Can You Rebuke The Cold?

We like to do volunteer work at a bike shop each week. It's a ton of fun, and we are also helping a ton. We have painted walls and cleaned things up, organized, and even fixed up a few bikes. The owner recommended his friend to us, who needed help moving. She called us up saying that he was ok with us helping her instead of him that day, and so we headed over to go help. Things were going great, and I even drifted perfectly into our parking spot. It was beautiful. As missionaries, we have become masterful movers, and so we were beautifully stacking the woman's goods in the moving truck. She requested that we be very careful with her flat screen tv. One of the other guys was trying to strap it in with bungee cords, but leaned over and put his weight on the screen, shattering it pretty bad. I have to say, it does look really neat when it is turned on. It's kind of like glimpsing into God's beautiful creations within the universe. I felt really bad that it happened. We are working on trying to replace it for her.

Because Elder Carson is a district leader, I get to go on companion exchanges every week. I don't enjoy it too much because it involves me packing up a bunch of stuff and unpacking frequently, but I did have a good exchange this week. I got to go in unprepared to teach a man about the Word of Wisdom. I imagine many of you don't know, so I'll share a story I have in regards to the Word of Wisdom. 

The past two summers, I worked as a lifeguard. The training to become one was a lot of fun. Saving people is something that I enjoy. There is a part of the requirements that I struggled with, however. You need to be able to tread water for two minutes with your hands out of the water, no floating on your back. I am perfectly capable of saving people, and was able to help a few in my career, but this was a challenge that was impossible for me. I had spent much time asking everyone I could for tips, searching up YouTube videos, practicing, dreaming, and wasting my life away to figure out how to do this. I could only tread water for a bit longer than one minute. Any longer than that and I would sink through the water and drown myself--if I didn't have my arms to support me. I am unsure why, but my first year of life-guarding, I was allowed to be a lifeguard anyways. This year however, they refused to let me work unless I could pass this dumb test. I drove over and attempted a few times and was distraught at my disability to accomplish this, since I loved my job and I took it seriously. 

I then recalled a talk given by President Monson on the Word of Wisdom. For my final attempt one week into the life-guarding season, I said a prayer before hitting the water. I said, "Heavenly Father, I have never broken the Word of Wisdom. I have had the chance to in the past, but I refused. I have been loyal to it, and I need the blessings that come from it. Please help me, I need to do this so that I can earn money to serve a mission." I then entered the water with faith that I could do it. It was difficult, and I didn't obtain infinite strength, but I went from my personal best of one minute and ten seconds to over two minutes, treading without hands. That gap is far too big to be justifiable as my own strength alone. To this day, I am grateful for the blessings which come from following the Word of Wisdom.

There has been much snow falling from the skies of Spokane Washington, and it has wreaked havoc in it's inhabitants. Because of this, we have been called to shovel many, many driveways. My strength has leveled up from so much shoveling, especially since our shovels are terrible. It has been rough, but I am grateful that I have been able to help make a difference in these people's lives.

One day, we were tracting out an apartment building and we came across a less active woman. She is in her 40's, and hasn't been to church since she was 13. She now has a nine year old son. Elder Carson had a lesson with her while I was away on exchanges. Because of this lesson and the wonderful support of the ward, she was able to come to church this week, and she brought her son along with her. Reactivation doesn't seem to have the same luster as baptizing someone, but it very well should be. Her son is likely to be baptized soon, so I guess you could say that this week has gone pretty well!

That's all I have to share for this week. Thank you to all of you who have been supporting me on my mission thus far. It may seem like a small gesture to you, but it means the world to me.