Monday, August 28, 2017

Kowboy Up

Kamiah is turning me into a cowboy. Everybody up here has horses. Everyone. We are going to be helping this man move his horses in a few days. I have learned how to throw a lasso. Elder Lofgren's last companion wants to be a farrier so he knows the ropes (haha see what I did there) and he taught a bunch of the elders how to rope. I'm not good at it yet but I know how, haha! If you don't have boots you will parish up here. No other way of putting it.

Also, something else fun that I forgot to mention is Elder Lofgren has a habit of sleep talking/walking. A week ago or so he accused me of stealing a fish in his sleep. And just the other day he said some gibberish, mentioned something about leaving, and when we woke up he had moved my wallet across our nightstand. He just about made off with my stuff in the middle of the night, HAHA!! But we are getting along well.

Everywhere around Kamiah is on fire so the air is pretty smoky which isn't super fantastic BUT it does make for some pretty sweet sunsets. I'll see if I can get a picture sent sometime.

The work at times is slow. Just because of the nature of the area tracting is not the most effective way of working. Most of the people in town have already met with the missionaries in the past and it's impossible to just walk around and meet people who live up in the hills. But we have a list of less active and potentials we will visit in the coming weeks. Our only investigators we had who seemed super interested last week have suddenly fallen off the face of the planet. Nobody knows where they are. Our contact (who is quite outspoken and straight forward, which may be the reason they got scared off) has been up to their trailer and they weren't there. We've called them and no answer. We left them a voicemail and dropped it so we'll see what happens there. BUT we have found out that one of our friends at church, a kid named Kyle who's maybe a year or two older than us, might have not been baptized. He was born in the church but it really wasn't part of their life but Kyle has recently been coming back to church lately. We are not positive but he may have fallen away before he was baptized so that is something we'll talk to him about and get some more information, see if we can't make something happen. He's a real good kid, we sat and talked about hunting for a long long time at dinner this week, haha!

Had an interesting experience with an inactive this week. This man was almost excommunicated but it was never submitted because it probably wouldn't have gone through. But because of those experiences he was offended and said the bishop at the time told him to essentially remove his records. That can be taken how you may. But he told us he prayed and received the answer that it is okay that he doesn't go to church for a while because of how it is being run. He also told us he has seen visions and heard the voice of God and seen and been healed by the Holy Ghost and has been taught all these things and what not that I won't get into. But it really struck me for some reason. Because this man was a really nice man and he emphasized that he believes in the gospel and seemed very genuine in all these things. He wasn't like those (to put it bluntly) crazy people who you just kind of smile and nod when they tell you things. Our meeting with him really sent me home thinking. He told me to not just believe what he was saying. "Don't trust me, pray about what I said" he told me. So I did and then just did some pondering. Now I'm not the greatest at feeling like I get answers from the spirit all the time, but here's my thinking. After I prayed and was pondering I thought about the Holy Ghost and discerning truth from error. And I thought about how we can be told what is truth and what is error through the Holy Ghost. And one of the Holy Ghost's titles is the comforter. And I got thinking about when that man was talking to us and I realized that just about everything he was telling me just gave me a very unsettled feeling. And it was definitely not a feeling of comfort. And when I thought about what I have always been taught and what I believe, even though what he said made me question for a minute, I still felt like what I believed and was taught was real truth.

So that's my challenge. In this crazy world you will definitely hear things that will make you question. So make sure you know where real truth is and how to find it. Real truth comes to those who are consistently doing the little things. Going to church and partaking of the sacrament. pondering the scriptures. Serving others. And might I add trusting and sustaining church leaders. Those that do this and honestly seek truth God has promised that he will answer.
 
Well, more to share from Kamiah next week.
 
Love to all.

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