January 6, 2014

Hey Everybody,

   This week was interesting. We had transfers so Elder Meline and I are no longer companions. I am now companions with Elder Cupp. He's from Knoxville Tennessee. We are over the Baywood Ward. They split Elder Meline and my area in two and we both took a half. I'm excited. It's going to be a lot more challenging then before now that we don't have as many people to teach.

   My birthday was yesterday. Thank you to everyone who made it great. We had a baptism on Saturday. That was pretty much the best birthday gift I could have asked for. It went very well. It's nice to see the fruits of your labors every now and then.

   It was interesting looking back on the holidays. They are a lot different when you are on a mission. In a very cool way they are better. I couldn't really put my finger on it for a while but last week I caught on. I never had time to think of myself. Because of that, I'm happy. I have been so busy serving people that my holidays became happier then ever before. My one birthday gift was a bag of popcorn and it was somewhat ridiculous how happy it made me.

   That said, it's interesting why that would be the case. When we serve, just like God commands us to, we are happy. The thing is, that's not the only commandment that leads to happiness. In fact, every single commandment, when looked at from that perspective, becomes a way God gives us to be happy and pleased with our lives.

   It's like when you have the hiccups. Everybody notices them and after a while they get fed up with you because of your inability to control yourself. Because of this they begin to throw out techniques and ideas for you to get rid of them. They will tell you to hold your breath for thirty seconds, drink water upside down, eat an orange, or figure out a way to scare them out of you. Eventually the hiccups stop and you can get back to the task the hiccups distracted you from.

   God and his commandments are like that. He knows that we, in our mortal existence here on Earth, will experience hiccups on the path back to Him. Because he loves us, he gives us techniques to get rid of them so that we can continue on that path that these hiccups can potentially distract us from. To further increase the effectiveness of these techniques, He has made it so that as we continue to live by them, the hiccups will become somewhat fewer and easier to handle along the way. All because he loves us.

   Elder Earl