy. That was not fun. I took one bite and just about have the livers revenge. I looked down and I had taken about half a hunk out. I gave it a little squeeze and some of the blood came out of it. Yuck. We ended that conversation pretty quick and I walked away pretending to eat my liver-burrito. I testify that the Lord blesses our stomachs so that we can handle the substance that is given to it. 

Where I am at: This upcoming week is going to be really cool. It’s going to be quite a learning week with the SLC visit and Elder Cook visit. It’s going to be a good week. We loved this past week because we got to do a lot of work in our area. It was a good week. There have been a lot of sick missionaries this week. Thank goodness that we have avoided the plagues. It’s picking up here in Almaden and we are excited for things to come. I love this work. I believe that it truly is the combination of the spirit being so prevalent in my life as well as the life changing service that we are able to offer for people. These two things as well as the knowledge that the Lord is directing this work and that this is His work. You can’t ask for a better place to be. The pure, undefiled joy that comes in this work is something that has to be shared. I love you all!