May 5, 2013

What's up everybody?? Well, honestly this week has been a slow one... not to say it went by slow, it flew by, but there wasn't a whole lot of excitement in it! Last P-day we just kind of chilled. I painted my bike while Elder D wrote a bunch of letters and then we just hung out at home while I played some guitar. I'm working on a new song that I'll send you guys once I get it right... it'll be a while. :) Other than that, we had a very abnormal week... our schedule was jam packed with lessons every single day. I'm serious when I say it's hard to find a time to even use the bathroom, that's how busy we were SUPPOSED to be... but, we got our pigeons placed (Chinese idiom for getting stood up) about 4-5 times each day. Really annoying, because our whole personal and companionship study is supposed to be focused on the lessons we teach to our appointments! But God knows what we're supposed to be doing, and the backup plans we had led to some miracles! I'll have to start out with the saddest (not too sad, but it makes me sad) part of the week. Our investigator, the one I went to the beach with, doesn't live in our area!!! This is the second investigator that we've had to pass off to other Elder's, and he's getting baptized in 2 weeks!! I'm super happy he's still getting baptized, but now we don't get to see him as often! Super sad. But we've got some other investigators who have some baptismal goals for May, so we're still doing good! And we've made sure that they live in our area!! haha

     One of the most exciting events of the week was cockroach hunting at our crippled friend's house! Wow, it was scary man. The man we take care of told us that the cockroaches were starting to crawl on him and bite him, and he said that they would crawl into his food when he was trying to eat! So we went out and bought 2 cans of the highest class RAID and went to work. I can't even tell you how many cockroaches we killed!!! It definitely got my blood pumping as we sprayed them off the walls and basically fumigated this guy's house! As scary as it was, it was funny at the same time. The older man was yelling at us to get certain ones, and then he would crack up as we sprayed them, and then he'd see another one and scream again. We had a pretty good time.

     I haven't eaten anything too crazy this week, other than some weird kind of soup my investigator gave me. I started eating it, and it wasn't too bad. Just a little weird and lumpy. The meet was all kind of a grayish color, and it didn't have a whole lot of taste. I asked him what it was and he told me it's pig intestines, pig liver, and some other kind of stuff that they threw in a pot and cooked. I'm convinced that they just took the insides of a pig and dumped it in my bowl. Needless to say, I was a little bit surprised... but you'll be proud to know that I licked the bowl clean! Aren't you guys excited for me to bring you back here? You'll never know what I'm ordering for you! MuwaHAHAHA! It's payback for going to Hawaii without me... :D

    

     I've been thinking a lot this past week about what it means to love the Savior. He puts it pretty simply himself, "If you love me, keep my commandments... Greater love hath no man than this, that a man layeth his life down for his friends... verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye are my disciples if ye have love one for another..." Those are the 3 things I want to talk about really quick.

Obedience. The first law of heaven! What kind of society would we have if we didn't recognize the Laws which have been laid down for us? The law of obedience is not only a way to protect us and bring ourselves blessings, but it's the ideal way to show the love and respect we have for God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. I heard a talk in Sacrament meeting just a couple weeks ago that touched on this aspect of the Gospel. He said: "There are 3 reasons why we keep the Commandments. 1. We're scared of punishment. This is alright, we're still keeping the commandments, right? 2. We want the reward of Eternal Life. This is a little better, but we can still improve. 3. We love God." It's as simple as that. We need to "FORGET OURSELVES, and go to work...", go to work by keeping the Commandments.

"Greater love hath no man than this,..." The first example that comes to mind when I read this scripture is obviously Christ Himself. He laid his life down for all of mankind! I think of other obvious, great examples such as Joseph and Hyrum Smith, the Pioneers, and others who have died for the cause of truth. But when we think deeper, laying your life down doesn't have to mean "death." Each and every Prophet and General Authority has laid His life down to work for the Church and help bring to pass this great work! Many parents and spouses have laid their lives down to provide for children or to be with each other. I'm not saying we need to go and throw ourselves off a building because we love Christ, but let's be "anxiously involved in a good cause," hm?

"...love for one another..." We know, from King Benjamin in the book of Mosiah, that "...when ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God." Christ tells us likewise, in Matthew, "And the King shall answer and say unto him, verily, I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these your bretheren, ye have done it unto me." If we want to express our love to Christ, let's serve one another and lift each other up.

     Love you all tons! Love, Elder Noll