Week 43 - With Aloha

Once again aloha everyone!

This week was kind of a rough one for my companion and I. It was pretty slow and stuff just didn't seem to be going our way. We talked to our investigator Atlieson who was supposed to go with his girlfriend Nora and sign their marriage papers in Honolulu this past week, but found out that he had to pay for the house bill and then with food and everything else didn't have enough money left to pay for the marriage license, so he says it might be another couple of weeks until they can do it.

Also our investigators Trevor and Trina still don't seem like they want to come to church. They love the lessons and Trevor always asks us "When can I get baptized?" So I tell him "Once you start coming to church" And that pretty much shuts him up every time. So we're still working on getting them to see that church is about more than just getting material things.

Also this past week our mission just started something called the 40-day fast or purification process. It's where all of the missionaries pick something that keeps them from feeling the spirit as fully as they could be, and then try their hardest to abstain from that thing for 40 days.

I also read a really good talk by Elder Holland. He talked about in large part how, in life, we reap what we sow, or in other words, we get out of life that which we put in. He likened it to planting plants and said that at first you sow a little thistle, then that blossoms and seeds and there's just more and more thistle, or more and more hate, whatever the attribute may be. And the only way to get it out, is to have it rooted out of your heart. To not merely mow over the weeds, but to pull them by the roots, making sure they won't grow back. Whereas on the flip-side, if you sow flowers, you reap more and more beautiful flowers, or love, or generosity, as time goes on.

So I guess just a quick thought/reminder to count your blessings, and to strive to be Christlike in all that you do. We can't control the actions of others and we can't always control our circumstances or the things that happen to us, but we can control our actions, and how we react to the circumstances God places us in.

I feel like it's a lot like this picture attached. There's many different perspectives we could take to see different things. And we get to choose what we wish to focus on. It's the same with life. We can choose to focus on the good aspect, the bad aspect, or any number of any other aspects. But when we look for the hand of God in our life, it helps us to recognize our blessings and see that God is always with us wherever we go and in whatever we do.

I hope this week you can all strive to look for the good in life and choose to take a positive perspective.

Kon iakwe,

Elder Merrill