CATCHING UP

24 February 2014

Hello family!

What a week! Craziness in all directions.

District meeting in the church’s attic (details below)

First of all, I gave a talk last week in church. I was asked to speak on service, and what better service can we provide than sharing the gospel with our loved ones? There is none, I tell you. I talked about how in 3 Nephi 12:14-16, we are commanded by Christ himself to “be a light unto this people.” As members of the church and followers of Christ we have a light, and it’s our duty, obligation and responsibility to share that light with others. Also, Doctrine and Covenants Section 4 mentions that “if ye have desires to serve God, ye are called to the work.” Service, right there. If we love our Heavenly Father and are grateful for the many blessings that He has provided for us, and if we want to actually show our appreciation for those blessings, we are literally called to the work. It’s our calling as members of the church. By that same reasoning, if we aren’t striving to share the gospel, we aren’t magnifying our calling, which means that we are denying ourselves and others blessings. Kind of freaky when you think about it like that, but 100% true. We need the blessings that sharing the gospel provides. Read Richard G. Scott’s talk from last Conference to learn about some of the blessings of service. The Church is true! Huzzah! After I gave my talk, a less-active member of the ward that we had recently established a relationship with came up to me and told me I needed to go into politics. That was the first time I’d ever seen him at church, so it was great to see him! (He told me that I had the “innocence of Joey Lawrence yet the panache of Leonardo DiCaprio.” I’ll take it.)

Karen is a friend of the less-active sister I mentioned a few weeks ago. The one we gave the blessing to to help her stop smoking. Karen is wonderful, and hopefully we’ll have her on date to be baptized this week. Toby is a guy we spoke with on the bus. He said he wanted to kick some habits and he was wondering if we could help. He’s come to church a few times, but he’s not really progressing. And he never stays for all of church. The big miracle of this week was Kathy! We had her name on a potential investigator form that was filled out in July. When I came to the area we tried to call her and set something up, but she was never available. After calling her sporadically for a few months, we finally had an appointment set up! We met with her last Wednesday, and it was incredible. She has definitely been prepared. Everything in the lesson went smoothly, and she’s on date to be baptized on March 15th! Hopefully nothing comes up! We really feel like she’s ready for it.

Yes, these are my last few days with Elder Konecki. We’ve had an excellent companionship, and we get along really well. We worked hard and saw a lot of miracles, so I don’t think there are any regrets! Not from me at least. How transfers work is that we get called and assigned on Monday, then we come in for transfer meeting on Wednesday. So, Elder Konecki and I got our call today. He’s going to an area called Spruce Grove, and I’m staying in Coronation Park. My new companion is (drum roll please)... Elder Jolley! [EDITOR/FATHER’S NOTE: Elder Jolley is the older brother of best-friend-from-home Jaren.] No joke. “Oooh, it’s gonna be raunchy!” [EDITOR/FATHER’S NOTE: That’s a line from “30 Rock”] Kidding, of course. The work always comes first. Plus, I know exactly how to handle a Jolley, so we’re going to do great! I’m excited for this next phase!

District Leadering has actually been pretty fun! Some phases of missionary work seem monotonous, so I’ve been trying extra hard to make our district meetings interesting and enlightening. I feel like the trainings always go well, and we have great counsels, but I wanted to take them to the next level. So, I decided to change the location of our meeting. Churches usually have fun storage spaces and whatnot, so I did some exploring. Last week, we had our district meeting in the attic of the church. It was a blast.

Mom, I’m almost positive they have real rabbit pelts at either Michael’s or Robert’s. Maybe it was Mac’s? I know I’ve seen them! If not, where are people supposed to get rabbit pelts? I know I saw them, even in Utah.

Thank you all for your love and support! They mean the world! Keep reading and writing. The church is true!

Keep the faith,

Elder Eli

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