Week 5!. In Mississippi and It's Christmastime

 Hey Yall. This week was awesome! I got a letter from my sister and she told me to not feel like I am inconveniencing people with the Gospel because it's not an inconvenience to receive exaltation. After I internalized that, the week really exploded. We found 8 new people to teach and made about 20-30 contacts with people everyday! That is amazing, we usually get around 3-4 new people. We also found 3 of our most progressing people again. A lot of people don't have phones with a sim card or Wi-Fi here, so sometimes for things like Thanksgiving, people just go missing. 

    First let me talk about the weather. Imagine weather like Utah where it can be freezing one day and 70s the next week. Well it's the same here, but wet. It'll frost at night and then get to the 70s in the middle of the day. Or have fog all day that's in the 60s and it feels like you're in a slightly cold arm pit haha. We experienced what a Christmas parade is in Holly Springs, Mississippi. See the photos link because it's insane. 

    We taught some really good lessons this week and I learned a lot about faith, miracles, the spirit world and Christ himself. One of the coolest things I learned was that Christ's cause of death was a broken heart because the cross makes your heart break due to the pressure. And so when we are supposed to come unto him with a broken heart and a contrite spirit instead of sacrificing an animal itt is because we are to become like him by using his sacrifice. One of the ways we can do that is to have a broken heart to realize that this life is hard and it breaks you, sometimes, but we just keep pushing forward continuing to improve. One of the people we found this week needed help with forgiveness. And we have taught him for probably 3 hours this week on the subject and every time we teach him he just says ya ya, but it's just hard. And I'm coming to learn that YA, the point of this life, is that it's hard. And because it's hard we get to grow. It's not easy, it never was supposed to be. So next time your heart gets broken, it just seems like you are alone, when God has forsaken you. Know that Christ felt the exact same way and that it's OK. And that because of the First and Greatest Christmas Gift we can continue on. We can get a clean slate, another day, another chance, more smiles. 

    My challenge this week is to look outside yourself and find someone who is struggling. Someone who is in a store or at school or work who you maybe haven't spent time to notice and see how you can make their day better. And serve them. For just 5-10 min. I promise that as we do so we will see our own burdens lifted and find deeper joy. 

    The prayer list is less this week. But if you could pray for people to know and feel the need to be baptized. There are multiple people we are teaching that are close and they just have to commit to be baptized. 

I love you all and I hope you have been learning and growing. I pray for ya'll all the time. 

P.S. look up the song "The Test" by Roger Hoffman. It is so powerful, it helped me understand our life here and why suffering happens. Make sure it's the one with the pictures! ❤