WEEK 26 - T-Bone Steak

Goodness me, I hit 6 months of being a missionary tomorrow. Some people may view these 6 months as a waste of time. I guess I could have done a semester of college, or if I was at BYU gotten married perchance, or maybe landed myself a nice internship without any pay (shoutout Calder). But no. I have given these last 6 months of my life to God. I have had no economic gain (except for my stocks hooray) and I have been separated from my family and friends. So why would these 6 months be a good thing? The world says that this is the worst possible way to spend your time and that this will make you anything but happy. The world will tell you the only way to be happy is to focus on yourself and what your desires are. The world is wrong though. Let me tell ya, these 6 months have brought me joy and happiness that I could have never predicted. Serving others by bringing them to the gospel is such an amazing way I have gotten to spend my time and such a wonderful thing that has made me so happy. So if your reading this I challenge you to find a way that you can serve others. Whether that is going on a mission or a service mission, whether that is submitting to your fathers will and accompanying him for Elders Quorum service or just like going to Costco and helping your Mom get groceries. If you care about the people you are serving and have a sincere desire to help, it will make you happier and heal you. Sorry, didn't mean to throw you that curveball of an actual spiritual thought today, but I just thought "wow what neat insight" so I dropped it in the email. Anyways, here is how the week went: - So at the beginning of this month our branch had our monthly testimony meeting. At that testimony meeting one of our members Reigi talked about how we should all be ashamed for not feeding the missionaries more. I honestly feel adequately fed out here, but Reigi had a different opinion than me. We actually had a lot of friends at church that day, but usually testimony meetings are a lot more intense so I wasn't worried at all. Anyways at the beginning of this week we were setting up lessons with some of our friends, and we tried to set up a lesson with our friend Cary. Cary decided to implement what he learned at church by asking if we could meet him at Denny's. Cary was almost on time (30 minutes late) and we sat down for the meal. We started looking at the menu and Cary was like "have you had the T-bone steak?" and I was like "ya i've had a steak like that before" and Cary was like "very good, very good." Then he was like "hmmm so how about 3 T-bone steaks?" and I was like "I'm probably gonna get the omelette I think." and he was like "ok maybe look at the T-bone steak, you might like it." He continued to peer pressure us into getting T-bone steaks, but it was way more expensive then everything else there and honestly I just wanted an omelette really bad. So pretty much the server comes over and Elder Cox goes first and was having trouble fully explaining what he wanted, so Cary decided to help out and was like "maybe 3 T-bone steaks?" and the lady was like "so all of you want a T-bone steak?" and Cary just stared at us, hoping we would purchase this T-bone steak. I felt so bad Cary just wanted us to get a T-bone steak so badly. It was like in the Book Of Mormon how Lehi wanted his family to partake of the fruit so bad. But in the end I got an omelette and Elder Cox got the Salmon. Although we did not all get T-bone steaks we did have a delightful conversation about the socioeconomic policies of modern day china, and Cary's thoughts on Xi Jin Ping. It was actually a really good meal and lesson though, and if I could do it again, I would have just submitted and got a T-bone steak. - We had stake conference this Sunday and I started off way stressed. It is in English, but the friends that we brought with us are not very good at that language, so I was just stressing a ton at the beginning. After like 30 minutes I was like "dang I can't control this, so I am just gonna try to enjoy it." And I did. So our Stake President gave one of the first talks. At the beginning of the talk he started talking about this peach tree that he had back in the day. He got a little carried away and just started talking about how much he liked a good peach. It was super nostalgic for me because I have actually heard my Dad say the same thing hundreds of times. During peach season the only things my Dad loves more than a nice plump peach, is the gospel and his family. All other things do not compare to his love for a nice ripe peach during peach season. I guess that the Stake President had a similar opinon on peaches, because once he got talking about peaches, oh goodness, he just didn't stop. After he talked they said they were gonna have 3 primary children give talks. It blew my mind that they had primary children give a talk at stake conference, but oh did I love it. The first kid was like 7 years old and got up and gave a pretty standard talk. He was just talking about how the gospel like blesses his family or something. Then he decided to change the entire theme of his talk and was like "a couple years ago I was watching the movie Ben Hur and I noticed something." I'm not sure what I was expecting from this child, but Ben Hur is like one of the most violent movies I have ever seen, and this child just declared it to all the stake the message that he had learned from his movie. I absolutely loved his talk. Then the second girl came up and gave a talk but she talked super quiet and the microphone wasn't anywhere near her mouth, so I am not sure what she said but I am sure it was great. And then the final kid came up to give his talk. He talked about how he invites his friends to church and how it has been a blessing for him. Then he said "but isn't it the worst when you try to spread the gospel to your friends but they don't get baptized in like 2 weeks?" FR. This child was maybe 10 years old and supposedly already participating in missionary work. Good for him. These talks were the highlight of church for me, dare I say these talks were better then the area 70 who came to speak at our conference haha. We have a good stake. - Well I hope all of you have had a wonderful 6 months, I would love to hear what has happened! Thank you to those who read my emails and tell me you like them, it makes me want to keep writing them. I hope you have an amazing week! - Google Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/qwGY1QhS99ne5wGy8 - Pictures: 1. Me and the GOAT freddy 2. Recent convert Keshaun pumped about his poker earnings 3. I love Elder White 4. Elder Cox attempting to eat 4000 calories (failed) 5. I run now and it is miserable 6. Elder White ready to feast