Letter 01-29-2013

Hello all,

The weather here has been atrocious the last month. I don't think I've talked about it much except for the snow, which I love, but the smog... ugh. For the last month temperatures have hovered in the single digits to the teens because of all the gunka in the air. I wonder how much more of my life has been taken away than the two years on a mission because of being out in this smog... :)

On a good note, Monday was the first time we've been able to see the sun and the Wasatch Front in three weeks - this most recent snowstorm seems to finally have gotten rid of the rotten inversion that keeps the smog trapped. Thank heavens! What a sight the mountains are finally!

We also got an "ice storm" on Friday with about a quarter-to-half inch of freezing rain. People were freaking out - I guess it's the first time Utah has had freezing rain in 20 or 40 years or something. Someone said they counted 14 accidents on I-15 just from Murray to South Jordan on the way to work. It reminded me of home and the one and a half to two inches we got that one year, and the consistent three-quarter inch of ice we seem to have back in AR.

 As far as the work goes, a little bit of a weird week. Still teaching the Zhuckkahosee family - the dad wasn't able to come to church again and we like to baptize families together, so we'll be pushing that back again. None of our other potential investigators were at church either... but almost every single inactive we've been working with came, many of them for the first time in months/years! It might help that we're really close with all of them and we were speaking in both wards, but hey, they got there and had the best fellowship. Many of them are very closely tied to nonmembers whether through family or roommate or extended family, so we're looking forward to the work that can happen by networking these families.

 Hope all is well,
 Elder Ryan Chandler
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thought: the power of our will over the devil

 Regularly in my study (as in, all the time) I study a passage from Preach My Gospel for a little, then dive into the blue boxes. I've been memorizing a blue box scripture a day for a month now, but I think I've overachieved there a bit :)

So, as I was studying Helaman 5:12, I was circling all the times the words "will" and "shall" are used, then flipping their usage and meaning to indicate the "wills" of different things, as I've explained in an earlier email.

And so in Helaman 5:12 we get a nice indication of what the will of the devil is: to drag us into an endless gulf of misery and woe. The verse finishes though with the fact that, if we are built upon the Rock of our Salvation, Christ, the devil will have no power.

As I was reading this morning in 2 Ne 1, I saw the same thing stated, but in practice. in verses 1 through 20, Lehi explains to Laman and Lemuel why they need to repent. He then explains their problem with a kind of extended analogy - that they're asleep and bound by and in @#!*% . He then tells them to awake and to arise from the dust. And thus comes, "Awake!... arise from the dust, my sons, and be men!"

What an idea it is to be men! In 2 Ne 2:14 it says that we're created as men to act and not be acted upon, and in verse 25 it says men are to have joy. Are Laman and Lemuel having joy or acting for themselves? No! They're stuck and bound, acting according to the will of the devil. They need to fix it fast and start acting with their own will, "with one mind and with one heart", aligning that will with God's.

So I think Lehi is essentially saying the same thing to Laman and Lemuel that Helaman told his sons: remember, remember, that the devil's will (will) have no power over you, my sons, if you build a foundation on Christ, so build it! Awake! arise from the dust, and, be men!

 Have fun peoples