"Bombdiggitty It Was Pretty Sweet."

It is soooooo cold!!!!!! Haha it's like 5 degrees outside and I'm pretty sure along the walk from the parking lot, to the library, up the stairs, and to computer AR047 I lost both my upper limbs and my right ear. But heeyyyyooooooooo family!!!!!! Mom and Dad I got your letters and I can't remember if I told you already but I loved them and will write back to them as soon as I can! Austin and B-ray I got your emails too and I'm going to respond to them after this if I have time or if not then I'll print them off and write you a letter.

 But what's goood wid it baby?!?! This week was pretty pretty sweet. I'll start of with a bitterSWEET, as you can see, with an emphasis on the sweet side. We received a referral from a member for a Mr. S. (We're starting to get referrals from the ward ya'll!!! Holla back!!).  He's 65 and lives in a rest home because he has to get an operation done on his knee and it's lookin like they're going to have to chop his leg off right above the knee.  Anyways we go visit him Tuesday night and here's how the whole thing goes down.  We show up and introduced ourselves and talked about how he's doing.  As the conversation goes on we tell him what our purpose is as missionaries and we were wondering what he was looking to get out of meeting with us.  This is what he said word for word, "Well you guys I want to follow my Savior's example and be baptized as soon as I can." We heard that and were all sayyyy uhh mister? We found out he's read the Book of Mormon twice in the past 3 weeks and when we talked to him about the restoration he said he already prayed and believed it all.  It was soo incredible to see the faith of Mr. S.  He offered the closing prayer and started crying when he thanked our Father in Heaven for the gospel and His son Jesus Christ.  It was way tender. So he's going to be baptized on the 25th of this month!  So here's the bitter part. The rest home he's staying in is literally like 23 feet from our ward boundary. Haha, so he's in the fourth ward, which the other missionaries in our ward, who happen to be the zone leaders, cover.  I was a little sad that I wasn't going to be able to teach him with Elder Wengreen because he truly is prepared in every sense of the word but here's the lesson that I learned and it comes from Bishop Knights incredible emails. (Next time you see him tell him I print those puppies out each week, get out my highlighter, go to work, and keep them in a binder. I love them!) 

We're all playing on the same team, our Savior's team.  So even though I'm not going to be able to teach Mr. S. as he makes these steps to change his life, or score the touch down so to speak, I was able to be a part of the play - finding Mr. S. with the awesome member's help- to get that touchdown. Let's say I made the crucial block and rocked the safety's world that prepared the way for the TD. Haha so that was pretty neat.

I also ate my first sub with tomatoes on it. So there's an accomplishment all in itself! Oh and we've got some updates!! R. is now meeting with us again. That came about on a night in which all our appointments fell through so we felt like we should call him. We called and he let us come over. And boyyyyyy oh boyyy did we have a legit/intense/a little more on the sterner tone of voice lesson. I felt like Parley P. Pratt.  It wasn't anything that was controversial, we weren't yelling at him or anything like that but we were basically laying down what the bizness as in his life, with all of his many many trials. It's not going to get better until he incorporates and involves Jesus Christ. We told him that his trials might not go away and maybe he'd even have more, but he will have peace and knowledge and comfort through those trials that can come from no where else and will help him happily cope and get through the things that he's struggling with. I paraphrased a quote from Elder D Todd Christofferson's talk Moral Agency in which he says, "The Lord's promise is not to spare us the conflict but to preserve and console us in our afflictions and consencrate them for our good."  A few scriptures that relate to that are 2 Nephi 2; 4:19-26 and Jacob 3:1. Bombdiggitty it was pretty sweet. So we're still working with our main man R.! He's back! 

Something that has been on my mind lately has been what we do with our time, and what do we choose to do when we have plans that fall through. I was thinking about this, partly because that seems to happen pretty often here, and also because I'm studying the Plan of Salvation and the role agency has in that perfect plan. I am always reminded that we will be judged according to our works, words, thoughts, and everything else that we use our agency to make a choice.  I can't remember which prophet said it but he basically said we aren't going to have a sum total of all the good things and bad things lined up during our Judgement - we won't be judged solely by what we have done. We will be judged according to who we have become.  Here's another sweet quote from that same talk from Elder Christofferson that I absolutely love, he says "God gave us agency, and Jesus Christ showed us how to use it so that we could eventually know what They know, do what They do, and become what They are." So I have just resolved to use my time from 6:3 0am to 9:30 pm working workin workin working in behalf of the Lord and His errand because I want to become like Parley P. Pratt and my Grandpa's and you Dad and you Aust and you Mom and you B! Okay so that's some Lesson's from Elder T's Travels in Arvada Co!

I love you all and hope you have a great week! Rembember to read your scriptures and say your prayers daily! There's power that comes with obeying these commandments! Tell the boys back home whazzzuh and tell the girls hollllaaaaa. haha kidding don't tell them that. Love ya!!!