(Rain)dear everyone,
Thank you Chase's, mom, and grandparents Lewis for the treats and packages.
One of your presents was already open, grandpa, so I opened up the book. Already
read (skimmed) it once through. So cool.
I sent a massive amount of letters out last week to people at BYU.
Hopefully they got there before finals ended. I'm caught up now though!
Every day's a good day when there's snow on the ground! After a green last
week, we've had a fair amount of white on the ground thus far. I don't know if
it will stick until the 25th, but it's made things more enjoyable anyways. Not
much is better than waking up at the crack of dawn, seeing snow on the ground,
and having those mountains as a backdrop. What a nice comfort it is to be on a
mission in Salt Lake City! Hope everyone else's Christmas is just as fun.
As far as the work goes things are still going. Christmas is seeing a lot
of people busy and out of town and such, but that's alright. The season's cheer
makes up for it. Still working with Katie, Alison, Bryson, Max, Jenya, and
Dillon. Built a frisbee game for a short time around a 15 y/o potential
investigator, Taylor. He's really cool and I really think it did wonders for us
to be able to have a solid interaction with him. Hope to see him come to young
mens - he's already playing church ball. Both of his parents are inactive
members. Seems to be the most common story around here.
There's so many well-established families here in Murray, especially in
this area. They've been here 20, 30, 40, 50 years. It's pretty insane to hear
some of their insight into the change of the valley since the 1950s and such.
Fun to get them working on 21-day promises with their friends and family they've
been trying to work with for years on end. A little faith, fasting, and prayer
is all that's needed to change a heart.
--Elder Chandler
-----------------------------
Spiritual thought: Musings on Isaiah
This week in BoM reading was the ministry of Christ to the Nephites. What a
great time in the Book of Mormon! One of the things Christ does is throw Isaiah
quotes randomly into his teaching. It made me think of a couple other places in
the Book of Mormon where the same thing is done - Moroni, and Abinadi. I
absolutely love love love Mosiah 14 and 15 so I guess I just want to talk about
some of the Isaiah in there.
I think it's funny how Abinadi is giving a speech to the wicked priests in
chapter 15 and, in his thought progression, turns to quoting Isaiah. This
happens in two instances: verses 15-18, and verses 27-31. These are a few of my
very favorite Isaiah verses (along with 2 Ne 24/Isaiah 14):
"And O how beautiful upon the mountains were their feet! And again, how
beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those that are still publishing
peace! And again, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those who
shall hereafter publish peace, yea, from this time henceforth and forever! And
behold, I say unto you, this is not all.
'For O how beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him who bringeth good tidings, that is the founder of peace,
yea, even the Lord, who ahs redeemed his people; yea, him who has granted
salvation unto his people;'"
Can't you picture that? A prophet, standing on a mountain, declaring "thy
God reigneth!" Then picture that mountain to be a temple, and the prophet angel
Moroni, blasting from his trumpet the "good tidings", the good word, the gospel
of Jesus Christ again restored on the earth. "Hark, the Herald Angels
Sing!"
Abinadi covers past, present, and future prophets in his phraseology, and
then states the one prophet whos "time-stretch" covers them all - Jesus
Christ.
Have a great Christmas prep. Can't wait to call home--
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