News from South Dakota

Christopher wrote a great email and I am sorry it took so long to get it posted.  

Hi guys! Guess what I got in the mail today!  It  is my trunky papers.  It is crazy!  I need to know what airport to fly into.  I am just going put St. George and I am going to send dad's email address to the mission.  

Here are those pictures and some others I took.  

A returned missionary talked at church today.  He talked about how missions are this cycle of exhaustion.  How you do good and are just exhausted the whole time and then you get lazy and then you feel bad and then you work hard and get realy tired.  It was a very good talk.  That is how it is though, but the less time you spend in the lazy, guilt part of the cycle the more you can endure the good tired part.  It is like the scripture in Proverbs 4:18 

18But the ^apath of the ^bjust is as the shining ^clight, that ^dshineth more and more unto the perfect day.

That says how the better we do the more is expected of us and it gets more intense until we reach perfection.  Elder Holland talked about it in last general conference said: 

"In the most famous sermon ever given, Jesus began by pronouncing wonderfully gentle blessings which every one of us want to claim—blessings promised to the poor in spirit, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and the meek.  How edifying those Beatitudes are and how soothing they are to the soul. They are true. But in that same sermon the Savior went on, showing how increasingly strait the way of the peacemaker and the pure in heart would need to be. “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill,” He observed. “But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother … shall be in danger of the judgment.”  And likewise,

“Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:

“But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” Obviously as the path of discipleship ascends, that trail gets ever more narrow until we come to that knee-buckling pinnacle of the sermon of which Elder Christofferson just spoke: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”What was gentle in the lowlands of initial loyalty becomes deeply strenuous and very demanding at the summit of true discipleship. Clearly anyone who thinks Jesus taught no-fault theology did not read the fine print in the contract! No, in matters of discipleship the Church is not a fast-food outlet; we can’t always have it “our way.” Some day every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ and that salvation can only come His way."

So, when you are getting tired and dont think you can move on - just keep going and the Lord will bless you with great strength.  You will be able to endure everything.  I know this is true and I say this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen

Well, I got to go love Elder Esplin