Hello there everybody!
I have survived week number 2 without any injuries or anything like that from all of my intense 4 square battles. Cam was right, 4 square is actually way intense and totally worth it. A lot of people in gym time will play and we have some pretty crazy duels doing it. Just so you know, I was a champion twice this week. I also play some of the real sports in there too like basketball and volleyball. There is this one kid in my gym time that dominates at both volleyball and basketball so that's pretty sweet. He's nuts.
This week was a lot harder than last week for me. I've had my slumps and been pretty discouraged at times but I'll get over it. My zone leader Elder Wilson who is going to Thailand was just like, "Elder Black, the only way to grow and become a good missionary is by getting whooped." It's true too. Last week was so awesome and I was just on a spiritual high having a ton of success teaching our investigators but this week it was just a lot harder and we weren't having success. But don't worry about me because I'm a Black and we do hard things all the time.
I'm glad to hear that the ducks and packers are winning their games. That sucks about losing to the seahawks though. Some kids in my district are seahawks fans and they thought the whole situation was hilarious but that's ok. Hopefully oregon and the packers are champions this year. If that happens I'm sure it will be directly related to my righteousness out here. Just kidding. That's not really true but I hope they win, that would be really cool.
We had some really cool devotionals. We had this guy come speak to us named Elder Jensen and he has seen more mission calls made than anyone in church history. The apostles rotate to do the call making and he is the one that is always there no matter what so that was pretty cool. He basically told us that we have to be our own first convert before we can expect to bring about conversion in other people's lives. I thought that was really cool and it motivated me to work a lot harder. Sometimes our district can't stay focused in study time so we leave and go somewhere else or we just try to calm each other down. Our teachers Bro. Sebesta and Bro. Anderson have been really hitting it into our heads that we need to be having revelatory experiences when we pray and study. Bro. Sebesta said "prayer unlocks the door by which the floodgates of revelation can be opened." What I learned from that is that I need to pray more and a lot more sincerely if I want to receive answers for myself and my investigators. I thought that was something really cool that I needed to hear. We also watched a talk by Elder Holland on Sunday and it was basically saying that if you don't work hard on your mission and make it the biggest growing experience of your life, your life won't be what you want it to be. You know how Elder Holland is. Intense. Another cool thing that he said is that missionaries have apostolic right to preach the gospel and that's given them by the quorum of the 12. Apostolic keys with a lower case "a." That's really cool though, I've been called of God and given the privilege and duty to serve Him and preach His gospel and invite people to come unto Him. That just motivated me a lot to be the best missionary I can be no matter what. And if I get discouraged or anything, I just think about Grandma's advice, "If you have a bad day, just remember tomorrow is a completely new day." Best advice ever and it's what is getting me through here.
I tried to upload pictures to attach to this but it isn't working because my camera doesn't have enough juice in it to stay on so I'm really sorry about that. I have about 57902345890278907 pictures too =(
Anyway, we're flying out of here on the 8th next monday. Our flight leaves at 9:50 so you can expect a phone call sometime before then. I'm excited to leave and be in New Mexico finally. Even though I've only been here about 2 weeks i'm starting to get anxious to leave. I want to do all the cool missionary things that missionaries do in the real world instead of this confined space that you can never leave except for the temple or soccer. I can't wait to find people and teach them about the great love that God has for them and His plan for them to return to Him. Don't get me wrong, the MTC is great but I am glad I'm not staying here 12 weeks like the missionaries to Thailand have to stay.
I know the church is true and the BoM is the word of God. Joseph Smith truly saw God the Father and Jesus Christ and translated the BoM. Christ suffered for us so that we can experience peace in our lives if we but come to Him. This is all true and so real and I won't take my knowledge for granted. My favorite scripture for the week is Alma 32. Read it. It's awesome.
Talk to you soon and I will return with honor,
Elder Black
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