February 17, 2014

Hey Everyone!

   This week was a good one! I'm now officially covering the Mountain View and Mesa 2nd Young Single Adult wards. It was sad to leave behind the Baywood ward but I was ready for a change. My new companion is Elder Spencer. He's a super good missionary and I'm learning a lot from him.

   YSA work is hard. It's extremely fun and there's always something to do but it's hard to find people. We have to rely completely on the members to introduce us to investigators. There are a lot of activities though so it works out really well. It's weird being around so many people my age. Especially since almost all of them are returned missionaries. It feels like there are more eyes watching than normal.

   I had a lot of fun experiences this week. Day 1 we were asked to do a funeral for a dead cat. We got a call from a member's neighbor. She said the cat died a day earlier, the body is still in the house, and that we needed to come give a blessing to the cat before it got cremated....We didn't do any of that. We kind of just let it be.

   There wasn't too much on my mind this week actually. we teach a lot less lessons as of now. We need to get the stone rolling. We went on a hike this morning. It was pretty awesome. We hiked this place called the Wind Caves. The caves weren't impressive but at the end of the hike you end up at the peak of a mountain. It was beautiful. you could see the whole valley and at sunrise it's a pretty neat view.

   One thing I love about hikes is that they take effort. If you're doing it right there will be sweat, blood, and an extremely hungry stomach at the end. But there's always something to experience that's worth all the exhaustion. It reminds me a lot about life. In Arizona the landscape seems to have been built to make every possible moment uncomfortable. I haven't gone on a hike yet without getting cut at least once by a cactus. There's rocks, sand, venomous creatures, cacti, weeds, and a lot of sun. But on these hikes there's always a trail. This trail always has most of all that cleared out of the way. That way you know where to go and it's a whole lot easier to get there.

   Our lives are exactly like that. Ultimately, life is just one huge hike. It has rocks, it has cacti, it even has venomous creatures. But because of Jesus Christ it also has a path. We have a loving father in heaven that prepared a path for us. Jesus Christ came to pave that path for us. It still takes effort. It still has some cacti in the way. But through Him we can overcome all that this hike has to throw at us to reach the top of the mountain. No matter how sweaty, bloody, or hungry we may be. There is a top to every mountain. Through Jesus Christ and His Atonement, you can come back to the path He prepared for you and reach it.

   Sincerely, Elder Earl