The highlight of my week was stake conference this weekend. President and Sister Taylor spoke. President Pond, the Portland temple president was there and he spoke too. Elder Golden of the seventy was there and he presided so we had a stacked lineup! Haha. Elder Golden is really funny. He talked about how you never know who will accept the gospel and that often it is people you never would have thought of. He shared a story of this coworker that he avoided because he was not a good guy. twenty-five years later as a stake president, he was going through the people that were going to e sustained as new elders and there he was! He didn't believe it at first, but there he was. The guy went up to Elder Golden and said something like, "You never thought I would join, did you?" Elder Golden responded with saying that he knew that he would eventually join, but inside, he was thinking, "I thought you were going straight down...!" It was pretty funny.
I got some good insights in conference. First, our faith is increased as our personal righteousness is increased. Along those same lines, we receive blessings when we are obedient to commandments. So when we ask for blessings, God just gives us commandments. How crazy is that?!
Second, I've always wondered why investigators don't understand certain principles of the gospel when they are so clear to me. The answer is the gift of the Holy Ghost. He enlightens and expands our minds when we have the gift of the Holy Ghost. So when an investigator reads from the Book of Mormon and prays, they will feel like it is true. When a member reads from the Book of Mormon and prays, they get so much more than just a good feeling that is't true.
Transfer letters come this week so I will find out what is happening. This week was a seven week transfer because now the MTC time is three weeks. At stake conference, President Taylor asked me what I thought of finishing my mission in the Sunnyside ward and finishing training a missionary. Remember the Sunnyside ward? I was there for the first two weeks of my mission. He said he was thinking about it, but I wouldn't be surprised if I stayed here until the end. There are two transfers left for me after this one.
We helped a guy clean out his room on Tuesday. He is pretty much a hoarder. It was bad. So we tried to sort it out for him. Every time we asked him where he wanted something, he told us it stayed in his room so we weren't making much progress. Then we started sneaking stuff out to his dumpster so we could make some headway. He called us the next day and asked where all of his receipts were for his taxes. HaHa... ummm???? We might be going dumpster diving this week.
We met just with Ken this week. His wife couldn't make it. They have a sincere desire to repent. Her dad lives in a different ward in the stake so he is pretty close. I'm not sure if her mom is in the picture at this point.
One of the youth in this ward that comes from a big family that is trying to be active is on the fence about a mission so we have been taking him out with us a lot. I have seen how the Lord uses His missionaries in many different ways. Sometimes it is to help one of His children get on missions.
I just started over with the Book of Mormon. I want to finish it one more time before I come home. President and Sister Taylor are doing the same thing, along with a lot of the missionaries who are going home at the that time too. I am still learning so much.
Thanks for the sports updates. I did hear about he championship game. What a crazy and cool finish to an awesome tournament. Thanks for telling me about the Buhl tournament. I have a lot of good memories there.
Thanks so much for the email. I love hearing form you. I am doing well here and I am happy. I love you all and I hope you have a great week.
Love:
Jaxon
Cookie party
We went to the beach today and dug for some clams. The limit is 15 so we got quite a few. We went with the Kolditz family, a family in the Cathlamet branch. Their neighbor is the game warden and not a member so they invited us to come with them.
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